LYV179: 🏋🏻‍♀️From Courts to 🍨Cones: Roger Smith's Journey to Vegan Bodybuilding and Entrepreneurship with Robert Cheeke

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello and welcome back to the Plant Powered
Athlete podcast.
I am your host, robert Cheek,and I have a phenomenal guest
today.
My guest today is a longtimefriend, a longtime vegan, an
athlete, an entrepreneur, anall-around great guy and someone
, I have to say, who has thebest arms of anyone that I know

(00:35):
in the vegan movement.
I've always been jealous andenvious of his arms, his
strength.
He's a fellow vegan athlete aswell, roger Smith.
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Thank you.
Thank you for having me, Robert.
It's always a pleasure to havea conversation with you and your
audience.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
How are you?
Yeah, so happy to have you hereon the Plant Powered Athlete
podcast.
I know you're in Houston, texas, these days, but you've got
roots in Panama, new York City,perhaps some other places.
Can you take us back and tellus your vegan story, because
you've been vegan for a longtime and you're also really
strong and muscular and anentrepreneur.

(01:14):
I want to figure out where thisall started.
So, if you can take us back,tell us your Powered Athlete
story and give us some context,I think that would be really
helpful for our audience yeah,that's, that's great.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
Thank you for for um, for the opportunity.
Actually, before I even go that, congratulations on this
project.
It was a long time coming.
You needed a podcast a longtime ago, but so congratulations
on this.
So, yeah, so tell you a littlebit about my background for the
for those that don't know me, um, like robert said, I'm
originally from panama.
That's why you hear a littleslightly accent on me, uh, and I

(01:50):
was born there, um, in my 20s,so that kind of gives my age a
little bit.
Also my mid 40s, actually 45,about to turn 46 this year.
So I I moved to the states.
But but, going back to myearliest beginning, I wasn't
born a vegan.
I think it's one of thosethings that a lot of us would

(02:12):
wish it would have been that way.
So I turned vegan when I was22,.
I want to say I was 22 or 23,around that age, so that was
around 2004, 2002, 2003.
I turned vegan and, um, and thereason why I turned vegan was
initially was kind of curiosity.
So I saw a good friend of minethat back back in those days

(02:36):
that you don't used to call itvegan, right, he used to be, uh,
he used to be vegan, when he isvegan or plant-based for the
most part, and I was kind ofcurious why he, when we used to
be vegan Well, he is vegan orplant-based for the most part
and I was kind of curious why he, when we used to get together,
he wasn't really participatingor eating any of the food.
Most of us were eating pizza,burger.
Back in those days.
There was really noconsciousness when it comes down

(02:57):
to eating the proper food, so Iwas kind of curious about why
he wasn't, and in a long shortafter, like me, harassing this
guy for a long like hey why are?
you not eating this?
What's going on with our food?
He kind of explained to me that, uh, he just basically, you
know, he went plant-based or hewouldn't be vegan.
And I was like vegan, like whatis that?
So he, I kind of he, he waskind of basically encouraged me

(03:20):
to do some research on whatactually the plant-based
movement back then, or theveganism or vegetarian meant,
because he felt like he was kindof kind of tired of like
explaining people what vegan wasback then and nobody was kind
of listening.
Everybody was just like, ohyeah, I was mocking him.
It was a lot of a lot ofbullying back in those days.

(03:41):
So, uh, I kind of startedresearching right, and then, um,
he actually brought up, um,vegetarianism or veganism back
then from, uh, from a foodhealth standpoint.
Well, mostly, and to me thatwas fine.
But since I was young, I was anathlete, robert said I always
play sport.

(04:01):
Um, one of our, our biggestpassions is basketball, as
Robert knows, and he likes thatas well.
I used to play ball a lot.
So I really was pretty healthyrunning around, very athletic, I
always used to dunk the balland do all these different
things, even though I'm 6'2",which in Panama is considered

(04:23):
tall, but when I came to AmericaI was like I'm short, I'm a
point guard, so anyway.
So I kind of started researchingmore about it and I found out
that there was an animal warfareaspect of this whole movement
and that, to me, was kind ofwhat led me to remain vegan.
So when I saw different type ofvideos that were showing all

(04:47):
what happened in theslaughterhouses and all
different things, I was like,okay, well, I'm definitely not
eating animal anymore.
So that's when I actually madethe switch.
So it happens to me maybe, Iwant to say maybe like six,
between six to eight months fromthe day that I get acquainted
with the whole plant-basedmovement.
And yeah, and I mean beinginsane, so what triggered that

(05:12):
was watching all these differenttypes of content back in those
days when the internet wasactually just coming out,
watching all these differenttypes of content and then and
then that actually was what mademe kind of win vegan, stay
vegan for for the rest of mylife.

Speaker 1 (05:30):
Yeah, roger, did you have any concerns in those early
days about getting enoughprotein building your body?
I mean, obviously you're veryfit and strong.
You've competed in bodybuildingand fitness competitions.
We'll talk about that a littlebit later.
I've already mentioned people.
You've got these big musculararms.
You and I've been on a vegancruise together and I trained

(05:51):
together in the gym and I'm likeman.
I wish I had arms like that guy.
But did you have?
Did you have any concerns, ordid people in your life have
concerns about your health orwellness or whether you could
build your body with plants, orwas it no problem from the
beginning?
What was that experience likefor you?

Speaker 2 (06:12):
No, that's a great question because there was a lot
of feedback, a lot ofchallenges when you go vegan at
an early age of your life or atany stage of your life, pretty
much.
But specifically at that timethere was not a lot of
information.
So we're talking about from adifferent country, right?

(06:32):
So there was not really anyinformation at all.
So most of the information wascreated here up north.
You know, canada, us, maybeMexico, probably, and we're
trying to get that informationum all the way to the south, but
there was no informationwhatsoever.
So when people don't know aboutit is the first thing is

(06:53):
rejection, what's going on?
What's going to happen?
So, yeah, I did get a lot offlags for um going vegan
specifically.
Uh, yeah, protein was one ofthe topic, but the most people
just like what are you going toeat?
That's what always.
They just like what are yougoing to eat?
That's what I always ask.
Like, what are you going to eat?
Like, I mean, for me it's kindof a mind-boggling question
because basically it's like doesmeat is the only thing that

(07:13):
people eat?
Like, if you look at people'soverall plates, meat is one
component of their food, butthey have a couple of the things
that goes into into that place.
So it was kind of interestingthat people associated food only
with with meat.
So yes, they were.
I was getting a lot of questionswith what are you going to eat?
And actually myself I didn'tknow what was going to happen.

(07:37):
Like I didn't know what I wasgoing to eat.
The only thing I knew that Iwas straightforward with it was
I'm not going back to eatingmeat.
So now I have to figure out whyI'm going to eat.
So that was my next question,right?
So I started asking questionsand back then there was not a
lot of options.
Mostly my diet was like 90%fruit, like Robert, like 90%

(07:57):
fruit, like bananas.
I used to eat a lot of bananas.
So really, the banana girl shewas old school to me.
I was like Roger the banana guy, because bananas were cheap,
like you used to buy like 10bananas for 10 cents, like for
10 cents, so I can get likeplenty of bananas.
So I will use a lot of banana.
And then I first started gotintroduced into like cooked

(08:18):
meals when I met Rastafarians.
So Rastafarians eat like theycall it ital, which is basically
just eat like vegan food, kindof like our buddy, our
bodybuilder.
So yeah, so I got introduced tofood and that's when the first
time I ate like tofu and riceand beans and other different

(08:39):
type of things, but for the mostpart, my diet was like fruits,
maybe rice, beans and a lot ofvegetables.
You know, tomatoes, lettuce,any type of vegetables,
cucumbers and so on and so forth.
So since there was not a lot ofoptions, I keep it simple.

(08:59):
So that was a benefit becausemy diet was very simple and I
wasn't eating a lot of junk foodor basically a lot of processed
food.
I think most processed I waseating was like soy milk,
because that was the onlyoptions that we found Soy milk
or maybe rice milk.
So we replaced the dairy withrice milk and mostly fruit.

(09:20):
So eating that is fine, but alot of people be like oh, you
need protein, you need protein,you need this, you need that.
So there was a lot of questionwhen it comes down to it.
So I was just have to be ableto find the right answers.
How do, how do I find the rightfood to be able to feed myself?
So, yes, I did struggle at thebeginning with finding the

(09:42):
proper combination of food atthe beginning and then eating
enough calories was also anotherissue that I dealt with,
because I was not eating at all,because I really rely on my
family a lot for when it comesdown to eating, because I was
living with my parents back inthose days, so I relied a lot on
what they consume, what theybuy and what they're cooking a

(10:05):
lot of what they consume, whatthey buy and what they're
cooking.
So once I started getting alittle bit of my freedom and
growing on my own personality,then I started kind of
understanding more of thedifferent aspects and I started
kind of branching out.
But at the beginning, yes, Idid struggle because, like I
said, I relied a lot on them anda lot of less and I was using a
lot of information.
So I didn't know.
So I had to find a way to getthe proper food.

(10:29):
So I would just stick to thebasic, you know fruits and
vegetables.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that's a really good
point.
I even wrote that down.
You tend to have a a healthierdiet with fewer options, so to
speak, because you go back torice and beans and corn and
potatoes and sweet potatoes andtropical fruits and bananas and
all the stuff you have access to.

(10:54):
And really you also made a goodpoint when people were asking,
like, what do you eat, whenreally a lot of the mainstream
eats the same five animals overand over and over.
They're just eating the sameanimals and and then mixing up
sometimes their, their milk andtheir eggs with those meals and

(11:15):
vegetables, a few fruits hereand there.
But what you did was you, youtook out those animals from your
diet and you replace them withthe staples that we know to be
the healthiest foods for thelongest living populations,
things like beans of all typesand rice and vegetables and
fruits.
And they're also the foods thatare the lowest calories and

(11:39):
provide the most nutrition.
So they don't contribute verymuch to obesity, but they
contribute to long lastinghealth, and so keeping it simple
is really part of the key.
So how did your diet changewhen you got to the US?
And all of a sudden, I mean,you're from Panama.

(12:01):
You don't have access to allthe milkshake, the burgers, the
pizzas, all the vegan stuff.
I think, if I recall, you wentto New York, which is one of the
vegan capitals in the world,you had access to everything.
Is that how the muscles grew?

Speaker 2 (12:21):
So, yes, that's a good segue.
So, yes, I went, like youmentioned, right, I went from
panama.
There was not a lot of actionback then.
Now, if we talk about panamanow, that's a completely
different story.
So we can, we can talk aboutfor a different conversation.
But, um, so I moved to new yorkand now it was like I, I got

(12:42):
introduced just from a highlevel because when I move in, my
family members were not vegan,so they're at the same time,
they don't really know muchabout it.
They just heard oh yeah, there'sa vegan place over there that
sells pizza.
You want to check it out?
Like vegan pizza?
Oh yeah, so let's, let's go.

(13:02):
Like, this is something like avegan pizza.
And then I got introduced toquite a few things during that
time, which is great Because Iremember it came from not having
no options to now it's likethere's a plethora of things
that you can possibly eat,although, going back to what you
said, eating basic has a lot ofadvantage, right, eating just

(13:24):
the basic staple food.
So, yeah, I moved to New York.
Have a lot of advantage, right,eating just the basic staple
food.
So, yeah, I moved to New York,have a lot of options, and but
actually I actually got.
I stayed in New York for ashort period of time it wasn't a
really long time so I canexplore all the different food.
I actually went back to NewYork and that's when I actually
was introduced to Champs, allthe different great places to

(13:45):
eat.
But, um, when I moved to texasis when I was, I started living
myself and I got to see allthese different options.
Even though it wasn't as muchas, let's say, new york or
portland where you're familiarwith um, I still was able to see

(14:06):
.
Go to the Whole Foods or Sproutor Trader Joe's, all these
different places that have likejust sections of flambé things.
And that was even 20 years ago.
The movement was big, but itwasn't as big, but it was bigger
than what I was accustomed,right, so for me it was a big
step.
So everybody was like, oh yeah,it's so easy to be vegan when

(14:28):
you have so many options.
And like in the US, and I'lltell my international friends,
like, well, having an option isgreat.
Don't get me wrong.
I'm not going to say there'snothing wrong with it, but
eating the basic is probablybetter for you.
Nothing wrong with it, buteating the basic is probably.
It's probably better for you.
So, not having a lot of options,sometimes it's good because you

(14:49):
stay eating the basic food,which allows you to have a
healthier lifestyle, in myopinion.
So for me, actually, it's likeyeah, it's great.
Uh, yeah, we can go eat adifferent type of restaurant,
have a different type of options, but, hey, if you have the
options to to stay basic,because you're going to get
tired of of eating x, y and zmeals for a period of time, like

(15:10):
, how much can you go out andeat at a restaurant?
Like you can do that every nowand then, but you're not going
to do it every day.
So, yeah, I guess just knowingthat you have the options to go
to those places is great, butjust a lot of these things that
you can consume, you can justmake it your own self too.
Don't just take time.
But yes, going back to thequestion, like I said, I moved

(15:30):
to texas and when I moved here,then I started seeing other,
different places, differentrestaurants.
For me, that change was againchanging, basically because now
it's like, oh, okay, well, I can, instead of me making my own
tofu, I can probably buy apre-cooked tofu, right, ok,
that's great.
Or now, instead of just seeingsoy, milk and rice meal, now

(15:54):
we've got 15 or 20 othervegetable flat meal type of
meals that are available, so itopens the market, right.
It's like you don't have onetype of vehicle.
You have now 10 15 type ofvehicles so you can choose from
different prices, differentrange, size, whatever.
So that's but the the beautifulpart of it is like having the
options.
Now you can pick and choosewhich one you want.

(16:16):
You want the healthier one, youwant that might be as tasty, or
you want to get the um, the thenot so healthy, but it tastes a
lot better, it's a lot sweeter.
So you know you have moreoptions to pick from.
So that's the beautiful part ofit.
So it was a game changer fromthat perspective, right.
But I never lost my interest onlike how can I maintain as
healthy as possible even thoughI have all these opportunities

(16:40):
to eat out and consume all thesedifferent types of meals?

Speaker 1 (16:44):
Yeah, I imagine that move to Houston opened lots of
doors, one of the biggest citiesin America, Even though it's in
Texas, which you don't alwaysassociate with veganism.
There's many cities like Austinand Dallas and Houston that are
very forward-thinking when itcomes to veganism.
There's lots of restaurants,there's communities there,
there's vegan festivals.

(17:05):
I even spoke at a veg fest inHouston a long time ago.
I don't know if it's stillhappening, but it was a long
time ago, 10 or 15 years ago andand it was great.
So so, Roger, when did youreally get into weightlifting?
I mean you basketball as abackground, sports as a
background, being physicallyactive and fit and doing that

(17:26):
with a plant-based diet.
But then you got into weighttraining and I'm not even sure I
know the answer of when youactually started that and why
you started that and why did youwant to get bigger and stronger
.
So can you tell us about thatorigin story and how you ended
up on the bodybuilding stage?

Speaker 2 (17:45):
Yeah, sure, thank you for asking that question,
robert.
So let me go back.
So when I was an athlete, Inever thought about lifting
weight, although weight liftingcould have definitely helped me
on my longevity of my career,right?
So that's again.
That's one of the things islike when you don't have enough
knowledge about a specific thing, you can, can incorporate that

(18:08):
into your daily day.
Once you start gaining moreknowledge into a specific topic,
then you don't have no excuses.
At that point of me, when I wasprobably like 14, 15, with one
of those traditional old schoolbenches that has it's just like

(18:33):
one bench with the bar, likethat You'll find.
You'll find pictures of me thatI always had like, like a
passion, and not only that.
But if you look, if you talk toa lot of my family members,
bodybuilding was one and is isbeing one of the sports that a
lot of my family membersgravitate to.
They never went like, theynever took it to the level I did
, but they always had a passionand attraction, especially my

(18:54):
uncle.
I have an uncle on my mind.
Shout out to my uncle, carlos.
He actually lives in upstateNew York.
He's a huge fan of bodybuilding, like huge fan Old school, old
school fan of bodybuilding.
Like, huge fan, old school, oldschool fan of body builder.
He still lift weight, hecoaches, he coaches people and
whatnot.
Um, huge fan of bodybuilding.
He sent me magazines all thetime.
You know ronnie and all thedifferent type of guy back in

(19:17):
his day that are not all thedifferent type of guys, right,
he idolized and um.
So when I started liftingweight he called me like, hey,
man, congratulations.
He was.
So I felt I felt good, just myuncle, just he's calling me to
congratulate me for that.
So bodybuilding always been inmy family.
But I didn't know that like forme it was like I, I just like
basketball.
Basketball is my thing, sobasketball is always my sport.

(19:39):
But, um, when I, when Itransitioned to big in 2002, I
was thinking about liftingweight robert, right, and I'll
tell you this, I never sharedthis before, but I was talking
to my buddy that um is vegan,right, and I was like man, I've
been thinking about liftingweight.
He was like, why you want tolift weight?
You should do that.
You know, why do you need allthis muscle for?

(20:01):
So I kind of let myself getconvinced not to do it during
that time and I kind of startedthinking like man, if I would
have lifted weight back then, Iwould have been a world champion
by now.
I would have cut a lot of theyears.
But things happen for a reason.
So at that time I was thinkingabout lifting weight.

(20:22):
Now I didn't know how I wasgoing to do it, because I'm
going from changing my wholelifestyle and now talking about
lifting weight.
So that's just like two thingsat the same time, like two big
changes in my life.
So I had those thoughts fromback then to way way 2002, 2000,
early 2000.
So I started lifting weight justbecause I wanted to get in

(20:46):
shape, because even though Ilost a lot of weight when I went
vegan, I did lose a lot ofweight when I went vegan.
I was a lot slimmer, right.
So I wanted to gain some muscle.
Because I never had muscle,never because I never had like.
I never had muscle, never like.
I never had.
Well, let me rephrase I neverhad bodybuilding type of shape,

(21:08):
look right, because we all havemuscles, so I understand.
So so I never had likebodybuilding muscle, I never had
that physique.
So I I wanted to get in shape,I wanted to to look good,
especially because I always hearpeople say you can't accomplish
that out on a vegan diet.
So to me that was kind of likea motivation.
But everything happens.

(21:30):
When I actually went to Portlandbreakfast and I met Mr Robert
Sheik, right, and all the allthe different athletes that I
met during that time, they wereall like you should go, you
should do bodybuilding, becauseat that point I think I was like
about 220 pounds.
But uh, I was a big guy becauseI took like two or three years

(21:54):
just to get as big as possible.
I wasn't even looking at, no,no physique whatsoever.
I just started lifting weight,lifting heavy and getting as big
as possible.
So I gained, I gained a hugeamount of weight and uh, um, and
I get a lot of, I get a lot ofstrength from that.
So I was like bench pressinglike 400 pounds.
I was just going crazy on base.

(22:16):
I was going to the gym.
People thought I was like afootball player, you're so big.
I remember those times during Iwent to the cruise, so some of
those days.
So I just started liftingweight, motivated by one.
I wanted to prove people thatyou can accomplish, you can get
big and strong on a vegan diet.
It was a personal challenge forme, because I'm always been the
person that when I put myself agoal, I try to achieve it to a

(22:39):
highest level.
So I put myself a goal thateven though my late 30s, mid 30s
, whatever that age was, I'mstill going to accomplish this
because it is possible.
There's no way people keepsaying that it's not possible
when I'm going online and I'mseeing all these great athletes,
robert, and all these differentpeople promoting veganism and

(23:00):
bodybuilding at the same time.
So and then the thirdmotivation was my family loved
this stuff.
It comes from my family origins.
Like they're all like oh, welove bodybuilding.
So I'm like wait, what am Idoing?
Let's do this.
And the fourth thing was I had areally bad injury with playing
basketball, so I needed anothersport.
I needed another sport.
And this bodybuilding is anindividual sport.

(23:21):
There's nothing you can blamehere.
There's no coaches you blame.
I mean you can go from acompetitive level.
You can blame your coach, butat the same time, you make sure
you're doing all the work.
So it's a very individual sportthat you go and you have to put
the time in the diet into yourworkouts and everything.
So there's really nobody toblame, it's just yourself.

(23:45):
So for me it was a good way foragain, put myself a goal, a
challenge and accomplish.
So I had those four, fourmotivations to be able to make
this, this step, take that step,and that's how I started it.
So I started by just going tothe gym.
First I was just going to thegym working out.
Um, I was going with my partnerduring that time because she
wanted to lose weight.
So she was in the goal oflosing weight.

(24:06):
I was in the goal of gainingmuscle mass and gaining size.
So we had two different goals.
But I wasn't taking it serious.
I was just going to the gym.
I was going with my cell phone,with my flip-flop, on my phone,
talking to my buddy, and Iwould just grab a dumbbell, be
talking on the phone and then atrainer caught me.
He said what are you doing?
What is it that you're doing?

(24:26):
Like you're not taking thisstuff seriously, like you cannot
be coming to the gym andflip-flops and on the phone and
thinking that you're going togain something.
So I was like you know whatit's right.
So I I put, I got serious and Istarted lifting.
So then I went to Portland.
Meet you guys meet a bunch ofthe athletes, like you need to
start doing bodybuilding, you'regoing to win.
You're going to win Peoplebelieving in me.

(24:48):
I'm like, you guys believe inme, like you guys think I can
win, like, yeah, you're going towin.
I'm like, okay, well, let's doit.
So that kind of motivates meeven more to kind of get into a
competitive stage.

Speaker 1 (25:07):
So that's my career started, yeah, and it sounds
like we have a little bit of asimilar background there, where
we were motivated to show peoplethat we could do it without
consuming animals, that we couldbe champion vegan athletes and
we could build our bodies.
So we have this.
You know, a little bit ofsomething to prove.
And also this slogan comes tomind when you're talking
anything you can do, I can dovegan.
Right, like that seems like anattitude that you had was that,

(25:29):
listen, anything you guys can dobuilding muscle, being on the
bodybuilding stage, I can dothat as a vegan, and it seems
like you took that to heart.
But then you also had thatextra layer of that being
something that was part of yourfamily.
And so there's this family andculture and heritage and pride

(25:49):
of being this bodybuilder andhaving your uncle proud of you
and getting on stage and it kindof.
It kind of comes full circlethere.
So that's that's kind of a,that's a cool story.
That's got to make you feelgood, it's got to make your
family feel good, and so you'vebeen around for a while now 22
years in the vegan fitnessindustry.

(26:10):
Essentially, what are yourthoughts on the vegan fitness
industry today?
How have you seen it change?
What direction do you thinkit's headed in?
How do you feel about it today?
What's your role in it thesedays?

Speaker 2 (26:24):
And I'd love to hear your thoughts yeah, that's a
great question because Iactually wanted to talk to you
about this because I've beenhearing a lot of so.
So let's say from where westarted it to now, and then you
can even speak even further,further out.
Uh, he has grown so much right,so now it's so mainstream like

(26:45):
I think the the whole fitnessindustry is.
So it's so mainstream like.
But at the same time, I thinkthis is a blessing and a curse
one.
I think it's a blessing because, um, you cannot go online and
find any type of support, um,that you that you that you can
find from from a coach you canfind from a coach.
You can find a coach a lotquicker these days.

(27:08):
Before it was kind of hard tofind somebody that helped you
with coaching.
You have to find maybe a meateater, a carnivore coach, and
then have them try toaccommodate your not the fitness
part, but mostly the eatingpart to your lifestyle, and then

(27:34):
he or she might not know muchabout it, so he will be like, oh
no, that's not possible.
So you have all this debate andall this discussion.
Now you kind of strip that awayand you can strictly find vegan
coaches and it's vegan coachesfor, for all levels.
So that's great.
So now we have a supply forthis demand.
But then the other aspect isnow everybody thinks he's a
coach, someone not evencertified, right.
So now everybody's like oh, I'ma coach, I'm a lifestyle coach,

(27:57):
I'm a fitness coach, I'mcombined.
They, everybody's a coach.
So the internet has opened itso much that it's like it's a
free for all type of deal.
And then that sometimes cancreate a situation where it's
confusing for some people, right, because it's like is he or she
a coach?
So for me it's good to do thedealings when you're hiring a

(28:21):
coach.
Second thing is that I think,like a lot of the coaches now,
they're moving more into theinfluence part of it now it's
the move of the lives and we'removing more into the influence
type of concept more than justcoaching people.
So are we losing the message?
Are we losing the core conceptof helping people accomplish

(28:46):
their goal?
I'm not saying all of them are,but it's important that we stay
on track and then we providepeople with a service that
requires that's needed, which isimprovement of the body,
improvement of health orwhatever that is Losing weight,
gaining weight, whatever it'sindividual goals are.

(29:08):
So I feel like at the beginning.
Yes, it was great that we haveaccess, because if it wasn't for
the internet, maybe I wouldhave never met Roger, robert,
roger would have never metRobert, right, because I got
into bodybuildingcom website, Ifound the group.
Then I saw a community.

(29:29):
I felt that I'm not alone.
There's a sense of like.
There's more people like me,not only like they like fitness,
but they also eat vegetablesand they're vegan and they love
animals.
So there's a community like I'mnot alone.
I mean, they're far from whereI am or they're distant from
where I am, but the internetmake us closer right.
So at the same point I I founda great um highway to connect to

(29:56):
folks on my list from adistance.
To this day that we stillutilize and leverage those,
those tools.
So it was great to have that.
We had the internet in thatsense, and now from there I
connected with all the differentpeople, made so many friends
around the line and it wasawesome.
So it's great.
I think it's a great communitythat we built there.

(30:17):
Now, when it comes down to wherewe're headed, where we are now,
it seems like the wholemovement of coaches, like I said
, they're turning more Hollywoodnow or more doing videos now
and we kind of lost what themain core of helping others was.

(30:38):
I actually, at some point Iwanted to become.
I trained and I helped a lot ofpeople.
I never even charged, I wasjust open to help people when
they face this journey.
But I noticed that it turnsdown into one of those

(31:00):
situations that a lot of peoplewould need help and the
information is out there so youcan get that information, you
can leverage that information.
But now the coaches themselvesI know that they rely more more
on on this to become a businessand um, and it's great.
But even as you go to the gymyou see personal trainers and

(31:21):
they still get some clients andthey, they get some clients, but
every not for for mostly onlinecoaches to be able to be
successful, they have to do itonline and then there's no
personal interaction.
So the downsides to that isthat I don't get a coach that
can help me on my form andRobert can vouch on this how

(31:42):
important he is, formed fordifferent aspects of training,
right, maybe for losing weight.
For some folks might not be asas as important, but at the same
time I would say well, notreally because you don't want to
do exercise the wrong way andthen get hurt.
So that's even worse.
So you want to be able to havethe right form.
So online I help us to kind ofexpand and and and get more,

(32:05):
meet more people, be able tospread the message for further
out.
But at the same time I think itlost a little bit of the human,
the personal interaction.
That's what's been with a lotof things In the industry itself
.
We think or that's what I heardis that the industry, as far as
fitness, is dying.
I want you to tell me what youthink, robert, in that context.

(32:27):
When they say the fitnessindustry, as our influencers
doing fitness, is dying, all theinfluencers that have been
doing or doing fitness have setway to something else because
they don't see a market on it.
And then you can tell me whatyou think, especially because
you come from a fitnessbackground.

(32:52):
You come from a fitnessbackground.
Um, you became I mean, youalways been great, but you
became multi-famous for multiplebooks and information related
to fitness, but your last bookwas not fitness related.
You set way to something else.
So I wanted to give us youropinion about that.
Actually, I had that.
I had that doubt.
A question in my mind, like Ineed to ask robert about this.
Like, talk, tell us a littlebit about this, robert yeah,

(33:12):
well, this is.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
This is almost going to turn into you interviewing me
now, because I took like fivepages of notes.
Um, first of all, roger, I wantto validate what you said.
I share some of the samethoughts and same impressions
and same I don't know if it'sthe word concerns about the

(33:36):
fitness industry and some of thedirections that it's going, and
I wrote, I wrote down a bunchof notes, so I think I'll um,
I'll, be able to explain what Imean by that.
And I also have to say, I don'tknow, with a caveat, you know,
it seems like almost all myfriends in the vegan industry
are coaches these days.

(33:56):
Like they're all fitnesscoaches, like everybody's a
coach.
I'm not people even.
I mean, I'm telling you,someone just last week offered
to send me hundreds of dollarsjust to write them a meal plan,
but I'm not a coach, it's notwhat I do.
And now that person is workingwith somebody else because I'm
not a coach.
But everybody I know is, youknow, all my friends and social

(34:18):
media and the vegan fitness team, vegan bodybuilders, they're
all coaches.
So here's what I wrote downbased on what you said, and you
can tell me if I'm right or ifI'm accurately kind of
representing what you said andagain, I feel a lot of the same
things about this.
Number one there's a lot ofmoney in coaching.

(34:40):
It's something that came on thescene 10 years ago or so, but
much more popular in the lastfive years.
There's a lot of money in it.
People want to pay lots ofmoney to have someone tell them
what to do.
So number one for someone who'sa vegan athlete, especially a
bodybuilder, who's kind offocused a bit more on ego and

(35:02):
and their self image and allthat and people are offering to
pay them, sometimes thousands ormany thousands of dollars to
help guide them.
And bodybuilders love to be ina position of authority and give
advice and coaching.
And here's how I did it.
Here's well, here's what worksfor me.
I'm a champion, you know, payme and I'll and I'll share that
with you.

(35:22):
And now we're in an era whereyour coach is not just your,
your football coach at schoolanymore, or your basketball
coach, uh, coach.
Or your music instructor, whichyou could call a coach, or your
financial advisor, which youcould call a coach.
Coaching has become universal.
Like you mentioned lifecoaching, you mentioned fitness

(35:43):
coaching, health coaching it iseverywhere now is everywhere now
, and I also will acknowledgewhat you said, that there's a
there's a relationship withbeing a coach and a popular
influencer and a popularitycontest, and that that brings us
back to a little bit of of highschool days, teenage days, but

(36:06):
it doesn't mean that it's nothappening in front of our eyes.
Roger, I can give you examplesthat you're going to appreciate
and I'm not trying to throwanyone under the bus, but let me
tell you some of my experiences, roger, because you asked me.
Yeah, a few years back, forexample, I was at one of the big
fitness expos in the wholeworld 50,000 people or so and

(36:28):
there was eight time Olympiachampion, lee Haney, one of the
greatest bodybuilders who'veever lived, and he had basically
no line to go see him.
But there was like a uh, onlineinfluencer bikini model with 17
million followers and there wasa line for hours to, to to meet

(36:51):
her.
I didn't even know her name andyou know and again, I'm not
anything bad about that aspectof influencer, I'm just talking
about how society perceived them.
Then I was at, then I was atthe Olympia and there were three
of the greatest bodybuilders,male IFBB bodybuilders of all
time, guys like Flex Wheeler andlee priest, and they joined to

(37:12):
form the supplement companyright three bodybuilders who
used to be on all the magazinecovers.
They were the ones that wealways looked up to right there
was like this online influencer,bradley martin.
I think it was millions offollowers and he had a big line
for hours that you could seethese bodybuilders who helped
build the sport of bodybuilding.

(37:33):
These popular made the Olympia,the Superbowl of body, but made
it popular.
You could see they were visiblykind of upset.
No one cared about them becausethey cared about the online and
and and I see this everywhere Igo that there's the online.
Popularity of these influencerssupersedes the accomplishments

(37:56):
of the most successfulbodybuilders in the history of
the world, with the onlyexceptions being maybe like
Arnold Schwarzenegger, who'spopular everywhere he goes
because he's Arnold and he's aHollywood movie star, so he's
really a blend, because he'sArnold and he's a Hollywood
movie star, so he's really ablend.
But here's what I wrote downwhen you were talking.
That makes me think, and youasked me what I think about some

(38:19):
of the coaching and onlineinfluencer presence in the vegan
space and here's what I got outof it.
One there's a lot of egoinvolved.
There's a lot of ego inpersonal, uh reputation.
Um, there's a lot of moneyinvolved in coaching.

(38:39):
You can make a very good living.
I know many people who make sixor seven figure income as a as a
coach, even as a vegan fitnesscoach.
Some people do incredibly well.
There's a self importance ofbeing the coach or having
clients and being someone whoguides someone else along their

(39:01):
journey makes one feel important.
It's also helps boostself-esteem or give affirmation
of positive self-worth.
There's another word I usedearlier popularity People trying

(39:21):
to get the most followers, themost likes, the most shares, the
most traction, the mostaffiliate opportunities.
And there's reputation.
There's reputation like that.
Your name gets out there andyou're someone that people talk
about and think about and tellother people about.
There's also an opportunity towork from home.

(39:42):
We're in this timeframe thatwe're in, where we all used to
go to a job and now you can workfrom your phone or work from
your laptop and make a six orseven figure income as a coach.
Well, growing your popularity,your fame, your reputation,
which gets you free stuff andopportunities to travel and and

(40:02):
go around all over the worldjust because your name and
reputation and your it's kind oflike college sports now, with
your name, image and likeness,it's going to take you far.
And, roger, basically the mainthing is that everybody is a
personal brand these days.
I'm a personal brand, you're apersonal brand.
Every guest I have on this showis a personal brand, whether we

(40:25):
know it or not.
Even stay at home.
Parents are personal brands.
They have the opportunity to.
They share what they're doingon Facebook and on Instagram and
on TikTok and on YouTube andwhatever.
We're all in this industry oftrying to gain other people's
attention and we're also in thisindustry of trying to get other

(40:47):
people's money, and I'm notsaying that in a negative way.
I sell books.
People pay for that.
You have products you sell.
People pay for that.
People have coaching servicesthey offer people pay for that.
But it doesn't change the factthat I think to your point.
I think what you're reallygetting at is that it used to be

(41:07):
a desire to help people wasfirst.
Now the desire is to boostpersonal brand and make money,
and if I can help people alongthe way then that's a good thing
.
And does that kind of summarize?

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yes, yes, correct, yeah, that's a good way to say
it.
Yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
I don't talk about that a lot.
I don't share my thoughts onthat a whole lot.
Who knows, I might get somebacklash for sharing that today,
but but I'm not trying to saythat in a negative way.
I'm saying there's anopportunity now to be a coach,
to be an influencer, to to havea personal brand and to grow
that into something big andchange your life.

(41:46):
And a lot of people are doingit.
And if anything, roger, I wouldhave to admit as one of the
first vegan athletes in theworld, first notable vegan
athletes in the world who builtbodybuildingcom 22 years ago,
who had all these privileges andheadstart and advanced

(42:07):
opportunities, if anything, Iwould have to admit that I'm
jealous or envious that thatdidn't happen for me.
I could have been the go-tocoach.
I created the veganbodybuilding movement.
I could have been the main guy.
Didn't happen for me.
I could have been that personalbrand where everyone wants
Robert Cheek to endorse theirproduct or their event or

(42:30):
whatever, and that didn'tnecessarily happen for me.
On some scale it did.
But I think if I do at timessound a little bit critical of
the direction some of the veganfitness movement is heading,
it's probably because it left mebehind and I feel a little bit

(42:50):
you know if I'm being honest,and so we all have our own
opinions of of where themovement's headed and where it's
been and where it's going andwhat it is right now.
But but I think sometimes Iknow at least for me, it's
because of how I feel inrelation to the movement, like

(43:12):
maybe I thought I deserved moreopportunities than I got, or
something like that.
Or.
I missed the boat and thingspassed me by because I didn't
adapt fast enough.
But I also share some of thesame concerns with you that when

(43:37):
there's ego involved andthere's lots of money involved
and there's personal brandinvolved.
You are going to lose some ofthe authenticity.
It's just part of the deal.

Speaker 2 (43:39):
Yes, that's true, so yeah.

Speaker 1 (43:42):
I think I share some of that, some of those same
feelings that you share.
But let's go.
Let's go back to.
Let's go back to fitness justfor a moment.
Yeah, so you've competed anumber of times, I've actually
been there and you compete onstage.
Are you still competing or doyou plan to?

(44:03):
I know we're both.
We're.
What did you say?
You're 45, I'm 44.
Do you still compete?
Do you plan to compete?
Do you plan to do any coaching?
You're mentoring yourself.
What's your relationship withbodybuilding today, roger?

Speaker 3 (44:21):
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(44:42):
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(45:04):
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Speaker 2 (45:09):
Yeah, uh, so I do have plans to compete again.
So, my life, I did acompetition last year, so I'm
fresh out of, uh, yeah, I'mfresh out of a competition.
I competed last year.
Uh, I competed, uh, my whatfifth?
Fifth time?
Yeah, this is my fifthcompetition and I placed third

(45:31):
and fourth on my category.
So I'm still competing and myplans.
So, usually the way I schedulemy training, my competition is
every other year.
So, in theory, this is mygrowing year and then next year
should be my competition year.
Right, if I do it that way Now,I had that in my mind, that I

(45:56):
would like to compete next year.
However, we'll see how lifegoes because I have so many
other personals and outsideplans of bodybuilding that my
shift that around.
But, yes, I do have plans ofcompeting at some point.
Yeah, not this year, but maybenext year or the next following

(46:17):
year.
I've never gone more than whattwo years maybe in between of
competitions.
I don't know when I will retirewhen it comes down to
bodybuilding.
Um, as, from a competitionstandpoint, because you never
retire from training, that's onething that I want to let clear
right.
Just same like robert, he goesto the gym.
He post pictures going to gym.

(46:37):
You cannot take that away fromus like we'll always.
I'm always going to go to a gym.
Even if I'm going three or fourtimes a week uh, let's say less
I'm still.
I'm still training differenttype of muscle parts.
I'm still training like if Iwas competing.
Even though I'm not competing,I train like if I'm competing
and try to increase my weight,reduce my weight.
My reps try to improve everytime I go to the gym, like I

(47:00):
take it seriously when I go.
I train even though I might betired, I might be exhausted from
the day, but I still take itlike if I'm training for a
competition, even though I'm notcompeting.
That's how serious I am aboutit, because for me it's serious.
Again, it goes down to mypersonality.
If I say I'm going to be aprofessional bodybuilder, I'm
going to take it like aprofessional.
When you train as a bodybuilder, especially from a professional

(47:22):
standpoint, you really have toget serious because you're
competing against some of thebest.
Everybody brings their bestpackage and a professional
standpoint.
You really have to get seriousbecause you're competing against
some of the best right.
Everybody brings their bestpackage and everybody feels like
they need to win or theydeserve to win.
Oh, I don't know why I didn'twin.
We all get mad when we don'twin.
I will tell you a story about myfirst show ever.
Robert was there and I did myfirst show, went on stage and I

(47:46):
think I placed like four in thatshow and I was disappointed.
I was mad.
I was with my head down, I wascrying I don't even cry that
much and I was like sodisappointed.
And this guy right here, robert.
He grabbed me and said Roger,come here, why are you mad?
Like what's wrong with you?
This is your first show ever.
You did well for your firstshow.
I didn't even place in my firstshow.

(48:08):
I remember those words from youand I was like okay.
Robert said it's all good, justjust keep doing what you're
doing.
You're going to get there.
I said okay.
Robert said that I had nothingto worry about.
I looked at my head and wecontinue smiling.
Let's get some food.
So situations like that changeyour life, right?
You don't even know what kindof impact you create on people.

(48:30):
So I don't have no plans toprecisely coaching people, but
what I will want to do, or whatwe'll be doing at some point or
soon or later, will be publicspeaking.
Eventually, I want to come outwith a book or some kind of
project that allows me to talkto folks, talk to people talk to

(48:50):
men, women, whoever kids that Ican be able to share some of my
stories, some of my knowledge,some of the things that I gained
and learned, some of the do'sand don'ts, all these different
tangibles, all the differentthings that I can provide as a
content to folks.
Right, and that will be my way,you guys, of teaching,
spreading the word, spreadingthe message, all related to
veganism, of course.

(49:16):
Right, I always stay focused onthe main goal, right.
So that's one of my goals, sothat's how I'll be able to coach
people is by talking to folks,be on stage and be able to talk
different languages.
What not?
Be able to spread the messagein different parts of the world
and be able to tell people allthe different things about not
only the movement, the waybodybuilding helped me kind of
shape my life, but also the wayI save animals, all the
different things.
So that's what will be my mainultimate goal, robert, from that

(49:40):
perspective.
So, no, I'm not competinganytime soon.
At the end, I want to competeat some point.
It's not, this next year willbe the next, following year.
I'm not fully retired frombodybuilding.
I just recently did a show, so,um, my last show was in october
, so I'm about to turn a yearfrom my last show.
October 27 was the last show Iactually did.

(50:01):
Uh, boat was local show righthere in texas.
Um, I was probably my bestshape ever, like I was top shape
in my opinion from since theday I started to now and I still
placed fourth and I stillplaced third.
Right, so that's howcompetitive.
And the funny is that my firstshow, competitors were telling

(50:23):
me oh, you're going to win.
When you're in the show, robert,and the people that you
competed against you telling youthat you're going to win, my
comfort level was way high.
I was like I was high and noteven taking drugs.
I was like, oh man, I'm goingto win.
I was so excited, I wasconfident on stage because the
guy next to me and the other guyall three or four competitors

(50:43):
were saying, no, you're going towin, you have the best package
and I played third.
I'm like what's going on?
Like how I play third and theguys right next to me think that
I have the best body.
So that's how competitive thissport is, that's how difficult
this sport is.
So and you can take thatinformation and cry about it
right, like Robert said, or youcan lift your head up and

(51:03):
continue working and improvingyourself and do better in the
next show.

Speaker 1 (51:07):
Yeah, exactly, and uh , I appreciate you sharing that
too.
That's interesting.
I, I remember that.
I remember, um, yeah, youcompete and you not being very
happy with how you finished andand I've been everywhere, from
first place to last place.
You know I've been last, Ithink, multiple times.
I've been first multiple times.
I've been second a bunch oftimes.
I've been in the middle there.
There were times where Ithought, just like you reminded

(51:30):
me, I was even saying backstagelike, okay, you're probably
gonna be first, I'll be secondand I ended up in fifth and I
thought I was second.
Are you kidding me?
I was even telling people, man,you got it and people recognize
me backstage Cause like, oh man, vegan bodybuilders here I know
Robert and and naturalbodybuilding competition, and
I'm thinking I'm probably second, I've come in fifth.
So you never know, roger, younever know.

(51:53):
But I do want to hear about yourtraining and nutrition program,
perhaps in a moment.
But also you talked about someof your goals to reach people
through public speaking, throughbooks, and also you've had a
podcast for a while.
Are you still doing the podcast?
I know actually you interviewedme, man, it must've been like

(52:14):
four years ago Like you've beendoing podcasts for a long time,
cause you interviewed me threeor four years ago for your
podcast and I know you've hadsome episodes even in recent
months, or, if I understand it.
So is that still going on andis it the Latino vegano podcast?

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, it's the Latino Vegano.
Yes, absolutely, I still have apodcast.
Yes, thank you, and yes, Iinterviewed you.
You were one of my first guestsand actually I interviewed you
before you even came out withthe book.
It was way before you got thebook out, so we were talking
Mostly a lot of the conversationwas around the book.

(52:49):
It was way before you got thebook out, so we were talking
about mostly a lot of theconversation was around the book
, so it's it's interesting nowthat you know this is like the,
the aftermath of the book, right?
yeah, so yeah so I still havethe podcast.
Um, we're still going strong.
Um, this day, I used I used alot to kind of talk my
experience about a differentbecause I'm on a different

(53:09):
journey right now, right.
So when I'm training, I talk alot to kind of talk my
experience about a different,because I'm on a different
journey right now, right.
So when I'm training, I talk alot about my training.
So I used to kind of like apersonal blog.
Now these days, because a lot ofthe topics related to veganism
it's not like they're updated,but I speak in a lot of I'm
talking about like a lot ofthings.
I mean, it's 20 plus years oflike being a lifestyle, so we

(53:31):
got a lot of a lot of knowledgethere, right.
So I've spoken a lot of thesedifferent topics about veganisms
and from different aspects and,um, nowadays they are using
more as a personal blog kind of.
So I I told my story from fromdifferent, uh, different things
that I'm living in at thatmoment.
So when I'm training, I talkabout my training and what is
that?
What is some of the things thatI'm doing as far as food-wise

(53:51):
and as far as training-wise,which I know.
You talked about those thingsand now I'm mostly talking about
.
I'm in a different path now, soI'm in an entrepreneurship
department, so now I'm speakingabout that a little bit more.
So now you're going to findmore information related to that
.
So, yes, so the podcast isstill going related to that, um.

(54:12):
So, yes, so the podcast stillgoing, and, um, and the podcast
came out because I, I wanted away of having my own platform so
I could share my own personalexperiences as a, as a male, as
a vegan, as a, uh, as a brother,as a future father, as a, as a
friend.
I mean just to kind of share my, my experience, that I, that I,
everything that happens to me,or or everything that I learned

(54:34):
during my journey.
Hopefully, some of thatinformation you can take it, I
mean, and then you can, you know, find something valuable and
don't make the same mistakes orlearn something from it, right.
So like, for example, when I,when I first went vegan, um, I
went to a stage that I was noteating anything and I don't
recommend that to anyone.
I went vegan cold turkey rightwhen I went vegan cold turkey

(54:57):
and I was like I'm not going toeat nothing because everything
touch animal.
That was my radical idea.
You want to put it on thoseterms and I don't advise that.
Because you got to eat.
Your body needs some food, atleast water.
I mean, some people might nottell me that no body, body
doesn't need food, but duringthat time, since I'm feeding

(55:17):
myself, I needed to consumesomething, right?
And um, I wasn't even eating atall and so and I got sick.
So the first thing thathappened was people were blaming
veganism.
So that's one thing that I willnot recommend.
I mean, some people might likethe state-by-state type of
approach, the maybe meatlessMondays, whatever is your
approach, right?

(55:38):
I'm a guy that if I'm going todo it, I'm going to do it right,
so I won't call it talking uponintended, right?
But then I have the rightinformation.
Maybe you're the type of personthat I need a lot of research,
a lot of data before I take anysteps.
Fine, whatever is your approach, but the one I took was okay,
I'm not eating, and then I gotsick, and then I'm like what's

(55:59):
going to happen?

Speaker 1 (56:22):
It's always good to have a platform that I can go
share.
Hey, this is what I did.
This is what I would recommendyou new project I mentioned you
as an entrepreneur numeroustimes and you've got, uh, you've
got your own all vegan icecream truck chilled cocoa right
and you're in Houston, texas.
Tell me, I remember you textedme some time ago.

(56:45):
You texted me, uh, like what myfavorite ice cream flavor was?
That you were like gonna name aproduct after you know, after
me, and you were.
You were starting this newventure in Houston.
And then I see your videos.
I see you online.
You're making waffles and icecream and all kinds of stuff.
So tell me how that started andhow people can find you and

(57:06):
where they can find you, howthey can try your products when
they come to Houston and, like,how did that even begin?
I don't even know the originstory of where that all started.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
I know it's kind of weird, but you'd be surprised.
So your favorite flavor is mint.
Yeah, yeah, mint chocolate,chocolate chip, mint, yeah, okay
, okay.
So I made it, I have it in thestore, I have the rubber chick
special, I have it.
So, anyway, so I'm gonna tellyou how this, this one, well,
one of the way, one of thethings that kind of inspired me,

(57:39):
because there's a couple ofthere's a couple of things that
kind of inspire me to createthis project.
So you remember that year, thatyear that we were in austin
right, that's the year that wewere austin for another natural
federation, uh, competition.
That same year, that the sameyear that we're talking about
that, you came out and and greetme backstage and say, hey, lift
your head up and whatnot, right, that same year, yeah, so you

(58:02):
told me.
You told me, hey, here inaustin, he is one of my favorite
ice cream places.
You remember which one it is?

Speaker 1 (58:11):
Yeah, was it like Sweet Ritual or something Sweet
Ritual.

Speaker 2 (58:16):
There you go, sweet Ritual, uh-huh.
So I went to that place andthat changed my life because I
had never had vegan ice cream atthat point.
Made that way, yeah.
So you're like, oh, let's go toSweet Ritual.
And now they had all thisvariety of flavors.
I was like, oh, wow, this isawesome, this is great.
So seat ritual always came tomind when we were talking about

(58:36):
ice cream.
So let's fall forward now,right?
So, um, I went, my girlfriend,and then she was like, oh, I
want to try some, some vegan icecream.
I said, oh, let's go to myfavorite spot, which you already
introduced me to back in thosedays here in austin.
So we drove to austin.
When I got to austin, wow, Iwas like, oh man, what, what are

(58:57):
we gonna do now?
I'm like, I'm all heredisappointed.
I was all excited because Iwanted to introduce it the same
way you introduced to me.
I was like, oh, yeah, thedifferent thing, especially
because my uh, my girlfriend,wife now, and she she's
transitioning to, well, she wasback during that time
transitioning to kind ofplant-based vegan, right.
So I wanted to like, introduceher to like the vegan ice cream

(59:19):
scene and whatnot See theoriginal clothes.
So I'm like, oh man, that's sad, like what am I going to do now
?
So I started thinking aboutthat could be mine.
So I started.
That was the same year, aroundthe time that I was competing,
and I wanted to get some reallymacro-friendly treats, to be
able to have somethingespecially, maybe something with

(59:40):
some kind of high protein, lowcarb, low fat, whatnot.
So I was trying to find somekind of treat that I can create,
because you get creative whenyou're competing, go really
right, because you're prettymuch eating the same thing over
and over again.
So you want to get creative.
So I was trying to think aboutways that I can think, and one
thing that came to mind was tomake paletas, so popsicles
basically, and I was eating withfruits or whatnot.

(01:00:03):
So I was trying to findsomething, some way that can be
created.
So one thing led me to another.
So, in that research and nothaving sweet ritual, I was like
you know what?
I'm going to create my ownsweet ritual, I'm going to
create my own business and I'mgoing to segue all these
different things that I knowinto this.

(01:00:25):
It's interesting because I'mcoming from a bodybuilding
background per se, right, but Iwas a bodybuilding now and I was
going to be a bodybuilding, butI was never wanting to
necessarily be identified fromRoger the Bodybuilder, because I
never sold myself, I never soldthat brand on me, even though I
like fitness.
So I'm a fitness person, I likesports, I like fitness, so that

(01:00:47):
was mostly what I enjoy.
I'm a fitness person, like Ilike sports, I like fitness, so
that was mostly what I enjoy.
I was not necessarily sayingthat I wanted to be recognized
in the world as just abodybuilder.
You know I'm a vegan first andthen everything else right.
So vegan can be an advocate foranimals, it can be an activist,
it could be a variety of thingsand business always been in my

(01:01:09):
DNA especially.
There's a lot of things in myDNA, especially because, you
know, from an educationalstandpoint, I studied business.
So I was thinking, like man,how here in Houston specifically
, we don't have a spot thatoffers those kind of options for
vegans and the one that I likein Austin, close so, which is,

(01:01:33):
you know, it's two and a halfhours for the people that were
familiar with the distancebetween Houston and Austin and
they got some other places thatsell vegan ice cream and whatnot
, but nothing like that specificplace.
So I actually reached out tothe owners of Sea Ritual and and
they they sold me an e-booklike kind of coaching right,

(01:01:54):
we're talking about coaching,right, they sold me an e-book.
We have a lot of the recipes, alot of things they use, and
that's how I started to gettingsome knowledge and some
information regarding thisspecific field.
But before I even went aheadthat way, I was starting to make
my own recipe here at home withan ice cream and doing all the
different things.
I was starting to make my ownice cream here at home.

(01:02:16):
And then I took a trip toPanama to see my family and I
was working on a differentproject over there.
Right, I had all the differentconcepts, different projects
over there that I was going todo.
Do like a vegan, dave andBuster basically I was gonna
build one over there.
That was my whole goal, withall the basketball shoot and

(01:02:38):
other different games andwhatnot.
And he was gonna sell I beginall the conf.
All the food section was gonnabe all full vegan.
That was gonna be my concept.
But the politics part of it kindof made me, uh, forced me, to
move back here.
Well, not to move back, but toto take the idea and then make

(01:02:58):
the idea here instead of openingthat idea over there.
That doesn't mean thateventually I will go back and do
something else, right?
So I just have to shift the theconcept.
So I came back, I came back toHouston.
So I'm jumping from one toanother, but at the end it's all
going to come together, right.
So I came back to Houston and Itook the idea of the street

(01:03:18):
ritual, I took the idea ofmaking paletas for you know,
from the competition standpoint,and then I took the idea of the
Dave from Boston type ofconcert that I was going to
build in international, and Icombined that and I was like,
okay, I'm going to buildsomething here in Houston, so
that's how it all comes to play.

(01:03:38):
So it was a combination ofdifferent events that kind of
led me to it.
Right, it wasn't like onespecific thing, but you had to
do with that too, because it'sall going down to what we were
talking about in Austin.
So I came down here and I waslike, all right, well, I'm going
to build to here.
So now what I do from thatpoint on, what's next?
It's always what's next, and Istarted brainstorming ideas I

(01:04:00):
was going to get a littleestablishment and rent is high
and all these different things.
So I started working in thelogistic.
I have a background in what wecall business analysis and
project management, so I'mpretty good at managing projects
.
I'm pretty good at looking forimproving processes.
Something needs to be improved.
How can I improve that?

(01:04:22):
Either by utilizing technologyor utilizing a better way of
doing things basically right, soI'm very good at that.
So I started using some ofthose skills that I had
developed.
I'm just not just muscle guys.
So I started utilizing some ofthose skill sets so I can create
this whole concept.

(01:04:43):
And, long story short, I did allthat, put it together, wrote it
down, drew the plan and boom,we built the first ice cream,
the first vegan ice cream truckor food truck here in Houston.
First of all, it's the firstvegan, all-vegan ice cream here
in Houston in general, becausethere's a lot of places that

(01:05:06):
sell vegan ice cream but theydon't have one that's 100%,
everything, 100%, including theowner 100%, 100% vegan.
We built it and we're proudthat we put it together.
And then, you know, I haveauctions, like sugar-free
auctions.
We got gluten-free auctions,and then you know, we have about

(01:05:29):
30 flavors.
Now I even have a proteinflavor ice cream.
So I mean, yeah, the sky's thelimit, right?
So I'm able to be creative andcreate all the different things.
I always like being in thekitchen doing different things,
but just being the fact that Ican be able to be creative with
something that I enjoy is beinggreat.
We use coconut milk as our baseor we use oatmeal as our base,

(01:05:52):
and then we create amazing icecream for people, and people
have been enjoying it so much soand I'm so, so happy and
grateful that I'm able to giveback in some way.
So how?
Because when people come andsay, well, we didn't have
anything here, like I'm so gladthat we are here.
But then it comes down to theaspect that business owners, we
love creating things, we loveputting out, robert likes

(01:06:15):
writing books and givinginformation, but we all need
your support, because if wewon't get you guys support and
we cannot be able to continuecreating more things to benefit
people.
And then, when it comes to abusiness, we all know that they
say that usually businesses aredifficult in the first six
months, first six months of theyear, first year.

(01:06:36):
So I'm happy that I'm able tocreate for you guys and then for
having people come back andrecurring customers and
supporting our business, and Iwant to encourage people to
continue supporting us.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
And then we'll talk about a a little giveaway that
we have uh later.
Yeah well, congratulations onthat, roger.
How long has your ice creamtruck been open now?

Speaker 2 (01:07:01):
it's been six months.
We started in february.
Okay, we started in februarythis year, so yeah, and um, we
started in February this year.
So, yeah, we started in the samelocation that we've always been
.
It's crazy to have an ice creambusiness on a food truck
because logistically it's verydifficult so there's a lot of

(01:07:24):
logistics behind it just becauseyou've got to have a cold item
24-7.
And we actually make theproduct from scratch inside the
trailer, like inside the truck,like it's.
This is not.
We're not outsourcing it fornobody.
We make it from scratch.
I make, I mix all theingredients, mix everything, the
milk, everything that needs tobe done vegan milk, of course.

(01:07:45):
Right, we miss all theingredients.
And then we have the machine,you know professional machine
that we use to churn the icecream and do all that.

Speaker 1 (01:07:52):
So, yes, everything is done in-house well, I've got
an idea for you.
I just wrote it down.
You mentioned you've got aprotein option.
Maybe you could come up with aplant-powered athlete ice cream
flavor.
We're using the athlete protein, um, and we could, like I don't
know, put a spin on it.
Could, like I don't know, put aspin on it Like that I don't

(01:08:14):
know, like it has some sort ofnickname or it's like it's it's
endorsed or promoted by plantpowered athlete Cause it's got
the protein in it.
We could do like a.
I'm just I'm just making it upon the spot.
I'm thinking that if I, if Ishared that idea with the owner
of the company, I think they'dbe excited to have their name as

(01:08:34):
an ice cream flavor at the shopin Houston and telling our
customers to go there to checkit out and try it and post
photos online.
Maybe there's a collaboration.
So, uh, we could follow upoffline, um, about that, and so
does your.
Does your truck?
Uh, do you do travel to eventsas well, or is it the same like

(01:08:58):
stationary location?
Um, that's like listed on yourinstagram page?
I saw you've got an addressthere and open, I think, four to
ten every day.
So, no, you got work coming up.
We're coming up soon and it'scalled chilled cocoa right,
right, right.

Speaker 2 (01:09:13):
So I do.
I do go to events.
As a matter of fact, this thismonth well, by the time this
comes out it already passed, buton the 20th of this month we'll
be doing a vegan vibes event.
So it's it's going to be a bigfestival here in Houston where
we're going to have a bunch ofvegan vendors.

(01:09:34):
They're anticipating about3,000 people and the event.
So that's going to be a goodturnaround.
Well, I'm just excited.
It won't be my first year, butI do.
I do go to events.
Sometimes I I'm very selectivewith the events I go just
because of, like I said, thelogistics of traveling with
freezers and all these differentthings to an event for a long

(01:09:58):
period of time is not as easy asit sounds.
But we do love going to events.
I had an event on the localuniversity here Actually I can
say at the Rice University herein Houston, which went during
the days of Earth Day.
So the group of students fromRice, they hired the truck

(01:10:21):
itself and then we serve icecream to all the different
students.
I do an employee appreciationday as well, so companies hire
us just to give ice cream totheir employees, and I did a
festival for Fort Uli as well,too, and that was great during
the summer.
So, yes, we do events every nowand then we do those, but for

(01:10:46):
the most part, we are located in1001 West Timer Road, monsters
and West Timer.
For people that are familiarwith the Houston area, that's
very close to downtown Houston,and the beautiful part of where
I'm located, guys, is that ifyou come prepare, if you come to
visit us, when you guys come tovisit us let's put it that way

(01:11:08):
come ready to eat, because Ihave.
This is one of the few places inHouston that you can find vegan
food and vegan dessert.
In the same location, in thesame spot, you have two vegan
food trucks two, not one, twovegan food trucks plus mine,
which is a vegan dessert.
So you got three veganbusinesses in one location.

(01:11:30):
You can have your burgers andyour fries and your nachos, and
then you can have Mexican veganas well, which is super
delicious as well, and then youcan come have some ice cream or
your milkshake or your float orwhatever other good you want to
take with you.
So it's a beautiful time.

(01:11:50):
Would you ever imagine that,robert, having so many vegan
businesses in one location, andthen we're trying to build a
vegan corner, like have morevegan businesses and kind of
push all the other guys away.
But do you ever thought aboutlike this, like we get into a
point that vegans is not on theground play but moving anymore?

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
yeah, I think that's awesome.
I just wrote down visit rogerin houston uh, so here's what
I'm gonna do?
um, I gotta talk to my wife,karen, of course, but what I
want to do is I want to come out, I want to visit, I want to
document it.
I want to come out, I want tovisit, I want to document it.
I want to take photos andvideos.
Um, uh, especially, we get somesort of plant powered athlete

(01:12:32):
protein mixed in somehow as well.
Um, I'd love to come down there, give it a visit.
Uh, see you.
It's been a while since I'veseen you.
Um, it's been in person.
It's been a little while now.
So I'd love to come out for avisit, check it out.
Try try the, the chocolate chipmint that's named after me.
Drop off some bags of plantpowered protein for you and do

(01:12:55):
some promotion there, in caseyou end up wanting to use that
or incorporating it in and doingthose things that you and I
both talked about, like theinfluencer stuff, and and, and
get content, because I thinkthat sounds like a lot of fun,
and the fact that I can eat allall these other restaurants,
vegan restaurants from the othervegan food trucks in the same

(01:13:17):
area and I can have my, mydessert and eat it too.
I can have my, my dinner, mydessert and all vegan to eat it
too.
It too, I can have my dinner,my dessert and all vegan and eat
it too.
And Houston is one of thecities I really wanted to go to
to sign books and bookstores andI never made it.
I made it to Dallas, austin, Ibelieve.
Maybe did I make it to Austin,I'm not sure but I know there's

(01:13:40):
some great bookstores out inHouston and I can go out and
sign books, and I love going tohalf price books too, which is a
Texas based company.
I love their used bookstores.
They do sell some new books aswell, but I always go there and
sign all kinds of books for themand and distribute them, so
people get a chance to buy mybooks at a discounted price
about half price compared towhat they get in other stores or

(01:14:02):
online and I love doing that.
So I'm going to put Houston onmy travel schedule.
I do have a pretty busy travelschedule right now Lots of vegan
festivals to go to.
So I don't know exactly.
It might not be until thespring, although I know you have
some pretty nice weather duringthe winter.
So we'll have to see.
I'll have to talk to my wifeand see what we can arrange, but

(01:14:25):
I've got the air miles,especially with Southwest
Airlines, so it's not that bigof a deal for me to come out and
I would love to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:35):
Yeah, sure, anytime, robert and you guys are more
than welcome to stay with us.
You guys will love it here, soit will be a pleasure to have
you guys here.
So don't worry about lodging soyou can stay with us here.
So that's perfect.

Speaker 1 (01:14:49):
That makes it even easier because it's that's a bit
of an obstacle is trying to.
You know, flights I got airmiles for, but lodging is always
a big expense and all thatworry about that.
Well, I appreciate that, roger,thank you, thank you, um.
I wanted to ask you actually alittle bit more about Houston,
about, like, what your favoriterestaurant is, what the vegan
scene like, because you're thethird or fourth largest city in

(01:15:12):
America.
You're basically Chicago,you're right behind New York and
LA.
Houston and Chicago arebasically tied these days as the
third largest city in America.
So I know we're probablyprobably another 10 or 15
minutes as we wrap up today tocover anything else you want to

(01:15:32):
cover.
But just briefly, like, what'sthe vegan scene like in Houston,
texas, one of the biggestcities in America?

Speaker 2 (01:15:40):
Yeah, so it's a great question, because for many
years, austin has always been avegan mecca and it still is.
There's no doubt there still is.
When you think about vegan inTexas, you think about Austin,
right?
You never think about Houstonor Dallas or even San Antonio,
right?
You never think about any ofthose cities, right?

(01:16:01):
However, the vegan movement hasreally gotten better and bigger
here in Texas, right, no punintended.
Right, it's gonna be gettingbetter.
So, um, we, we have definitelymore, more auctions down way
before 20 years when I came here.

(01:16:21):
Now, the the downsides is thatHouston is so big that you do
have to travel to go to places,which is one of the biggest
drawbacks of the bigger movement, because, like, for example, if
I'm in downtown area but I livewest, so that's like a half an
hour drive for me to go from oneplace to another.
So people usually that live in,let's say, west, north or South

(01:16:42):
, they're usually going to stayon their area.
So you're going to be limitedto the locations.
You're going to be limited tothe restaurants, depending on if
you live on the suburbs or onthe outskirts of Houston.
Now, if you move into thecity-wise, then you have a
plethora of options.
Right, I like some of theplaces that I like.
I'm going to give a shout outto my buddies that actually had

(01:17:03):
the trucks where we're at.
So Houston, atlanta Vegan isactually a really good comfort
vegan food.
I recommend it.
Vigo's is Mexican vegan foodVery clean, very fresh food,
really great flavor.
He makes tacos with jackfruitso yeah, so this is a different

(01:17:27):
level, really good food as well.
So that's two of my favoriteplaces.
Then we got places like theygot a soul food vegan place, mug
Better Brew, which is, youshould say, like vegan soul food
, and there's a soul food veganplace too.
There's a place that isinteresting because there's a
place in Houston that kind ofsells kind of raw food.

(01:17:47):
That's that's very interestingraw vegan food.
It's called Green Sea and it'sbeen out for so many years.
I mean, it's not located in thebest area but it's um, it's a
really good, clean, uh, raw-ishtype.
You know have a lot of optionscalled Green Sea.
They don't do a lot ofadvertisements so it's like a
really mom and pop, stop a shop,but it's a really good uh food.

(01:18:10):
Now is you're looking for aplace with a good ambient which
will definitely go there.
It's called ginger meal.
Ginger meal have a a nice story.
It was owned by a by a chef,local chef.
Um, she used to have a truck, afood truck called Sweet Tomato,
and then her business became sopopular that she opened a
storefront, and then even morepopular then.

(01:18:32):
Then she sold her business,retired and she's not even like
40, brother, and she retired.
She's like, oh, okay, good,they gave me a really good offer
and she sold the business andnow it's called Ginger Mule.
The food is pretty good as welland it's interesting because
since now I have the trailer, Ihave the truck, a lot of my

(01:18:53):
customers, they go to the sameplaces.
So every time I go to a placehey, this is the ice cream guy
they already know me because wedon't have a lot, but the ones
that we have, we have somepretty good places and, like I
said, they're all in the samemetro area of Houston.
So I mentioned those gingermules, I mentioned that one as
well, and there's a place calledPitagoras.
It's a little bit farther outof Houston.

(01:19:14):
Their menu is crazy.
They make like Greek food andthey make all kind of food.
They make seitan, make it lookand taste like ribs and they
make all kind of stuff.
It's a really good place aswell.
And Cascavel is another Mexicanrestaurant which really have a
nice menu.
So, yeah, I mentioned like atleast 10 restaurants are really

(01:19:37):
great food.
Just thinking about it, it'slike awesome just to go there.
But it's a variety of food andalso it depends on what you're
looking for.
If you're like looking for likea nice ambient or you're just
looking for like actual food,food, food, then, um, it don't
matter like where you situated.
I give you, uh, those differentoptions, but those are some of
the ones that comes to mind, uh,and I'm sorry if I'm missing

(01:20:00):
some of the some other ones, butthis is the ones that come to
mind, like the most popular ones, like the most the most famous
one I'm gonna ask you about it'shonestly been I don't even know
, roger yeah, at least 10 yearssince I've been to houston.

Speaker 1 (01:20:16):
Okay, I mean, I travel a lot but, for whatever
reason, I mostly go where thevegan festivals are, where I get
invited to go, and I justhaven't been to houston a long
time.
And I was in Dallas last yearand the year before.
Actually, this year I was inDallas.
That's where my publisher isbased.
My book publisher, ben Bella,is based in Dallas, but I have
not even been to Austin since wewere at the Naturally Fit.

(01:20:40):
I think Really, yeah, I thinkso.
I mean, maybe I've gone someyears after that one that that
you were in, but it's been yearssince I've even been to Austin,
haven't even.
I don't even know what thedowntown looks like anymore, and
I used to live there 12 yearsago so barbecue revolution close
, robert.

Speaker 2 (01:20:59):
Oh okay, yeah, but Arlo's still open.
Okay, yeah, it's been a longtime, but but I remember a
couple things about Houston.

Speaker 1 (01:21:08):
There used to be a Loving Hut there.
Is there still a Loving Hut?

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
Yes, they're still there.
They're like the grandfathers.

Speaker 1 (01:21:15):
Yeah, I love Loving Hut.
They're just.
They're open.
And does Chef Kenny still havea place there?

Speaker 2 (01:21:21):
No, he left.
We miss him.
We love, we love, love JeffKenny.
We love Jeff Kenny man.
But it was tough for himbecause he was not located in a
very good area of town so therewas not a lot of, there was not
a lot of traffic for him to tosustain that business.
His menu was very extensive buthis food was amazing amazing.

Speaker 1 (01:21:41):
I know him from Las Vegas.
I see him almost every time Igo to las vegas.
He's got two locations thereand he told me he was opening
one in houston and I.
That was a couple years ago andI remember that it opened, but
I wasn't sure if it was stillgoing, so so no more stuff he
recently closed, recently, uh,sometime this year.
Yeah, yeah, summertime he closed, so yeah, yeah okay, well, yeah

(01:22:05):
, I look forward to uhdiscovering some of the places
when I make it back to houstonand I will, I really will talk
to karen and we'll make it.
We'll make a plan to visit uhsometime in the near future
because it would be great to uhto catch up again.
Um, absolutely so, roger, Iknow you, you mentioned some
sort of a book giveaway orsomething like that.

(01:22:27):
We'll talk about in a moment,because I think we'll just kind
of wrap up here, so maybe we'llfinish with whatever thoughts
you have, because I know youbought a bunch of copies of my
book, which I'm very gratefulfor.
You bought a whole bunch ofcopies of the Impactful Vegan.
I have no idea what you have inmind.
So we'll cover that'll, we'll.
We'll cover that at the end, um, cause I know you mentioned

(01:22:48):
something about highlighting thebook today, uh, but I want to
ask you maybe almost like, um,like rapid fire, maybe like like
really a bunch of questionswith really short answer, just
to get a bunch of questions, um,at the end here, how would you?
So we'll just go right one tothe next.
So, how would you describe yourcurrent nutrition program?

(01:23:13):
Like, what do you eat today?

Speaker 2 (01:23:16):
Basic, oh, basic, basic.
So I stay basic rice, beans,lentils, a lot of greens, nuts
and seeds, just just that's it.
That's my.

Speaker 1 (01:23:29):
I don't, I don't keep difficult, it's just basic yeah
, that's how I keep it, and youeat from the restaurants that
are that are next to you I do,but not not every time, not
every day.

Speaker 2 (01:23:40):
I maybe do once every what, two, three months, like
yeah, it's not every time.
Um, because they're amazing,don't get me wrong, but yeah, I
can't just eat like that everyday.
I don't even.
I don't even eat my ice creamevery day, like I had it the
first time that.
I just made sure that myrecipes were right yeah, and
then that's it.
Like I already know the formula,so I don't have to eat it every

(01:24:00):
day because now I'm gonna getfat.
Like, let's be honest, behonest Speaking of that what is
your current exercise routine?

Speaker 1 (01:24:08):
look like as you're in between competitions.
What do you?
Are you five days a week?
Are you six days a week?
Are you three days a week?
And free weights?
Like briefly, what's yourexercise routine?

Speaker 2 (01:24:19):
Yeah, great, great.
So I'm training three days,between three to four days a
week.
If I can do four days a week,great, but at least I get
minimum of three days and it'sjust a split routine.
A lot of supersets.
I'm not doing super heavy.
I'm not doing super heavy thesedays.
So I'm maintaining my weightpretty much.

(01:24:40):
I'm about what?
215, 6'2", 215.
That's where I roughly stay.
I think.
Maybe every now and then I go220, but I stay around that same
weight.
I should literally be 200pounds.
So I'm a little bit over mysize for my goal for this summer
, I mean for my off-season, butI'm okay with it.

(01:25:00):
So I train three days a week,or four days a week, depending
on the week, and then the fourthday is cardio, or cardio and
core, and if I can do more thanthat, uh, and that would be
great.
So, and during the week, mythree days, uh, I got one day I
work legs and then the rest issplit routine right back,
shoulders, uh, biceps and and,uh and chest, okay, so, yeah, so

(01:25:26):
I'll break it down the wayroger, how do you see the future
of the vegan movement?

Speaker 1 (01:25:33):
I know that's that's a hard dance that one briefly,
so take an extra minute if youneed.
But where do you see?
I mean, it's been a wild year,yeah, wild couple years in
veganism good and bad,restaurants closing, artificial
intelligence, lots of moneygoing into certain industries,
growth and lots of progress,companies moving away from fur

(01:26:05):
and leather and other types ofdiets where they actually were
vegan before, but they'releaving veganism behind.
When you reflect on the futureof veganism, what do you see?

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
I see what's going to happen is that more and more
people even though we're gettingmore people going vegan, we're
going to get more people thatare going to be like what they
call flexitarian People, thatare going to be flip-flopping or
eating here, eating there.
So they're going to reducetheir animal consumption, right,
and they will double withveganism and then they'll go

(01:26:41):
back here and there.
So I see that, I see thattrending and I might have a
different opinion about it, butsince you're asking me, I'm not
going to go into that episode.
But since you're asking mewhere I see the future, I think
there's going to be more peopledoing that way.
They might be like oh, I'mvegan on Wednesday.
Don't call yourself vegan, I'mvegan, you know X amount of time
and then I'll go back to I needa reboot.

(01:27:08):
So I'm going to see an increaseof that right.
Yes, it's less animalconsumption, but at the same
time, you know, people might say, well, it could be more, but at
the same time, I'm going toalso see another increase of
more people since theinformation is still available
turning more into vegan.
Now, the advantage of havingmore people that are flex flex
for flexitarian, for example isthat you can potentially get a
percentage of those people thatcan turn vegan eventually

(01:27:29):
because it starts finding moreinformation.
But the other downside is likethey can stay there for the long
period of time and never crossover to the other side.
So you're going to see thosetwo things right.
So I see the future going morepeople going flexible with their
diet right, going more peoplegoing flexible with their diet
right, but then going to.
Also, we're going to see asmall percentage of people

(01:27:49):
increasing into the veganlifestyle because, um, they're
going to see it from influenceartists and it's something that
you and I talked about before umartists and they're going to
see it from athletes and allthese different aspects.
So they're going to be look atthose images because now we are
moving into um, if he's doing itor she's doing it, he's a
famous person.
That might be a good thing.
Oh, I'm, I'm gonna do it.

(01:28:10):
So they follow all theseinfluences right since long time
we talk about.
So the more that, the more thatkeep increasing, then the more
people will gravitate that tothat to them, and they're going
to try to go in that way.
So I'm going to, I'm going tosee a actual.
It could be a parallel, or Icould see a slightly edge on the
flexible people, and then rightright next to it, right, right

(01:28:31):
above it, we'll see, uh, morepeople coming to begin it.
So that will be that's how Isee the future.

Speaker 1 (01:28:37):
Yeah, it's gonna be really sense yeah, it's gonna be
interesting to see what thatlooks like in the next few years
.
It's hard, it is hard topredict and there's so much
changing with with foodtechnology, innovation, where we
might be able to get rid ofindustrialized factory farms and
use cultivated precisionfermentation and and artificial

(01:28:57):
intelligence and all these newthings that make it change
really, really fast and it makesit hard to predict?

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
yeah, but the thing, the one thing, robert is like
we're making all those changesin technology, because I've been
watching a documentary ofMicrosoft, bill Gates, talking
about all these things that he'shelping out to change, like the
weather, and all thesedifferent things that he's
creating, all this technology,all the companies that he's
supporting.
But my question has always beenlike we can have all this
technology to make changes indifferent aspects, in the

(01:29:29):
environment, in food, but thepeople that work in those
companies, what is theirlifestyle?
What is their diet?
What are they eating?
So it's like the changes, bigchanges are great and innovative
and we need those.
We need big corporations behindall this.
But the small changes can startfrom people.
And then the small changescould be like okay, well, I

(01:29:51):
change, I change the way I eat,I change the way I dress, I
change the way I see life.
Small changes make big impact.
So you have all these, allthese companies doing all these
things.
But the employees, for exampleand I'm not blaming them, what
I'm saying is like those people.
It's like I always use exampleof like I used to work for, uh,
I used to be, uh, when bp had abig issue with the oil spill.

(01:30:13):
Then there was um, they didspill up ultra oil right here in
louisiana, yeah, um, there was,uh, there was a couple of
companies I used to work for,for that, for a team that was
helping during that recoverytime.
And there was a couple ofcompanies I used to work for for
that, for a team that washelping during that recovery
time.
And there was a team that wereprotesting because there was a
lot of wildlife and animals inthe sea that were dying because

(01:30:38):
of all this spill.
Right, but all the employeesthat work in that company, they
were asking for chicken and theywere eating barbecue.
I'm like, wait a minute, youguys are a bunch of hypocrites,
right?
Excuse my language, becauseit's like you're here fighting
this big corporation and I'm notjustifying the corporation
decision and the corporationchoices, but you're here blaming
this corporation for this.
But here you are.

(01:30:59):
There was a team of like 15people.
In that team, Only one guy waseating like vegetarian and I was
vegan back then when thathappened.
So there's no excuses.
So all these people were eatingfish, the same fish that they
were complaining that they werekilling.
They were eating it anyway.
So for me it doesn't make nosense, it's like you go with one
hand and protest about onething, but then, on the other

(01:31:21):
hand, you're doing the opposite,so it's not productive.
So that's why I always I alwaystell people like, if you're
going to protest about something, it's like if I'm going to talk
about vegan, I have to stand byit.
I can't be saying that I'mvegan and then doing some some
other thing behind the scenes.
So that's that to me, that wasthe ethical part is not there

(01:32:08):
no-transcript.

Speaker 1 (01:32:15):
Compassion, accountability, responsibility
for our fellow beings.
We make some forward progress,which affects supply and demand
and all these things that Iwrote about in my book and you
also reminded me of, like theoil spill while they're eating
animals, while they're trying tosave them, or people trying to
save straw you know, not use astraw to save the fish while

(01:32:35):
they're still eating fish.
Or what I wrote down was peoplewho are serving chickens at,
like, a dog adoption event.
You know that you see a lot ofhumane societies.
They're there to support catsand dogs, but they're serving up
chickens and pigs and cows onmenus for for fundraisers.
You're right, there's hypocrisythere.
It doesn't make any sense.
We there's this juxtapositionthere of our value system and

(01:32:58):
our actions, and I think it's.
I think it's okay to callattention to that because I
think a lot of people aren'taware of that.
I just I see it every day.
I mean, look what's happeningright now, like as we speak, as
you and I are talking, when thisis being recorded, there's a
hurricane hammering.
You know the state of Florida,and there's a lot of climate

(01:33:20):
related decisions we make withfood, with animal agriculture,
and there's a lot of peopleupset about the damage from the
hurricane and damage from otherweather-related issues or
climate-related issues.
Yet industrialized animalagriculture is one of the
biggest contributors to adverseimplications for the climate.

(01:33:41):
And yet people are unwilling tochange their diet because they
want their $5 bucket of chickenand they want their three dollar
burger and they want their fivedollar large pizza, because
that's what what they'reconditioned to to crave.
But that's, you know, that'sfor another, uh, another
conversation.
Just final couple questionshere.
Roger, yep, what does being aplant-powered athlete mean to

(01:34:04):
you?

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
man.
It means everything because, uh, I have a passion for sport,
but for the most part, I have apassion to help people, educate
people, and if I use myexperience, my knowledge, my um,
my my own body to kind of helpothers and see the benefit of
going plant-based, going vegan,why not?

(01:34:27):
So this is nothing to do withrace, nothing to do with social
status.
This is nothing to do with.
It's just basically beingeducated, learn, and there's no
excuses.
So for me, being a plant-basedmeans the world to me.
I love fitness, like I mentioned, I've always done it, and I
always say that animals save me.

(01:34:49):
I didn't save the animal when Iwent vegan.
I always say that as well.
And then, being an athlete, itmeans that I can be able to use
my own strength to make theworld make a difference.
I'm in my trailer sometime onmy truck and people say, like
man, I can't believe you'revegan.
They still ask me, they'restill saying those things, right

(01:35:10):
, because they look at myphysique, right, and I?
That was not even my intention.
My intention was just to provethat you can do it.
Everything else from there hasbeen great.
So for me, robert, I mean itmeans everything.
It means everything from thefact that I got inspired from
guys like you and some of thebrothers and sisters that have

(01:35:31):
been doing it for a long timeand they're still doing it and I
just wanted to continue thatsame momentum.
And we had a great run and wecontinue doing work in some
different way, but for me, theaspect of me training and doing
exercise completely changed mylife because I could have been

(01:35:51):
so sedentary and didn't doanything.
But now I found something thatI'm passionate.
Yeah, you look good.
It benefits you, but at the endof the day, we're giving a
bigger message.
It's bigger than just workingout and having muscle.
It's bigger than that.

Speaker 1 (01:36:06):
Yeah, yeah, Well said , Roger.
Really just the last questionfor you, something for you to
think about here, which is kindof a fun question to end on.
Roger, if there was a moviemade about your life, what actor
would play you?

Speaker 2 (01:36:29):
What actor would play me?
Yeah, a movie about your life.
What actor would play you?
What actor would play me?
Yeah, a movie about your life.
Movie about my life.
I would want this to watch itto play me, because I think he's
so versatile like he could playany any anyone like if you had
to play.
He had to play.
Uh, I'm I, actually I could.
I could say that he couldprobably be like my uncle or
something like that.
Right, I wouldn't say we reallyhave a resemblance, but you

(01:36:50):
know, we can come along sayingthat, yeah, it will be him.
I would like him to play me ifit was a movie, because I think
he can definitely showcase allthe different stages of my life
really well.
He can articulate those reallywell, he can make you have
different type of emotions, fromcrying to laughing.

(01:37:13):
He can move a little bit, hehas a little bit of action, he
can get greedy with it if heneeds to.
So he's such a versatile personand in that case that
simplifies me a little bit.
As you can say, we have talkedfrom my, from my beginnings.
You know my life has not alwaysbeen one thing right, even
though I'm being in the sameplace for 20 plus years, I did
travel a lot, I did a lot ofthings.

(01:37:34):
So that simplifies my life, howI was constant, moving constant
, changing constant, improvingconstant, seeing different
things, different angles of life.
So definitely here that that'sawesome and really.

Speaker 1 (01:37:47):
The last thing is where where people can find you
online, roger.
And then, if you wanted tomention anything about book, you
know some sort of a book offeror giveaway or something, so
yeah, so where can we find youonline?
You've got your podcast, you'vegot social media.
You've got your chilled cocoayou're.
You're out there.
Where can we find you online?
You've got your podcast, you'vegot social media.
You've got your chilled cocoa,you're out there.

(01:38:07):
Where can we find Roger Smith?

Speaker 2 (01:38:11):
Yeah, so you can find me online.
I'm in all the socials,especially on Instagram.
I'm more heavy on Instagram.
You can find me at Roger ASmith.
You can find me there, andthere I have the links to all my
different projects.
You can find my podcast isLatin Vegan, or Latino Vegano in

(01:38:31):
Spanish, and Latin Vegan is inall the podcast platform, and I
also have a YouTube channel thatis linked to that same, so I
post a lot of the videos.
Well, I post all the videosfrom the podcast I posted there
as well, so you can find it.
I post all the videos from thepodcast I posted there as well,
so you can find it.
And at the same time, you canfind our ice cream, chillcoco.

(01:38:54):
That's our Instagram, and thenwe also have X for the chill
cocoa.
And, yeah, if you're ever inthe Houston area or you want to
stop by, stop by and visit usJust to say hi.
We love talking to people.
I talk to people every day, uh,which is a beautiful thing.
And then I appreciate Robertfor having me in this project.
I love it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:15):
Yeah, well, thanks so much.

Speaker 2 (01:39:17):
Yeah, sorry.
The last thing is uh, um, justto finalize, so I have about, I
have about.
I have several copies of Robert, which he personally signed
them, and I want to go givethose away.
So I'm going to do a giveawayin the shop for people that
purchase this amount, let's say$25.

(01:39:39):
If you spend $25, youautomatically get a ticket.
We can put it on a draw andI'll have Robert pull up a
number and read that number tothe winner.
So you have to keep your copyof your ticket.
I don't know if I'm just goingto send a box to him, mail it to
him, or we'll figure it out orsomething else, or maybe when he
comes here we'll do that.
And then the other one is ifyou purchase, let's say, $60 or

(01:40:03):
more, you automatically get acopy of the book with a bundle
of a bunch of other good stuff.
You're going to have t-shirtsfrom the company, you're going
to have a bunch of supplementsand a bunch of stuff that we
throw in there.
So that's going to be a reallybig barrier.
So we're going to start thatsoon and yeah, so stay tuned.

Speaker 1 (01:40:21):
Well, roger, I really appreciate that.
That's awesome no-transcriptout there who's trying to make a

(01:40:58):
difference in reducing animalsuffering.
So so I want to go ahead.

Speaker 2 (01:41:04):
Yeah, sorry.
One more thing that I wanted tosay.
One of the things that I liketo to point out is that when I
decided to open this business, Iwanted to take all the aspect
of my lifestyle into it, soyou're going to see a piece of
it.
What I mean with it is, like,all the utensils that I use are

(01:41:25):
eco-friendly utensils, from theplates to the cups.
I use high-grade water, qualitywater, so everything is
recyclable.
I use craft paper, everythingis vegan, plant-based, mainly
plant-based material.
For me, it's not just a.
Yes, I know it will cost memore, but I don't care, because
for me, I live vegan.

(01:41:45):
Right, vegan is not just mewanting to profit from people.
Yes, definitely, I have aproduct, we have a service, we
offer something and we get moneyin return.
But at the same time, there's amessage that I want to send
across to people, right, andthen for me, it just doesn't
start just with the item thatI'm making.
We also start with everythingthat we use.
So everything that I can usevegan and just out there I

(01:42:07):
utilize it.
The cups that I use are craft,plant-based material.
The spoons that I use are madeout of wood, so everything is
like catered to that.
So I just wanted to make surethat people know that, that our
mission is bigger than that.
Sorry about that, I just wantedto clear that.

Speaker 1 (01:42:22):
I appreciate you sharing those details, roger.
That's awesome and I'm reallygrateful that you take all of
those things into considerationand that that's important to you
and it's important to ourplanet and and for animals.
So thank you for taking thatstep.
And also, roger, just on apersonal note, I want to thank
you for spending time with metoday on the plant powered
athlete podcast.
I want to thank you for I meannaming a flavor ice cream after

(01:42:44):
me and reaching out to me whenyou were starting your business,
and for buying a whole bunch ofcopies of my book that are
signed and in your truck rightnow that you're offering to
other people, and for supportingmy work and for agreeing to be
on this podcast as soon as Iasked you, and so I want to
thank you for everything you'vedone for decades to help animals
, and I want to thank you forbeing for everything you've done

(01:43:04):
for decades to help animals,and I want to thank you for
being an impactful vegan.
So, uh, so this has been theplant powered athlete podcast.
I've been Robert cheek.
This has been Roger Smith.
Uh, we're so grateful.
Uh, please check out the nextepisode of plant powered athlete
podcast coming soon, and I wishyou all a wonderful week ahead.
So, roger, thank you again, andeveryone, have an amazing rest

(01:43:27):
of your week.
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:43:28):
Thank you, bye guys.

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