#26: Travis Trinh - 7% Body Fat, Bowling a 300, and Being Your Own Anime Protagonist - One Thousand Gurus Podcast

Episode Transcript
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J.R. (00:00):
Hello everyone and welcome back to another episode of 1000
Gurus with me, your host, jrYonagruz, where it is my mission
to have great conversationswith people from all walks of
life and try to learn somethingnew each time.
So today's guest is a friend ofmine, travis Trin.
Travis Trin is the closet nerdthat grew into an extroverted
nerd.

(00:20):
Travis is also an anime,cosplay, fitness and bowling
enthusiast, so this was a ton offun to record.
Travis and I have a lot ofcommon interests and values.
We're about the same age, so wecome from the same generation.
We'll see each other here andthere at social gatherings and
sometimes dance events, but it'salways fun for me to pick his

(00:41):
brain on what he's working onand what he's been up to and
learning these days, so it wasfun to do so.
Finally, in a formal setting,we talk about his career in
engineering, anime, cobra Kaibeing the main character in your
life, cosplay, fitness, bowling, and the list goes on.
Definitely didn't get to touchupon all the topics we wanted to
, but hopefully we'll be able toschedule a part two sometime.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this episode with

(01:03):
Travis Trinh.
Schedule A Part 2 sometime.
So, without further ado, hopeyou enjoy this episode with
Travis Trinh.

Travis (01:09):
Cool Travis, welcome to the show.
Oh, thanks for having me, man.
Yeah, I've seen your podcastlike all over, so I'm like I
finally got invited.

J.R. (01:15):
You're like I got the invite, I got the golden ticket,
yeah, yeah.
No, I'm glad you were able tomake it, glad we were able to
schedule it.
You've definitely been on mylist.
It's kind of just have to gothrough my whole list of people.
But, yeah, let me go into how Iknow you.
I've already read your bio.
So basically, we met in,actually 20 november 2021, so
we'll show that video after this.
But so we met through untitled.

(01:35):
We did the 17 cover rock withyou at santa monica pier.
We're just talking about thatbefore great cover yeah it's
such a good cover and, like, myfirst impression of you was,
well, someone told me that, likeyou were the oldest guy, yeah,
and then normally I'm the oldestguy on the team and so I was
like, oh, this travis dude,right.
And then, so you know, we metthere and, yeah, usually k-pop
cover teams are like a majoritygirls, so this cover was special

(01:57):
because, through untitled, itwas all 13 of us were guys, so
it was a pretty fun cover.
And, yeah, I also learned thatyou are super into fitness and
bowling, things that we talkedabout and things that we're both
into.
So, I feel like it was kind oflike inevitable and also yeah,
cosplay as well, so we'll getinto that.
So, yeah, anything any otherclarifications on what you're up

(02:17):
to, what you're doing?

Travis (02:18):
well, I mean currently in just normal life.
You know engineering, you knowinterest here and there, but you
know I'm really into pokemontcg right now I heard yeah, tcg
pocket.
Yeah, so I think you know,since you invited me, it'll be
an honor for you to do myevening poll right now.

J.R. (02:34):
How my luck is to see how your luck is let me pull this up
real quick I feel like I'veonly done this like once for
someone.
They're just like here, justtouch this.

Travis (02:40):
It's like okay, sure yeah, so basically you're gonna
pick this pack and then you'regonna open it.
Can you explain?

J.R. (02:46):
to the audience.
If who's not?
They're not familiar withpokemon tcg what?

Travis (02:49):
is it?
So it's basically a mini sizetrading card game.
It's really limited, based onthe rules, compared to the
normal trading card game, so thesense is so simple.
A lot of people love playing itand a lot of people just like
the dopamine of opening packsand potentially getting a rare
card.
Love dopamine?
Yeah, exactly so.
I have a lot of friends whojust play without even battling

(03:11):
and they just try to open packsand get lucky, right, yeah, what
we're doing right now.
So this is the newest pack,what's it called?
Triumphant Light with Arceus.
So we're going to click here.
We're so.
We're gonna click here, we'regonna click open yeah, and then
you're gonna select.
There's gonna be a wheel ofcards, right, so you can roll,
use here and and pick one, justpick one yeah, pick one and then
tap it.
All, right, okay, it's gonnatell you to swipe open the top,

(03:33):
right there.
Yep, you cut it.
See, did you get lucky?
I don't know what, so let's notpeek, right.
So you like tap one at a time,yeah, to see if you got
something good.
So tap, yep.
Okay, there's five cards in thepack, so that's the second one
I don't know who Ho Doom isKrogunk, krogunk.
Usually, the fifth card is thebest one, so let's see what's up

(03:53):
, clefable.

J.R. (03:54):
Clefable.
All right, it's sparkled alittle.
It's a good, because then Iwould have been sworn by people
like oh no, we need Jair's luckso that you saved me.
You're welcome, you're welcome.
It reminds me of the first timeI went to Vegas and gambled
like slot machines.
I did a slot machine, lostmoney instantly, and then I went

(04:16):
to a blackjack table.
I've never seen $20 disappearso fast.
It might've been like 1.5seconds.
My $20 was gone, I was like whathappened, and so I think it was
a sign from the universe todon't gamble which I'm grateful
for.

Travis (04:29):
Hey, that's good, I mean that's $20 down.
And then you're, like you know,hit me, hit me, bust, all right
, there it goes.

J.R. (04:34):
Yeah, it was pretty much.
It was pretty fast, but cool.
So anything else?
Any other clarifications weshould know?

Travis (04:45):
Oh, I think you got it down.
I mean, that's how we met, youknow, and we stayed in touch and
have similar interests.

J.R. (04:47):
So it was bound for this to happen.
Yeah Also, oh yeah.
And then your New Year's Eveparty last year was super fun,
oh, yeah, yeah, that was superfun.

Travis (04:54):
Great Gatsby theme yeah, yeah, yeah it was super fun
Again.

J.R. (04:57):
Lots of Untitled people, lots of other people from around
.
That was dope, yep, all right.
So yeah, the audience will haveheard your bio by now, so we'll
go into our first topic.
So usually I start off with newguests origin story.
So where'd you grow up, whatwere your main influences and
what set you on the path towhere you are today?
Got you and it's like a bigquestion, but it's like biggest

(05:19):
influences that come to mind.

Travis (05:20):
Mm-hmm.
So I was born here in LA, morespecifically Mission Hills up
there, and lived in SantaClarita like my whole minor life
before 18.
So it was really shelteredthere.
My family was a really big deal.
I got really close with mycousins.
From my dad's side I had eightcousins like growing up before I

(05:43):
hit 18, so we got super close.
And then my mom's side there'sa few cousins as well.
That was like my whole life waslike family.
I had friends in school butsince I lived like across the
whole town and went to a schoolthat was like 30 minutes away
from my home, I didn't get thatchance to hang out with them a
lot during school, likeelementary school, junior high,
things like that.
So my family is a really biginfluence, not just mom and dad,

(06:06):
but aunts, uncles, grandma,sister, cousins and then super
sheltered, so kind ofintroverted.
Right when I went to college Iwent to ucsb is, you know, not a
very sheltered community upthere and that really helped me
to blossom.
I guess slowly and slowlybecame less homesick.

(06:27):
I remember the first like twoweeks of school.

J.R. (06:29):
I was like, okay, only like only 10 more days before I
can go home yeah, you know, butgo home on the weekends, or like
what did you, what was your?
Like cadence?

Travis (06:36):
when I first started at ucsb that's pretty far actually
now it's like an hour and a halfokay, so it's not too bad, not
bad.

J.R. (06:43):
Okay, so then what was your cadence for going home?

Travis (06:45):
I was going home every other weekend.
Okay yeah, even though I had anaunt up there.
I was the type in high schoolwhere I didn't want change.
Change was scary to me, since Iwas so sheltered and it was
like man, if I could go back tomy normal life At some point I

(07:05):
almost considered communitycollege, because I was basically
like an extension of highschool.
I could just stay at home, yeah.
But I took the leap and went toussb and started going home
like every other weekend andthen, as I got used to being
away from home, started gettinglike once a month, once a
quarter, and then yeah basicallyjust on the break system.

J.R. (07:23):
What was your major and what were your career
aspirations at that point?

Travis (07:27):
So I was a mechanical engineering major.
Aspiration was to make coolstuff.
People always ask why did youpick an ME?
Right, it's honestly becausecoming out of high school, I
didn't really know what I wantedto do.
Being Asian, my parents arealways like be a doctor, take
care of us when you're older.
My parents are always like be adoctor, you know, take care of
us when you're older or whenwe're older as a doctor.

(07:48):
Right, I'm like, yeah, no, Idon't really want to do that.
So I was like what else is kindof interesting?
And I liked legos, I likebuilding, uh, gundam model kits,
like growing up.
So I was like I want to makecool stuff but I don't know what
I want to make.
So I think mechanicalengineering gives me the most
flexibility of going into themedia industry, like special
effects or automotive aerospace.

(08:10):
So that's why I pickedmechanical engineering, because
I didn't really know what Ireally wanted okay.

J.R. (08:16):
So then near the end of your college life and then going
into, like the working life,was there a transition there and
what was your I guess careertrajectory at that point?

Travis (08:26):
yeah, again, since I was like one of the I am like the
oldest on my family in terms ofall the cousins, right I didn't
really have footsteps to follow,didn't know what the working
life is going to be like, um, sothere was a transition period
where, yes, I'm graduatingcollege with a mechanical
engineering degree, but I don'tknow what I really want to do

(08:48):
yet.
What options are out there.
Looking back, I kind of haveother ideas of what I would have
done, but I basically was justapplying for jobs that were
taking like any you know, newlygrad engineer.
I got a position at a companythat was close to UCSB,
fortunately, and I was able toget my foot in the door there
and working there kind of openedmy eyes on the different types

(09:10):
of engineering for mechanicalengineers and I became more of a
process slash manufacturingengineer, so not designing the
actual product but how to makeit.
And that's similar to what Iwas interested in, because I was
like I like putting thingstogether, I like getting my
hands dirty.
I don't want to just sit in thecomputer and just like design,
design, it all, gotcha, designso cool.
I still get to do it as amanufacturing engineer, like

(09:31):
tooling and things like that.
Yeah, but I wanted to get likeon the field too and get my
hands dirty making stuff okay,so then fast forward 10-ish
years later.

J.R. (09:39):
So what are you doing now?
And I know you're going back toschool UCLA for like project
management, right?
So what do you currently do?

Travis (09:45):
so I'm currently a supervisor of manufacturing
engineers, so evolved into asupervisor I've slowly evolved
into a supervisor, if you ask me.
Five years ago I got theposition at my current company.
Yeah, will you be a supervisor?
Nah, I don't want to be amanager.
I want to be like the mosttechnical, like the smartest
chief engineer out there whereI'm like go-to guy for all

(10:07):
everyone's technical questions.
But I slowly evolved into thismanagerial supervisor role
because our previous supervisorleft and I really liked how our
core team dynamic was going andI didn't want an outsider to
come in and get the position andchange it all up.
So I'm like I guess I'll takeone for the team, I'll step up
and get the position and changeit all up.
So I'm like I guess I'll takeone for the team, I'll step up

(10:27):
and become the supervisor andit's been pretty solid.

J.R. (10:28):
So have you done management before then?
Or is that like why you're kindof doing project management or
like getting education?

Travis (10:34):
there there was no management in terms of like
professionally.
Yeah, I was the founder ofss805 at ucsb their K-pop dance
team, so I had some likeleadership roles there.
I've slowly always driftedtowards some sort of leadership
captain of the bowling team,intramural soccer, you know
captain and Pokemon Go communityup there.

(10:55):
I was kind of leading that too,but never like a professional
managerial role.

J.R. (11:00):
So I was going to ask in that sense so you've had all
these experiences like learninghow to be a leader and manager.
Were there any?
I guess?
What were the growing pains ofyou now having to step up to
this supervisor role?

Travis (11:10):
And I guess you know you've done this in other ways,
but like anything stands out toyou or comes to mind, Learning
to delegate, because I'm comingfrom a place where I'm like
super technical and getting myhands dirty and going out there
solving problems myself, butthen when you become a

(11:31):
supervisor or like a higherlevel, all your tasks get
multiplied tenfold.
So if you're trying to doeverything yourself, it's really
difficult, and I try to lookout after my teams I don't want
to overload them with work Thenyou end up taking a lot on
yourself.
So you really have to learn howto trust your team and start
delegating that stuff.
Versus all the other things Imanaged before were more like
self-managed.
Even though I was like leadingthings, it wasn't a whole lot of

(11:52):
delegating stuff to otherpeople to do.
So I think that's definitelythe toughest part that makes
sense are the people?

J.R. (11:59):
not that this matters too much, but are there the people
that you manage?
Are they younger than you, orare there some older than you?
Or what's the?
What's the vibe?

Travis (12:05):
there's a mix.
I'm on the if you took like themedian, yeah, I'm like on the
upper end of the median, but, um, I definitely have some people
on my team who are older than me.
Um, my team is comprised of 10people, including me at this
point, and I believe there areone, two, three, four people

(12:27):
older than me.
Yeah, so it's like I'm like inthe middle in that way.
Yeah, that makes sense.

J.R. (12:31):
Weird tangent what is your mbti?
Oh, shoot you remember?

Travis (12:36):
I don't remember.
Okay, is that the one mbti?
Is that the one with the fourletters?

J.R. (12:41):
yeah, the four letters I am intj four letters.
I am INTJ or ENTJ in leadershiproles.
Do you know if you'reintroverted or extroverted?

Travis (12:46):
I'm extroverted when I do that one.

J.R. (12:48):
Are you like more what's in front of you or more like
creative vision, like futurethinking, imagination?

Travis (12:56):
I'm the future thinking one, the creative.
Okay, because I remember peoplethought I was really weird,
because they knew I was anengineer.

J.R. (13:07):
So it remember.
People thought it was reallyweird because they knew I was an
engineer.
So it's like engineers arealways like you know.
That's why I asked yeah, that'swhat I thought.
Are you like more systemizedsystem?

Travis (13:12):
systematic, organized or more of the kind of spontaneous
oh definitely, okay, it dependswho you ask.
Gotcha right.
Spontaneous in terms of goingand doing stuff, having fun and
even work.
I like to bounce arounddifferent things, but in terms
of my like routine, I'm almostlike systematic, like gym every
day, you know.

J.R. (13:27):
Yeah, I feel that okay, I don't know if that helps anyone
else, but just for my context,I'm starting to get a feel for
you.
So then do you?
We're kind of jumping aroundhere, but a founding story of
ss805, yeah.
So how did that come about?
So one of our commondenominators obviously is k-pop
dance, and I started the k-popteam at uci cop.
Okay, so just a weird oh, Ididn't know that.

(13:47):
Yeah, I know, founder so howdid that start?

Travis (13:50):
just curious so it started at k-con.
I believe it was 2013 or 2014.
Yeah, at that point I alreadyknew of k-pop.
That's why I'm going to k-conand I saw this group dancing at
there.
It wasn't rpd back the day, butit was like they would just
play random K-pop songs and fullsongs and you would dance if
you knew it.
And there was this group fromSan Diego I think it was like
the San Diego Flash Mob orsomething like that and they

(14:14):
were always.
They were the first people Isaw cover like BTS with
individual members.
It's like everyone else beforewas just dance and choreography.
Right, exactly, yeah.
So I saw that and I was likeyou know what?
Ucsb doesn't have that and Iwant that.
So I went there and I gatheredsome people that I would know
and I was like oh, are you intoK-pop?

(14:35):
You're into K-pop.
You guys want to get togetherand dance.
You know, got in touch with theK-pop club, not the dance team.
They helped me recruit membersand then that's how it started
oh, so that was the first likek-pop dance team there.

J.R. (14:46):
Oh, that's cool.
So you just made it happen formy story.
It's I don't know if it'ssimilar, but we had like a kcn,
which is like korean culturenight, and they had, you know,
there's like a modern suite andthey wanted to do a k-pop suite
and they knew I was into k-pop.
Okay, do you want to lead this?
I'm like sure.
And then it's still there today, nice, since 2011.

Travis (15:04):
So that's pretty cool, so they spawned from like the
KCN, exactly.

J.R. (15:10):
Basically spawned from KCN .
Okay, I know we talked aboutbowling a little bit off camera,
but this could probably be itsown episode, because all three
of us are bowling nerds, itseems like, or at least
enthusiasts, and Solomon wantsto get into it.
Yeah, I'm like beginningenthusiast yeah, beginning
enthusiast but you're aspiringand same here and I'm mid-level
maybe, and then travis is likesuper professional.
But okay, well, let's just jumpstraight to the meat.

(15:30):
So you've bowled a 300 before Ihave bowled at 300 was it just
one time or multiple times, orlike?

Travis (15:35):
it was one time sanctioned okay in practice, I
don't track my scores, so maybeI've done it there yeah but
sanctioned, like in the officialleague.

J.R. (15:44):
I've done it one time okay , so my the meat of the question
is how did you get to 300 andwhat helped you get there?
Because for those you don'tknow if you've ever bowled, 300
is basically perfection in what.
How many rolls like 12, 12rolls, right, 12, perfect rolls
strikes.
Which is impossible, notimpossible.
You know it's really hard.
So how do you get there?

Travis (16:10):
So part of it is luck.
That's why bowling is not anOlympic sport, because there is
a decent amount of luck involved.
Right, you could throw theidentical shot right, like, two
times in a row, and it's notgoing to do the same thing.

J.R. (16:17):
It's not because I suck, it's because luck is not on my
side today Exactly.

Travis (16:21):
It's the luck you know.
You don't know how many like299s they're out there.
298s, perfect shots, likeprofessionals that do it.
But basically the story of my300 is the week before in league
, I bowled the back 11.
So what that means is I got likea spare or open yeah, and I
bowled 11 strikes strikes in arow to close out the game and I
was like I like turned to thefront desk, like turn my lane

(16:43):
back on, I just want to see if Ican do it.
You know so that that was likethe night the week before and
then somehow I was just on thehot streak.
So the week after I bowled my300.
There was some luck involvedfor people who don't know
bowling I did bowl like abrooklyn strike at some point,
which what that means is I'mright-handed, so the ball should
be hitting the head pin on theright side, right.

(17:05):
But I missed my shot andactually went over to the left
side opposite.
Interesting.
And then a lot of bowlers don'tconsider that a real strike,
you know, interesting.
But I'm like, hey, all 10 wentdown, so that was part of my 300
.
And once I got that like inframe nine or 10 or something
like that and then I just finishit off I remember my last shot
11 strikes in a row.

(17:26):
At that point everyone waswatching.

J.R. (17:28):
It's like the whole.
Yeah, it's like you're used tothe bowling.
I was being so loud, right.

Travis (17:32):
But it's dead silent.

J.R. (17:33):
Everyone's just holding their breath.

Travis (17:34):
I was like, can you guys just keep bowling?
Because, like, this isdifferent from like what I'm
used to.
Right, right, right.
And I ended up, I guess, is theshowman to me at this point.
Right, yeah, I like stood thereand waited and chugged my beer.
Yeah, I had like a 32 ouncebeer, oh geez, right.
And I was like, if you all wantto watch, you're gonna watch me
chug this beer first.
So I chugged my beer and thengulped it down, picked up the

(17:57):
bowling ball and it's like allright, let's go, let's do it.
Threw it, got the last strikeand the whole bowling center
just exploded.
That Damn.

J.R. (18:03):
That's very Travis.
That's actually it's veryTravis, nice, okay.
So, like we have other topics,but like TLDR, what do you think
were the main things that helpyou get to that point Right
Cause you obviously need some.
Besides the luck, you needconsistency and the training and
like the improvement constantly.
So how do you get there?

Travis (18:22):
It was a lot of practice right to become consistent
enough.
I was on the ucf bowling teamso we had professional coaching,
but that just basically gave uslane time to practice, and just
repetitive practice makespermanent not perfect.
So make sure when you'repracticing you're actually
correcting the right stuff.
So get your form down, get yourhours in, get your reps in, and

(18:44):
then that's how I got there.

J.R. (18:46):
Nice.
So just put in the hard work.

Travis (18:48):
Basically, no cheat codes, that's going to be a
theme of this conversation.

J.R. (18:52):
I bet Okay, so let's move on now.
So the next topic is animeCobra Kai, fitness, cosplay.
So these are some of the thingsyou wanted to talk about and
you're obviously known for.

Travis (19:10):
So quick warm-up question like how did you get
into anime?
What is your favorite?

J.R. (19:12):
anime like top favorite anime and why got you?
Got you okay.
What can I say to not be tooweird here with it?
Well, I'm a nerd, so I got intoanime.
What's?
What else is there?

Travis (19:17):
but yeah, I mean growing up, I mean gone to.
Anime is everywhere, right,toonami was a big thing like
cartoon network.

J.R. (19:24):
Growing up, dragon ball z and we're the same era, so I'm
right there with you yeah.

Travis (19:27):
So you know it was cool.
It was like seeing these guys,you know fight off, you know the
aliens and things like that um,giant robots with gundam.
I just thought it was cool as akid.
That's how I really got into itand then I just never really
grew out of it.
I think the intro is like I wasan introverted nerd into an
extroverted nerd.
Right, it's kind of cool to seehow anime has evolved from

(19:47):
being like oh, you watch anime,lame you know To where, like bro
, that's a sick anime.
You're at the gym andeveryone's like, oh, that's a
sick shirt, you know animeinspired text got into anime
yeah, so just, it was justaround.

J.R. (20:02):
So top anime wrecks or fate your favorites.
I guess not necessarily wrecks,but your favorites, my
favorites, my favorites, okay mymy guests should know my
favorites, because I always wearthis anime shirts every almost
every single podcast episode.

Travis (20:17):
You'll see which anime I like I know, I know, like your
big one piece fan, you know, butunfortunately that's one I
haven't watched yet.
Okay, it's like 10 000 episodesand I'm not ready for that
commitment, but I really likedthere.
You go there's travis we'll get.

J.R. (20:34):
Oh, there it is we'll get to his abs in a bit, but all
right, all right yeah.

Travis (20:38):
So I mean from that yeah , dragon ball was a huge
inspiration of my life and mygoals now right.
So obviously the easy one tosay is Dragon Ball, just because
it's so prominent.
I also really like Shoot.

J.R. (20:57):
oh yeah, me too yeah that's a good one too.

Travis (21:00):
Yeah, obviously I liked gundam a lot growing up.
That's why I'm like such anavid fan of building gundam
models.
Right now.
I do have to go back and watchthe original ones, but the one
weird one that people mightthink is really weird is rent a
girlfriend I watched thatrecently.
I liked it yeah, I don't wantto say guilty pleasure, because
I don't watch it for the guilty.

J.R. (21:20):
I get what, get what you mean.
So what do you like about it?

Travis (21:23):
Just the.
Maybe this isn't a good reason,but it had a really good way of
leaving you hanging Of.
Like when you watch Nick'sepisode it did, you can kind of
relate.
I think the main character sortof relates to old Travis, like
high school Travis, who's stilla little bit in me too, you know
, I feel it, yeah, whereasyou're not the most confident

(21:47):
guy, or the main character isnot the most confident guy and
he's just a good guy at heart.
He seems a little weird at first.
You know the way they introducehim, but like he's just
honestly a good guy and I likewatching good guys who aren't
like the most popular and themost successful or whatever,
like really get their shot inlife right.
Um, because that's why I aspireto be like just a good guy.
And in that show, um, the maincharacter is deemed like the

(22:08):
loser or reject, and that's whyhe rents girlfriends.
That's why he rents girlfriends, right, but he, his good traits
shine through right throughthese weird situations that they
happen to get put in right.
His personality comes out andhe starts making these like this
rent-a-girlfriend like say, hey, this guy's like pretty good.

J.R. (22:29):
Yeah, he's actually reliable.
He's actually a good person,yeah so that's the one.
I guess hot take or weird animethat like I like and I recommend
nice, yeah, I'll link to thelink to it in the show notes as
well.
It is a kind of a.
It sounds very weird and thenyou watch, you're like okay, I
can see where this is going.
I will say just my own sort ofcritique on it and again, I also

(22:50):
recommend.
It is like it feels like he'sfairly useless until the end of
season one or two or somethinglike that, and I was kind of
like angry.
I'm like how come he's notdoing anything?
But to be fair, the focus is onthe main girl, because she is
like badass, she doesn't needanyone, she's like doing her
thing.

Travis (23:08):
So I appreciated that like she was a good, like female
protagonist and I guess, bycontrast, he's just annoying,
but he catches up eventuallyyeah, I think that's kind of the
part where, like, I got nothooked to but could relate to,
because he is like the guy we'rewatching as a third person,
right, you're like what are youdoing?
Like you're making such a bigmistake or why aren't you doing

(23:29):
this step up.
But you're like, put yourselfin his shoes, right, you know,
high school travis or youngertravis, like man, I would
hesitate, like that too.
That's why I like related alittle bit definitely so.

J.R. (23:39):
Moving into my next question is maybe it can be
combined, but like, how hasanime influenced you?
I mean, you do cosplayobviously a lot and you do
really well, but also youmentioned cobra kai, so I'm
curious and we can clump thosetogether.
But also, like, how did you getinto cause I'm assuming because
of anime, right, but what wasyour journey like for cosplay as

(23:59):
well?
So I guess those three animeinfluence cobra, cobra kai
influence, and then like cosplay, cosplay like journey got you.

Travis (24:06):
So anime influence I touched base on it a little bit
earlier with dragon ball, butit's basically all shonens,
right.
Work hard, be a good person andgood things will come to you.
Right.
Main characters are typicallynot the most popular or the
coolest, right, but they alwayshave a good mentality of if I do
good things, if I work hard, Iget what I want or not what I
want, but things happen well foryou, you know.

(24:28):
So I think that reallyinfluenced me in like growing up
, you know, don't be mean, don'tbe a dick, right?
Just be nice to people and workhard and just keep pushing your
own goals and helping otherswhen they need help.
And you know, things just rollalong pretty well.
And started leads into cobrakai as well.
I started watching that becauseI saw the product kid back in

(24:48):
the day and it was whatever tome, but I thought it was cool
that they were bringing it back,not a remake but kind of like
continuation of the story.
I thought the show was funnybut it kind of put a twist to
where Cobra Kai were the goodguys versus they were being bad
guys in the original movies andtheir motto of strike first,
strike hard, no mercy.
I kind of took it to heart,like that means the way that

(25:11):
they explained it in Cobra Kai.
I don't want to just quote theshow.
But strike first, don't wait.
Your opportunity is there,don't hesitate, just take it.
You know what's the worst thatcan happen.
Right, you see a position, ajob that you want, and you know
you're not sure you qualify ornot.
You know, just apply, becauseif you wait too long and you
finally decide to do it, maybethe position's closed.
Right, that's strike first.

(25:32):
Strike hard is, whenever you dosomething, commit, you know.
Don't pull your punches justlike fully, full, send into
whatever decision you just, andthen no mercy is.
Don't give up, no matter howhard things can get.
Just keep pushing right.
Don't give up and show no mercy, not to just your opponent or
whatever you're trying to tackle, but to yourself.
The gym might be difficult,right, but don't like slack, you

(25:54):
know.
Show yourself no mercy and pushthrough.
That's how Cobra Kai reallyinfluenced me and that pushed me
in the gym and they pushed mein the gym.
And cosplay you know I went toanime expo.
It was fun and I was like youknow, I saw all these people
cosplaying.
Let me try it too, and it was avery positive response when I
first cosplayed.
So that's what drove me tocontinue.
Hey, you know, this is kind offun, you know, making my costume

(26:16):
, dressing up and acting out thecharacters sometimes and just
meeting other people who areinto it that that was really fun
and it's nice to be like.
At the convention, like peoplewere like hey, you have really
nice cosplay.
You know, can I take a picturewith you?
And things like that.
That was pretty fun too.

J.R. (26:30):
I like it.
I like in hearing you like loopthose together.
It seems like it's easy toconnect the dots that, like
Travis, is the main character inhis story, which is great.
I respect that a lot about youand, like the other things of
you, seem to do things that youwant to do and that you enjoy
and you make it happen.
And again, just the influencesof anime and whatnot.

(26:50):
I can really see that.
So, yeah, I appreciate that.
That's pretty cool.
Any, I guess, insight.
I've had a couple of cosplayerson the show before and they
kind of gave their insights.
But do you have any insights orlessons or takeaways on how to
do cosplay successfully?

Travis (27:05):
Got you Number one.
Cosplay is like not a black andwhite test, right, you don't
have to be the most animeaccurate, you know, if you want
to be like a Hispanic Goku, youknow, don't say, don't.

J.R. (27:20):
let people say it's not you, it's not's not, it's not
you, it's not accurate.

Travis (27:23):
It's not you right?
You don't have to have the bodyto be like you know, just do it
for fun.
The most.
The best cosplayers are thepeople who do it with a passion
and they really want to just um,embody the character.
And oh yeah, this is myrepresentation of the character
and just do it.
So that's my most.
Uh, I guess advice for peoplewho want to get into cosplay

(27:45):
like, just take that step, likejust do it.
Yeah, different people cosplaydifferent ways.
Some people are crafters.
They like making their armor,their clothes, their wigs and
things like that.
Um, personally, for me, like,what I drifted towards was like
fitness cosplay, because italigned with my goals already
and it's where, like my bestcosplays, I come from.

(28:06):
Right, it might not be like thebest cosplays in the world, but
it will.
It's what I drift towards.
So that's why, if you seepictures of my cosplay, that's
why a lot of fitness goes intothat.
But, yeah, fitness, there's thecrafters, there's the people
who just like really embody thecharacter and act it out.

J.R. (28:22):
You know a lot of different things you can do with
cosplay nice, and that's a goodsegue into our next topic for
the fitness and nutrition.
But I wanted to add a note.
Into there, too is my favoritecosplays are the ones where
people combine things that youwouldn't even expect, or
interpret that character, likeyou said, in in a way that you
weren't expecting.

(28:42):
So that's like true artistry,where it's actually a unique,
different sort of thing.
Maybe this is an easy example,but like a Venom cosplay, I saw
this photo or video of this guywho had a little Venom thing pop
out of his shoulder.
So it's something like thatwhere it's not Venom and it's
not some sort of half.
Sometimes they'll do a halfVenom right.

Travis (29:05):
But it's like some sort of half.

J.R. (29:05):
Sometimes they'll do a half venom, right, but it's like
this, like sort of thingpopping out of his shoulder and
it like moves around and stufflike the symbiote, exactly,
exactly right.
So with that in mind it's,people do cosplays similar to
that or combine certain somethings, or like gender benders,
or like sort of like half halves.
I think those are the mostinspirational cosplays.
Or what you do is combining,like your interests together to
make that one thing.

Travis (29:21):
I think those make it the artistry, more special oh
for sure I definitely like thosethink out of the box cosplays
um gender bends are alwaysreally fun, really like nice to
see.
Yeah, because you can't justbuy the costume, you have to
create it exactly.

J.R. (29:34):
You can't buy this at like the halloween store exactly
exactly.

Travis (29:38):
So yeah, definitely the creative ones, especially when
they mix things together,combining animes I.
I even like the casual cosplayswhere you are a character, but
in casual clothes yeah, or likemodern day fashion, exactly, but
you can see, like, where it'sgoing inspired by that character
and still the wig and thecontact lenses.
So you still look like thecharacter in terms of you know

(29:58):
your the main like of thatcharacter, but your clothes is,
like more inspired by theircostumes in the show.

J.R. (30:04):
Yeah, it's funny because my first anime convention I did
a like a group of people.
We did like princess but casualstreet wear, but obviously so
and I was Elsa, but I was a maleElsa, so it was a gender better
, elsa, but it was casualclothing, and then the rest of
them were girls.

Travis (30:26):
So they're all doing regular princess, but inspired
by like normal casual wear.
Yeah, so it was really fun.
So just that's pretty sick.
Yeah, that's cool one.
We should do blue lock thisyear.

J.R. (30:30):
I don't know if you guys watch that I don't, but it's the
soccer one, soccer one, yeah,yeah.

Travis (30:33):
I heard a whole squad together and just roll up as
blue lock, have a soccer ballpassing around.

J.R. (30:37):
Yeah, that'll be fun it's funny because for choreos we did
this pasadena anime conventiona year, year and a half ago,
something like that and we allwere.
Our costume was haikyuu.
Okay, I didn't even.
I don't even watch.
I've watched the movie randomlyand it was great, but I don't
watch the anime, and so I waslike I don't know who number 11
is, but that's who I am, so thatwas fun.
We did a whole set with haikyuucosplay yeah, um, it's pretty

(30:59):
cool yeah, okay.
So last topic, fitness andnutrition.
So you're obviously big intofitness and then you know we
showed some photos and peoplecheck out your ig.
They can get some fan servicephotos.
But so how did your fitnessjourney start?
And then, like, how has itevolved since then?

Travis (31:15):
so I've always gone to the gym.
Just I feel like that's whateveryone, a lot of people did,
you know always like in highschool or like in college.
Okay once I got I didn't go inhigh school.
I was a pretty skinny kid andthen when I went to college you
would go with your friends.
You know, that's all the guyslike let's go to the gym, you
know, no one's really knowingwhat they do, you know, so
you're just out there and itbecame like a routine, got a

(31:37):
little more into, developed itbecause one summer I went back
home and started working outwith my uncle, so I just
continued the routine you know,it's like a fitness program and
I would go to the gym like everyday after work.
After I graduated college andthen eventually my friend that I
was going to gym with, he movedaway.
So we had a routine to go, youknow, every other day.

(31:58):
And then when he moved away, Iwas like, well, shoot, I don't
know what to do anymore, I don'thave the routine with him.
So I started going every daybecause I had no one to go with.
And then I started looking intolike different splits and
things like that how can I getyou know what?
Can I work out more?
And then it just really evolvedfrom there.
And, yeah, one day I like lookedin the mirror.
Well, I guess this is part ofit too.
Like I looked in the mirror andWell, I guess this is part of

(32:20):
it too.
Like I looked in the mirror andI was like, oh I, what happened
?
You know, I used to play soccerevery day.
I used to be like pretty skinnyand fit, but I don't look like
that anymore.
So then that's when I actuallystarted getting more into the
nutrition side of it, becauseworking out and not really
knowing what you do will get youstronger, but your body really
reacts better to nutrition.

J.R. (32:43):
Right.
So I guess the question is whatwere your?
Why did you?

Travis (32:45):
go to the gym.
What were your goals?
I see so again, you know westarted off or I started off
just like going to.
You know, stay fit, stayhealthy seemed like the thing to
do for everyone, right?
You want to be in shape, youknow, and not gain too much
weight, you know you go to likean aesthetic sort of kind of
aesthetics, but more health aswell, too.
Health.
And yeah, I grew up with highcholesterol as a kid, so I was

(33:07):
always like pushed into doingsports and like fitness with my
parents and, um, as I startedworking out more in the gym, I
started like seeing the gainsand oh, that's nice, so I just
kept going with it you know,more for like personal.

J.R. (33:22):
I guess aesthetics would be one thing, but like I liked
how it looked when I went to thegym, right and then I mean,
like I had my trainer on theshow too and it's I think you
can't really put a price tag onhow you feel, health-wise right,
like energy and how you feel,but also I wouldn't discount
like the confidence you get withyou know, respecting your body
but also sculpting it to the wayyou want.

(33:43):
That boosts, like it kind oftransitions to everything else
in your life, because if you canphysically get your body to a
point where you feel great, thatit'll only help everything else
out.
Of course.
I feel that too.
So then at some point you youstarted to learn more about the
nutrition side and then get intois it fair to say like more
bodybuilding since you docosplay bodybuilding, sense of

(34:05):
body composition, right, andthen you started doing that more
.
Was it just for yourself?

Travis (34:10):
and then you kind of stumbled into like fitness
cosplay or yeah, it was more sofor myself at first, yeah, and
then it wasn't like.
Cosplay was like my number onething in my mind.
I wasn't't working out forcosplay.
But I started, like I said.
I looked in the mirror and I'mlike, oh, I'm getting stronger,
but I'm not really liking how Ilook.
So I just looked into likenutrition and you know the

(34:30):
macros, calorie counting andthings like that and yeah,
that's how I got into thenutrition side of it and that's,
combined with working out, ishow I get the body I have now
for cosplays.

J.R. (34:40):
Yeah.
So then my questions are andwe've talked about this before,
because I always like pickingyour brain on how you do
nutrition and stuff.
But what were some of thebiggest challenges in your body
composition sort of journey andmaybe some of the best lessons
that you've learned of trying torecomp your body?

Travis (34:56):
Got it Like.
The biggest challenge at firstwas just getting into nutrition.
You're used to just eatingwhatever you want, and eating
was more for, obviously, to feedyour body, but you eat what you
want and enjoy it and just liveyour life that way.
But in terms of nutrition forthe gym, you have to start
really paying attention to whatyou eat More.

(35:19):
So like how much you eat ratherthan what you eat is like my
philosophy of it.
Um, so that's like the biggestchallenge was starting to track
the calories and macros and thebiggest lesson I learned is um,
don't restrict yourself saying,oh, I need to eat like this type
of food or oh, you know whatthis, this influencer or this

(35:42):
article says, I have to eat thistype of food or do this type of
thing and eat before a certaintime of the day.
And I can't do that.
That doesn't work in my life,so I'm just not going to do it.
So the biggest lesson is findwhat works for you and stick
with it, because consistency isthe number one thing.

J.R. (35:59):
What do you think people get wrong in their own sort of
nutrition or fitness journey?
In that sense, I have my ownideas, because people will
always will talk about oh, youknow what are your goals.
And they're like oh, I want tolose weight or get cut or get
more tone and all this otherstuff.
But then ask them are youtracking your?

Travis (36:14):
food and what are you doing.

J.R. (36:15):
And then there's a.
It goes in a bunch of differentdirections, but what do you
think people get wrong?
Mostly about nutrition.
That you've learned like.

Travis (36:21):
For sure, people think about what they eat more than
how much they eat oh, this ishealthy.
I can eat like 8 000 calories ofthis right yeah, or it's like
they don't know how manycalories because they don't
track.
Tracking is not hard but it'stedious, right?
No one wants to track.
But people are always like, ohyeah, I can't eat french fries,
I can't eat carbs, I can't eatthis because that's what's going

(36:44):
to make me fat and or not loseweight, right, and then they
start eating like salads orfruits and good stuff to eat,
right, but they don't track it.
So they feel like they'reeating all that stuff and then
they're going to get healthier,but they're just eating too much
of it.
And then also cheat days,because if people are too

(37:05):
restrictive with their diets,they feel like, oh, I'm looking
forward to my cheat day, I needmy cheat days or else I can't
hold on to this, and their cheatdays basically erase all their
work for the week.
That's what my opinion of it is, because those cheat days, when
you average it out for the restof the week, it just ends up
like netting zero, right?
It's like math, right, it's allmath.

J.R. (37:24):
It's super simple, it's just numbers it's like simple
but not easy, but it's simplelike it's straightforward it's
straightforward.

Travis (37:31):
I'm not gonna downplay the importance of macros and
micros, and eating certain foodswill help you improve certain
things in your body.
But to get started, all it isnumbers engineer right.
So all it is calories in minuscalories out, and if you're at a
deficit you're going to loseweight.
If you're at a surplus, you'regoing to gain weight, and how
that weight is distributed iskind of based on how often you

(37:53):
work out and what you work out.

J.R. (37:55):
But that's the basic part of it and that's why it's so
simple so now more technicalquestion to get into it for all
the fitness nerds or people, Ithink this is one of the biggest
questions.
What was your so bodyrecomposition and then body fat
percentage going down for yourcosplays?
What was like the mostsuccessful?
Or what was your body fatpercentage for like your best

(38:16):
cosplay when you're trying toreally lean down?

Travis (38:19):
so my best body fat percentage overall has been
between 10 and 11.
I do a body spec scan everysummer, right before anime expo.
Just see progress year overyear, right, and it actually
tells you like the composition,like everywhere, right, like
each area, exactly.
So, if you're just looking likelowest percent, like anywhere,
I've gone my abs down to sevenpercent and I don't know how my

(38:41):
I guess that's genetics of whereit loses, yeah, but my abs have
gone to just like seven percent.
But like combining with my legsand my arms and everything, it
was like an average of 11 10body fat.
It's my lowest cool.

J.R. (38:53):
So then the big question is how do you lose fat?
Okay, right I think most peoplewant to know that right yeah
how does travis, how do you getdown to ab 7% and full body 10,
11%?

Travis (39:05):
So that's like the simple part, right, it's just
math, literally, it's not like asecret.
I will tell anyone who asked mewhat I do.
First is I established myequilibrium or my uh, my
baseline.
So with my lifestyle I work outsix days a week, you know,
typically, and you know go towork and all that stuff and just

(39:28):
keeping it consistent.
I needed to eat at that pointmaybe like 2200 calories to
maintain a day.
Right, I did that by doing mynormal gym thing, weighing
myself every morning and thentaking like that first week's
average and then track mycalories for that first week of.
Well, just like what do I needto survive in terms of my normal

(39:48):
life, not because I'm trying tostart myself.
And then the second week I didthe exact same thing, where I
would eat the exact same numberof calories and keep a
consistent workout schedule.
Again, and if my body weightaverage for the week stayed the
same between first and secondweek, I know that's my baseline.
So from there I just subtract200 calories a day, so 200
calories like a bag of chips, soone bag of chips less a day.

(40:10):
And I did it for two to threemonths, depending on how hard I
wanted to cut, and then you getthe body you want okay, so
you're cutting the calories, butthen do you your macros.

J.R. (40:22):
Do you consider that Like?
How do you change or modifythat?

Travis (40:25):
So I do modify my macros by cutting carbs and increasing
protein.
So I have a lot of protein inmy diet and I limited my carbs
down to 50 grams a day at onepoint and honestly that was me
like following what I've heardabout like keto and stuff like
that and it kind of works.

J.R. (40:45):
So it's more of a keto like approach to your macros a
little more keto, because I'mnot purely fat and you had 50
grams or whatever.

Travis (40:52):
Yeah, I still have a little bit of carbs because I
need to feel my like workoutsand stuff and my life.
Yeah, just going back andlooking at like my body and
everything like that.
I had really strict, I guess,cut back on carbs before and
then I had other cuts where Ididn't limit carbs as much,
talking about 150 grams a day,right, and the results are

(41:12):
similar.
My body specs would say likedifference.
So the biggest thing is justthe calorie numbers and just
enough protein for your musclesto grow.
So they're looking at aboutlike 1.2 grams per body weight
per pound, right.
So if you're like 100 pounds,just eat, the most is going to
be like 100 120 grams.

J.R. (41:32):
Yeah, might be like the other way around, but okay, yeah
, I was always told at least onegram per one pound of body
weight if you for your goalweight or something like that,
but for girls it might be like0.8 or something.
I don't know if that's right,but okay, but like the protein,
if you kind of calculate that,then then your other macros,
your fat and your carbs, will beadjusted based on the total
calories.
Right, hopefully you guys canfollow along with that.

(41:53):
If you're a gym person youprobably could.
But yeah, I think that's thething, cause the question is
okay, if I'm just a normalperson who's not Travis, working
out six days a week, how do Ireduce my body?
Most people want to do that, ifnot health.
But so you're saying just trackeverything calories and trying
to adjust it, figure out yourbaseline Exactly, get a slight
deficit.

Travis (42:11):
Yeah, Everyone who asks me.
I always tell them the samething.
You don't need to work out sixdays a week.
You don't need to go crazy atthe gym, lift heavy weights.

J.R. (42:18):
Unless you're the protagonist of your anime-like
crevice.

Travis (42:22):
But yeah, so you just need to have a consistent life.
Right.
Your gym routine, whether it'sone day or seven days a week,
right, keep it consistent.
Don't mix it up like too much,because then your body's going
to fluctuate and you won't beable to um adjust your calories
properly.
Right, if you're at a state ofequilibrium with your life and

(42:43):
you gym like the same routineevery week and still making
improvements, right.
So pushing at the gym intensitylevel, right, and then you can
like figure out how manycalories you need per week to
survive and keep your weightmaintained.
And then that's the mostimportant thing, because some
people are like charles, you getthat body because you gym six

(43:03):
days a week.
I'm like well, you can gym oneday a week and get this body too
.
You might not have biggestmuscles, but at least you can
still lose fat, because all itcomes down to is eating less
calories than you burn.
And if it's consistent, it'sreally easy to track, or easier
to track.
If you're consistent Makessense.

J.R. (43:20):
Cool, that was pretty much it All right.
Anything else on that topicbefore I move on to rapid fire
questions.

Travis (43:26):
I think that's it.

J.R. (43:27):
Yeah, topic before I move on to rapid fire questions.
I think that's it.
Yeah, I think that's the meatof it.
Honestly, like what you said, Ithink it lays out a good like
framework of how to approach itif your goal is to lose fat.
But obviously it's like workingout for health is very
important, working out for havegood energy, but obviously, on
top of all this stuff that he'salready mentioned, get good
sleep.
You know, like hydrates.

(43:48):
Don't stress out too much,because my trainers always say
it's like how's your sleep, howis your stress levels?
Because if those are like outof whack, you're just it's an
uphill battle, right yeah, likeyou want to set yourself up like
for success.

Travis (44:01):
Sleep just, it's going to help your body recover and
give you energy to work out.
And then obviously, stress Imean sometimes it's unavoidable
but try to like mitigate as muchas possible.
Gym is for, like my stressrelief because I don't have to
deal with work, I don't have todeal with the like projects I
have outside of work at home,things like that.

J.R. (44:19):
I can just focus on my lifts and really helps me
de-stress there too, definitelyI think one thing I'll add in
there and I we kind of got thisfrom the episode with my fitness
coach, which is like theconsistency obviously you
mentioned is key.
For me, I know, or for a lot ofpeople, sometimes the reasoning
is it's hard for me to find thetime to go to the gym, or
sometimes I can make it and I'minconsistent, or whatever.

(44:40):
For me it's like I have I hireda coach, mostly to check in
with them for accountability,because I'm paying for it, I
have to to go four days a week,if I don't, then I'm wasting my
money and I don't like wastingmy money.
So for me it's not an option tonot go to the gym.
I will go and I don't have tothink about it.
And I think my biggest adviceis if you can set up your life

(45:00):
or your routine or whateverhabits you want to build, so
that you don't have to thinkabout those things it's like
people don't think aboutshowering or brushing their
teeth right, it's part of theirroutine exactly.

Travis (45:08):
And if you can leverage accountability in that to
develop the routine, then younever have to think about it
again yeah, I think that remindsme of, like my most important
point, right um, for gym andnutrition, yeah, don't do things
that you can't maintain, right?
So people set up these diets towhere they're like cutting like
600 calories from their day.

(45:29):
Or they say I can only eat likethis type of food, or I need
time of the day or this time ofthe day right, don't let that
trip you up like I'm notdiscounting any of that.
All that can work because it canwork yeah it can work and like
I don't have any proof to say itdoesn't work.
But if that's holding you backfrom maintaining consistency,
don't worry about it, just dowhat you can like.

(45:50):
No lie, my cutting period.
I'm eating chipotle.
I'm eating in and out.
Yeah, yeah, jersey mike's a lotof fast food, just because they
already have the caloriesposted and the macros posted so
it's convenient yeah right, um,and people like you say how are
you eating in and out and stillcutting?

J.R. (46:08):
I'm like it's just numbers , yeah, yeah it's funny because,
like you we've you mentionedthat before um, and so whenever
I not a cheat meal, but when Iknow I can fit it in, I'm like
travis is going in and out, I'mgoing in.
Here's my, here's my 800calories.
I budgeted for this burger.

Travis (46:22):
I'm good exactly yeah, and that's why I like to say
like I don't have cheat mealsbecause I don't need cheat meals
.

J.R. (46:28):
Because it fits in.
Yeah.

Travis (46:29):
Yeah, because it's.
I'm enjoying the same food aswood when I'm not cutting, and I
don't feel the need to need tocheat.
I like it.

J.R. (46:37):
Okay, ready for rapid fire ?
Yep, cool.
First question.
Billboard question.
If you could have a sign formillions of people to see, what
would it say?

Travis (46:45):
It's just numbers.
It's just numbers.

J.R. (46:49):
What is one of the hardest challenges you faced in your
life and what did you learn fromit?

Travis (46:53):
Definitely learning how to adapt to other people.
You will have other people joinyour life by choice or by you
know just life.
Have insight.
So not everyone likes to betreated the same.
Not everyone reacts the same tohow you act.
So if you really want to makethings work with someone, you
have to be able to adapt andcompromise with that person as

(47:13):
well, not saying you know, bendover for that person, but like
compromising, compromise, yeah,yeah makes sense self-inflicted
wounds.

J.R. (47:20):
So do you have a story about something that's gone
wrong in your life that was yourown fault and you can't blame
anyone else because you did itto yourself?

Travis (47:27):
I probably do.
I would say finances for sure,or finances and also school is
two different things.
Pick one Finances Finances Igot used to living in a way
where I didn't have to pay muchrent and I had a lot more
disposable income.
And then when I bought my houseI wasn't really used to that,

(47:49):
you know, not having as muchdisposable income, and it wasn't
like I was like losing money orin debt, but I definitely
wasn't building money Right andI had to learn how to adjust
that and account for that,because now I have way more
expenses from when I didn't havea consistent mortgage payment.

J.R. (48:07):
Right, that makes sense.
I like that.
If you could redo one thing,what?

Travis (48:11):
would it be Going back to college or even maybe even
before that, when I was moreinto like martial arts and stuff
.
Just don't be so scared, Iwould be one of those cool like
trickers, you know, people doingbackflips and kicks everywhere.
If I just, you know, didn'tlike chicken out from doing
learning those moves, right, Ican do the simple like 540s and

(48:33):
stuff back in the day, but Inever really got down any of the
more intricate or dangeroustricks.
And if I can go back and, justyou know, have myself just step
up and just do it and then it'dbe pretty cool, nice, that's
cool.

J.R. (48:46):
That was me in high school .
I was throwing myself aroundand doing tricks and stuff like
that.
But yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Cool, If you could give youryounger self advice.
What would it be now?
Any age, any time period.

Travis (48:57):
Don't be scared Again.
This is like high school Travisand prior versus like Travis
now.
Like Cobra Kai, right Likestrike first, don't wait and
don't hesitate.
If you want something, just tryit.
I'm not saying like steal stuff, but just commit and do it like
the worst thing that can happenis you fail, and that's not
even bad.

J.R. (49:15):
You learn from failures, so just go for it was there
something besides tricking thatyou would do or try if you
weren't scared?

Travis (49:23):
just a lot of things, like not so much things specific
, like things I want to try, butlike in life, like just a
mindset, whether it's, you know,going after a love interest, or
that was me.

J.R. (49:35):
That was the scariest thing I've ever done in high
school was asking a girl out.
Oh my God.

Travis (49:40):
That's the biggest fear for like most guys.
But yeah, just go after yourlove interest, go after your
hobbies.
If you want to play a sport,just do it.
You know, don't be worriedabout what other people think,
just go out there and do it.

J.R. (49:58):
Nice, I like it.
In the last few years, what newbelief, behavior or habit has?

Travis (50:01):
improved your life Few years Recently.
Yeah, definitely taking time torelax, right?
Sometimes I really like to packmy schedule out and just like
go, go, go, go go, and neverreally get a chance to slow down
and stop.
But taking a little bit of timeevery day to just this is
typically for me right beforebed just relax and just to have
like at least 15, 30 minutes ofnothing right to really recenter

(50:24):
and just you know, don't worryabout stress or anything that,
just be yourself, be away fromeverything and just relax.

J.R. (50:33):
I like that I feel like I've.
I also want to do more of that,like just time, disconnected
from everything, and just startup and I wind down like period
after I wake up and before I goto sleep.
I think that's like my ideal,but it's just too much of all
right.
The first thing is phone andthe last thing is phone yeah,
everyone like winds down andlike starts to upload
differently.

Travis (50:53):
You know if it's if you start up with playing a couple
matches of pokemon tcg in themorning to get your brain going
that's all you.

J.R. (50:59):
This is travis talking to himself.
Hey, if you need to open up afew packs, you know, just do it.

Travis (51:03):
Yeah, if you need to open some packs to get get awake
, you know, then go for it right.
But there's no right or wrongthing.
Everyone's different.

J.R. (51:10):
Who would you call successful and how do you define
success?

Travis (51:14):
I would say my mom and dad for sure.
They're super successful, notbecause they're like the most
wealthy people in the world, butthey came from nothing.
Like my dad came from a refugeecamp, right, and he was able to
build a life here.
He didn't know my mom like whenthey came here from refugee
camps.
They've actually met here.
But coming as a refugee workinghis way up to become like a

(51:35):
manager or at his old companybefore he retired and having
even like a partial ownership ofthat company because he worked
there for so long and theowner's like you deserve like 15
of this company or something,yeah, he, like my mom and dad,
came from nothing.
They're able to start goodlives here in America and raise
me and my sister to be thepeople we are right now and be

(51:56):
semi-successful.
That's success right there,like being able to not just help
yourself but help others.
Like continue to grow.

J.R. (52:04):
I love it.
If you knew you couldn't fail,what would you be doing right
now?
Or would you?
What would you try?

Travis (52:10):
if I couldn't fail besides opening up more packs
yes, got packs every time, yeah,and if I couldn't fail I would
honestly shoot for.
I'm not saying I hate my job oranything, but like a more
entertaining job.
I really want to be able to usemy skills of manufacturing and
creativity to make things forpeople to smile.

(52:34):
So the job in mind is mycompany, doesn't?
I'm not saying I'm gonna quitokay but being like an imagineer
for disney, like you get tomanufacture and create, like,
really like interesting andtechnological things that people
get to enjoy.
Right, your technology, yourcreation is like making people

(52:54):
smile, and that's something thatI would like to try if I
couldn't fail.

J.R. (52:59):
Do you have a favorite hot take or something that you
think most people wouldn't agreewith?

Travis (53:04):
Rental Girlfriend's a good anime.

J.R. (53:06):
Nice.

Travis (53:06):
I like it.

J.R. (53:08):
What is one of the best or most worthwhile investments
that you've made in either time,money, energy, etc.

Travis (53:14):
The gym yeah, I'd say like just getting into fitness
and nutrition, like energy.
You know aesthetics, justeverything came from.

J.R. (53:22):
You know being able to invest time in the gym favorite
recent purchase in the 50 to 100range that has impacted your
life the most in the last, let'ssay, six months 50 to 100 range
we can change the parameters,but it's basically like a
relatively cheap purchase thatimpacted you recently I don't
think a cheap.

Travis (53:42):
That's a good question, because you don't really
remember cheap purchases.

J.R. (53:46):
This is like a consumerism question.
Yeah, something that peoplecould pick up.

Travis (53:50):
Something that has influenced me, impacted me in
the last recently.
That was relatively cheap.
Yeah, I don't really have agood answer for that one.

J.R. (54:01):
So I'll throw in one.
For me that comes to mind, it'smy Crunchyroll subscription, so
it's like 15 bucks a month.
But since I've been on an animebinge like no ads, plus the
like the ui, the experience ofusing crunchyroll on the app is
so good compared to piratedstream sites or whatever.
So like also, I have this likethis massage ball thing, like
for like my lower back.

(54:21):
It's like a relatively cheappurchase, but I don't know if
anything comes to mind, I'm justjogging memories yeah, yeah.
Maybe we could pass it.

Travis (54:29):
Yeah, we could pass out Travis only buys expensive stuff
, guys.
No, the most, because I don'tbuy a whole lot of stuff.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's likeimpactful, yeah, but this phone
case is pretty nice, like now.
I didn't know about.
I didn't have a phone case witha magnet before that's pretty

(54:50):
cool, nice, all right.
Last one favorite books, movies,videos, articles or media that
you share, or recommend the mostbesides rent-a-girlfriend well,
I mean not talking about cobra,kai, things like that favorite
books, media, any sort of mediathat you recommend.
I do really growing up like theharry potter.
I'm actually going to see theplay tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, there's a play thatlike it's a continuation of

(55:10):
story after a seventh bookinteresting, yeah, so I'm gonna
see that tomorrow.
But, yeah, I recommend harrypotter.

J.R. (55:15):
It's a light read, easy read, not too you know, when you
say light, you mean likeconceptually, or you mean like
length or what I think length isnot.

Travis (55:25):
The font is pretty big.
Okay, um, I'm a slow reader andI still was able to read those
books.
But also, conceptually it's nottoo deep.
You can make anything deep ifyou really dig into it.
But I think it's like a morelighthearted read and it's
enjoyable.

J.R. (55:39):
Okay, harry Potter.
All right, that is the end forrapid fire questions.
We'll go into ending questions.
So, travis, what are yougrateful for?

Travis (55:50):
Definitely grateful for everyone in my life.
Seems like a cop-out answer,but my parents recently I've
been through some stressfultimes since the end of last year
and my parents being here, myfamily being here to support me,
has helped me a lot, and justmy friends and family.
Tracy, my girlfriend, is thereto support me when I was going
through.
This is honestly some of thetoughest times I've been through
in my whole life since Novemberand they're really able to

(56:12):
support me and help me like getby until things started picking
up again better again.
So definitely grateful for themNice.

J.R. (56:20):
Do you have any final ask from the audience or any final
takeaways you'd like them tohave from this conversation?

Travis (56:27):
Yeah.
So just don't be scared topursue what you want to do.
Don't hesitate, just go for it.
If you're scared of failure,it's not going to kill you,
right?
Like failure is not going tokill you, it's just going to
make you stronger.
And keep life simple, right?
In engineering we have a termcalled KISS.
You know, keep it simple,stupid.
So don't overcomicate life,don't over complicate, like your

(56:49):
gym or anything you want to do.
Just keep it simple and pursueit like it all right, travis,
where can we find you?

J.R. (56:57):
any social media handles, websites, anything that you want
to, if people are curious towhat you're up to or want to
reach out yes, so I only reallypost on Instagram for my social
media.

Travis (57:08):
So at official T underscore T and I mean I dance
with Untitled, so you can findme there for the dance videos
and also dancing feature inother people's dance videos too.
But basically Instagram, nice,find me there.

J.R. (57:21):
Cool, we love it.
All right.
Thank you Travis again forbeing here.
I really appreciate it.
I learned a lot from thisconversation and you have a lot
of great insights, so thank you.

Travis (57:29):
It was a pleasure, thank you for inviting me and really
had a fun time talking to youtoday, nice.

J.R. (57:33):
Cool, all right.
Final sign off from my audience.
So thank you guys for beinghere.
I really appreciate it.
Remember to always be kind toother people, especially
yourself, and reminder thatthere's always something you can
learn from someone if you takethe time to listen.
So thanks for being here.

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#26: Travis Trinh - 7% Body Fat, Bowling a 300, and Being Your Own Anime Protagonist

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#26: Travis Trinh - 7% Body Fat, Bowling a 300, and Being Your Own Anime Protagonist