John Cerasani: 2000% Raise Double or Nothing

Intro Track:  
Green Thumb - Murfee
https://open.spotify.com/track/5iBOPNbvuETK411hQigh07?si=2d38b5bc1e13422d

Join us as we kick off the new era "Life to the Max" for an electrifying conversation with Instagram star and casino aficionado John Cerasani. Ever wondered how a high-stakes gambler balances the thrill of the casino with motivational content that resonates with millions? You’ll hear all about John’s social media interactions with celebrities like Jimmy Kimmel and Micheal Jordan painting a vivid picture of the shifting landscape of modern fame. We’ll also explore how younger audiences are redefining entertainment by choosing platforms like YouTube over traditional TV, making this episode a must-listen for anyone intrigued by the evolving nature of celebrity influence.

In a heart-wrenching yet inspiring segment, we recount the journey of a promising football player whose career was tragically cut short due to nerve pain. Get an intimate glimpse into his life at Notre Dame, the grueling practice routines that contributed to his injury, and the emotional toll it took on him. This discussion goes beyond the individual story to highlight the broader implications of spinal cord injuries, underscoring the importance of early detection and the resilience required to overcome life-altering challenges. Personal stories of overcoming adversity further enrich this episode, drawing powerful parallels to the struggles faced by those with severe injuries or illnesses. 

Finally, we explore the life-changing power of social media in both personal and professional realms. Learn from John's journey of building a successful company from scratch, leveraging social media strategies to achieve a half-million followers on Instagram, and maintaining authenticity amidst the chaos of fame. We’ll share thrilling tales of celebrity encounters, the complexities of trust in relationships, and the significance of staying true to one’s purpose. Plus, don't miss the sneak peek of the upcoming YouTube series "Bombshell Blackjack," promising a unique blend of gambling fun and engaging company. Join us as we remind you to live life to the fullest, no matter the odds.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
I, we're just trying to get by.
Just a couple of puns alltrying to get by.
Just a couple of teens alltrying to survive.
Live to the max, cause youdon't live it twice.
Couple green thumbs all highsand highs.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Welcome back to the new era of Life, to the Max
podcast.
I'm your host, the Godfather,maximilian Gross, and today I
have a very special guest, johnSirisani.
This guy's blowing up onInstagram.
He's doing great things incasinos.

(01:00):
He's probably pissing off a lotof people, a lot of casino
owners, in Vegas, but I got thefreaking man.
The freaking man is here rightnow.
John sir is on.
He makes a fucking noise happyto be here, man.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
This is pretty cool setup you got here.
I don't think I've ever been toa podcast studio.
That's, uh, quite the setupit's usually like if it's at a
home it's usually like in theback room of someone's basement,
not like the main freakingliving room.

Speaker 2 (01:25):
So pretty cool I thought you would be, because,
like you're like, you're likeall over the place you're
hanging out with, like theseinfluencers and youtubers.

Speaker 3 (01:35):
It's crazy dude, it's , it's been a, it's been a wild
ride, buddy, and as things likecontinue to expand.
And as things like continue toexpand, it's like I'm getting
new layers introduced to the mix.
You know I have OK.
So, for instance, I have a 16year old son.
All right, I got Jimmy Kimmelfollowing me, I got Nick Cannon

(01:58):
following me, I got BertKreischer following me.
You think my son gives twoshits?
No when Bryce Hall, the 24 yearold YouTuber, starts following
my son's, gives two shits nowhen bryce hall, the 24 year old
youtuber, starts following myson's.
Like dad, that's pretty cool.
So we're hitting differentaudiences, man, and I think it's
, uh, the combination of themotivational shit that I started
with, which is pay to set yourset your own ceiling, but also

(02:22):
I've introduced this gamblingcontent, which isn't even about
gambling, it's more of alifestyle thing with hey, do
whatever you want in this world.
I have to have a hobby.
That's gambling.
I didn't get rich gambling guys.
No one, no one, no one everthinks I did.
But but that content, combinedwith each other, really expands
to a pretty damn wide audience.
You know what I mean yeah, Ican see that.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
It's crazy to think that, like a bunch of youtubers
are at these high stake likeblackjack tables.
You know, I mean I I didn'texpect that, but that's where
you're gonna find them that youknow it's it.

Speaker 3 (02:55):
It's funny, man.
I I gambled with um, this guy,steve, will do it.
Uh, last last february is apopular guy that was on the.
You probably do.
You know who that is.
He was one of the.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
NELC.
Yeah, the full set clock isright there, bro.

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Oh, do you know who he is?
Okay, it's very clearly you do.
Oh yeah, I know who they areWell, so I did some shit with
him and it was fine.
And then just recently, theBryce Hall guy.
It was kind of funny, thoughthese guys don't listen.
If you're my age and you knowhow to gamble, there's certain
things you follow, certain waysto go about it.
These guys don't give a fuck.
And I'm just sitting backwatching them.

(03:28):
It's like, especially Bryce.
It's like, dude, there's no wayyou're ever going to win.
Casinos must love you the wayyou gamble.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
How old are?
Uh, how old?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
what's like the age difference of the people you
gamble with, Like these kids,like you know, it's funny that
you say that, man, because, likeI said, I, I feel like a good
look for me, bro, is hanging outwith, like people my age or
older hey, if you know, if burkekreischer wants to hang out,
those guys have got a coupleyears like, hey, this is cool.
Um, I don't know how much of agood look it is for me to be

(03:58):
hanging out with these guys halfmy age, but uh, I gotta tell
you though, man, social mediadoesn't give a shit.
Sometimes, man, dana Whitehangs out with him.
He's, he's older than me.
So you know, it is what it is,and it's funny.
The new social media is themainstream.
You know, you said, liketraditional platforms, right,
like when I grew up OK, forinstance, when I grew up, I

(04:21):
would watch Jay Leno, conanO'Brien and David Letterman.
I start following Jimmy Kimmel.
You think my kids give a shit.
I even had somebody commentthat would just wait five years.
People were like you are goingto be more famous than Jimmy
Kimmel, and it got me thinkingthey weren't saying me and I'm
not saying it to be like sayingI'm more famous than Jimmy
Kimmel, I mean, he hosts thedamn Oscars but what I'm saying

(04:46):
is the social media stars is thefuture, bro?
Like, do you know anyone under30 that watches Kimmel or Fallon
?
No, it's people my age watch it.
When I was my daughter's age, Iwas watching Letterman and
Conan O'Brien.
They ain't watching these guysanymore.
So there's definitely a shiftthat we're right in the middle
of, and it's already happened,but I think it's going to even
be more so 20 years from now.

Speaker 2 (05:05):
You make a really good point because, like YouTube
is like the new news.

Speaker 1 (05:09):
You know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Youtube is what people like to watch.
They get their news there,wherever channel they follow,
whether it's like conservativeor liberal, whatever they choose
.
And people don't like watchregular news on the tv anymore.
They go to youtube, they go totheir social media apps you know
their instagram and then theyfigure out what's going on well,

(05:34):
yeah, and the damn the damntraditional media with, with the
news too, it's um.

Speaker 3 (05:38):
I had a guy that I'm friends with that um was a
producer at cnn of all places.
He's actually a veryconservative guy, but he was a
producer at cnn and and he said,listen, man, once we start
giving like both sides of theview, or or or whatever, we have
to lean into the liberal crowd,because if we do anything
conservative, we lose ourliberal followers.
And, and fox news probablyfeels the exact same way.

(06:00):
And you got this emergence nowcoming all the way around,
though, with companies like newsnation that are saying, hey,
we're not going to lean eitherway.
So it's it's kind of allhappening in full circle and you
know, I think social mediaagain is is um, you know, I
think a reflection of that yeah,these kids are doing great
things it's amazing

Speaker 2 (06:21):
yeah I feel like I was watching uh adan ross and
donald trump with my brotheryesterday.
I couldn't fucking believe thatI'm like this guy's
interviewing.
Interviewing on donald trumppretty cool it's like crazy
right you know they would thinklike a freaking reporter from
cnn would be interviewing himbut now I have some kid that was

(06:41):
chilling in his basementdecided I'm gonna make a living
off being a Twitch streamer anddoing reacts.

Speaker 3 (06:47):
Yeah, isn't that funny.
Well, dude, and until myInstagram got popular, I didn't
even know who these guys were.
Okay, so Saturday night we'reat the Aria Casino in Las Vegas
Actually, this was Friday night,excuse me, literally, what are
we?
Tuesday, four days ago, and itwas like this kind of cool
moment for me, not like a pinchme kind of thing, but it was

(07:08):
like I kind of observed what washappening.
Okay, a regular celebrity bythe name of TJ Lavin.
He hosts the Challenge on CBS,a very popular reality show,
used to be a BMX biker and allthe X Games guys.
He's around my age, okay, youknow.
He follows me on Instagram.
He's like, dude, you shouldcome out and play blackjack with
me.
He's on one side of me, bobMennery, part of the Full Sun

(07:29):
guys, on the other side of me,and then Bryce Hall's on the
other side of me.
And it was like, not like anorchestrated thing, we all just
only knew each other because oflike, really because of my
Instagram page.
I think Bryce and Bob mighthave already known each other,
but it was just kind of like acool thing.
You're sitting there, these arepeople you wouldn't have met

(07:50):
otherwise, and before we know it, we've got a crowd of 20 or 30
people around us trying to watchus play blackjack.
It's like that's kind of cool.
You know what I mean, especiallywhen a guy like TJ is there,
who's a mainstream, very knownperson.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
And people are asking me for pictures, just like
they're asking tj for picturesI've been pretty fucking cool
you know it really is.
Uh well, let's back it up andlet's go to the origin of
johnson, right, let's?
Uh, let's do that.
So you're born and raised inchabert right chabert, illinois
baby illinois born and raisedand how did uh your life
progress from, like you know,growing up to adolescence to
going to college?

Speaker 3 (08:29):
so football really was always the driving force in
my childhood and, uh, really alot of my life.
Uh, my dad was a high school,the head high school football
coach at schaumburg high school.
Um, he, my, my had an olderbrother that was five years
older than me.
He was a very good quarterback.
Um ended up getting ascholarship to play at Wisconsin
in the early 90s.
That ended up not working outfor him there and he ended up

(08:51):
switching over to Indiana Stateand starting a quarterback over
there and you know it's fine.
And now he's a high schoolfootball coach and high school
teacher and in a line in highschool, line in high school.
And, um, you know, for me it wasa little bit different because
I'm unlike my brother, who was anormal size guy.
He's a big, six foot one, sixfoot two or whatever quarterback
kind of build.

(09:11):
I, I was a, I was a foot tallerthan everybody started, like in
first first grade, like, like Ilook like the fifth grader
playing with the kindergartnersat the damn playground and uh,
and not only that, I was moreathletic than most people too.
So I'm a foot taller, moreathletic.
It was very obvious that I wasgoing to be really good at

(09:35):
football when I got older.
I couldn't even play footballuntil seventh grade though,
because in Schaumburg the littleleagues did it based on weight
class, so the kids wouldn't gethurt.
So if I would have played inthird grade, I literally would
have been playing against eighthgraders.
You know just, even thoughyou're both, you know 100 pounds
, the eighth graders kick yourass if you're nine.

(09:56):
So my dad wouldn't let me play,but he let me play in seventh
grade, and even then I had toplay line because I was so much
big.
I wasn't built like a linemanand built like a freaking tight
ender linebacker, but but theway it was set up, so you're on
the line that well that theymade you because they they
didn't want, you know, some kidthat's bigger than everybody
getting the ball, so they madethe bigger kids play line.

(10:16):
It was.
It was a rule, um, they'd havea weigh-in before each game and
if you're over a certain amountyou weren't allowed to get the
ball or be near the ball.
Here you had to be a linemanand, uh, you know they did it to
protect the kids and maybe thatmade sense or whatever.
But it wasn't really till ninthgrade, um, that I got to play
off off of the line and, um, mydad wanted me to follow in my

(10:38):
brother's footsteps playing, um,playing quarterback, and and
that was fine.
But, um, sophomore year, thevarsity taught we didn't have a
varsity tight end, so they movedme up to tight ends fucking
knew you were tight I fuckingknew I called.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
I was gonna call it man.
I was like either d ondefensive end or tight end right
and I fucking knew you're gonnabe a tight end.
You, you're like.
You look like Grog.

Speaker 3 (11:03):
Yeah, yeah, I think for sure, although nowadays,
brother, I don't.
Even these tight ends are like.
I'll tell you a funny JasonKelsey story in a second.
But I moved on and I've beengood at tight end and you know
was huge, and sometimes I lookat the I was too big to play
quarterback and I kind of laughat myself and look at guys like
Cam Newton and you know they'refucking their biggest six, five,

(11:25):
two, 70 playing quarterback.
So I guess I could have but butit worked out for me.
Playing tight on man, I got afull scholarship to Notre Dame.
I was in high school fightingIrish.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
That's right man.

Speaker 3 (11:35):
That's right, man.
High school, all American, andyeah, that's pretty much my
story had a little bit ofadversity at Notre Dame, but uh,
I ended up transferring toNorthwestern University, um.
Swiss universities man brother,I'm gonna tell you right now,
dude, I had the best of bothworlds going from Notre Dame to
Northwestern.
First of all, northwestern wasfreaking good.

(11:56):
It was the mid-90s.
They were really good atfootball and um I uh to this day
, just because of perceptionright, notre Dame's good at
academics and good at football,northwestern's good at academics
and good at football.
Right, and both of them are.
You could arguably you know thesame on each of those
categories, although Notre Dametraditionally is better at
football, but they're bothbig-time programs, right.

(12:17):
And to this day, brother, if Itell people I played football at
Notre Dame, they're like holy,holy shit, you must have been a
good football player.
If I say I played football atnorthwestern, they say holy shit
, you must be smart.
And as a guy in his 40s, wouldyou rather be thought of as
smart or good in football?

Speaker 2 (12:38):
so you know I would say uh, good at football.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
All right well.

Speaker 2 (12:44):
Notre Dame.
I mean, they were good lastyear too.

Speaker 3 (12:48):
They're good period.
But I got to tell you, dude, itwasn't until probably the last
couple of years, with the socialmedia shit, that I was reminded
how big of a deal it is to playfootball at Notre Dame.
Dude, people treat youdifferent, like it's bigger than
saying you played on an NFLteam.
If I would tell you I went toBall State and then played a
couple years on the Eagles,people would be like, oh, that's

(13:09):
all good for you, man.
Oh, you played on the Eagles, Iplayed at Notre Dame, nothing
about the NFL.
So I played at Notre Dame.
They treat you like a differentfucking person, man, like I'm
not kidding you.
People really, really love thatshit.
And I just had so much othershit going on in my life, buddy,
I never really even talkedabout it as an adult.
I wouldn't tell people I wentto Notre Dame.
Where'd you go to school?
Northwestern, okay.
Next fucking subject Did youplay a sport?

(13:31):
You're a big guy.
Yeah, I played football.
Okay.
And then the conversation wouldend there because I was very
blessed and fortunate.

Speaker 2 (13:44):
Oh, absolutely, man.
A lot of good football playerscome out of Notre.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
Dame.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
But we were on the phone like a week ago and we
were talking about how youdecided to walk away from
football a little bit because ofa nerve pain that you were
having.
Can you elaborate?
Yeah, man.

Speaker 3 (14:04):
So there's one damn thing I kicked myself in the ass
for a nerve pain that you werehaving and you're not.
Can you elaborate?
Yeah, man, so, um about?
So there's one damn thing Ikicked myself in the ass for my
dad would always tell me it wasa blessing in disguise never
being my football career endingearly.
But, um, so my senior year, um,we sucked my senior year at
northwestern like I should have.
Went to the nfl the year prior.
Uh, we had a new head coach.
It was just stupid, like hisguy's name's randy walker.

(14:27):
Rest in peace.
But he came over from miami ofohio and he wanted to make a
point to the program and he's ahard-nosed guy and we would just
beat the shit out of each otherin practice every day, dude, um
, like I'm not gonna tell yousome of the things he'd be in
jail nowadays for, some of thethings that he was having us do.
But rest in peace, though thehard nose football coach is

(14:51):
different from mentality backthen.
Let's just say, ok, he was thelast of a dying breed with that
stuff.
But and I'm saying that in apositive way, really but, dude,
you would have OK, okay, there'sa.
There's a block in footballcalled the iso.
All right, it's when you have afullback lineup behind the

(15:11):
quarterback in an eye formationand a running back behind him.
Okay, the quarterback hands theball to the running back and
just follows the fullback intothe line of scrimmage, while on
the other end of the ball thelinemen are blocking other
linemen.
There's nobody to block thelinebacker who's three yards off
the ball, except for thefullback that's three yards off

(15:34):
the ball the other way and thelinebacker's job is to meet that
fullback in the hole.
It's like an isolation block sothey run as fast as they can
into each other like this Allright, the running back.
And if the fullback wins, therunning back runs behind him and
, you know, hopefully goes andscores a touchdown or something.
Well, when you do that, blockleverage wins Not just the

(15:56):
biggest baddest guy, it'swhoever gets lower because you
got to get underneath theperson's pads.
Okay, well, randy Walker wassuch a such.
Again, I'm saying it waspositive.
I'm friends with his son jamie,if jamie's hearing this by any
chance in his, in his uh what,and his wife um tammy.
But uh, we would run that damnin practice every damn day.

(16:20):
All of our, all of ourfullbacks ended up freaking,
getting concussions and hurt.
So me and the other tight endwere both pretty damn good.
He ended up playing in the NFLfor a couple years actually, and
so they said we're going tojust go with a double tight
offense.
Okay, good, more playing timefor us.
I don't got to split them.
Two tight ends will be on thedamn field.

(16:40):
Well, the thing is we stillhave this damn isolation but ISO
block in our formula.
But how are you going to runthat with two tight ends when
you don't have a fullback?
Well, actually, john, no,you're going to move into the
backfield and play fullback whenwe run that play.
Okay, I'm pumped up.
I never played fullback before.
I'm 6'5", 270 pounds, and youknow linebackers are typically

(17:02):
6'1" and, and you knowlinebackers are typically six
foot one and, uh, you knowthey're in the big ten and have
been playing this since they'refreaking eight years old
probably, and here I am six footfive and I started playing the
position at 22 years old.
And, uh, we're gonna run as fastas we can into each other and
remember the low man wins.
If you're six foot five, that'stoo tall.
To be playing fullback, allright.
That's why linebackers andfullbacks are usually five foot

(17:23):
eleven to six foot one, reallyperiod, for the most part inside
linebackers.
So, slowly but surely, to winthat, to win that fight, I
started dropping my head.
Okay, because you got to getlower.
Before you know it, I'm runningto the line of scrimmage at a
90 degree angle with my hips,with my head just straight down

(17:44):
and running as low as I can tothe ground.
Now, rule number one infootball is if you never have
your head down because if youget hit in the top of the head,
your spinal cord's in a straightline okay, whereas if you have
your head up, you get hit hereand you get hit in your face
mask.
Yeah, you might, you know,screw up some muscles in your
neck if it's hard enough, butthat impact is in your face mask
.
Yeah, you might, you know,screw up some muscles in your

(18:05):
neck if it's hard enough, butthat impact is protecting your
spinal cord, yeah, okay.
Well, you know it takes itstoll throughout the course of
the year or halfway through theyear and I start getting tingles
in my damn leg and I'm likewhat the hell is this?
And I just kind of dismiss itbecause there's something in
football called stingers andit's scary, but it goes away,

(18:27):
it's.
You usually get them down yourarm.
You only get them down your armand your arm goes numb for four
seconds and then it comes back.
It's a pinched nerve, okay, andit's not pleasant.
It's not pleasant, but ifyou're gonna play these
positions, no, it's freakingscary, scary the first time you
get one, and anyone that'splaced the positions I'm talking
about was exactly what I'mtalking about.

(18:48):
Well, my dumb ass startsgetting into my damn leg.
I don't think anything of it.
And again we have a head coachthat's once bad ass players out
there and we fucking sucked.
By the way, we were like threeand eight that season.
Nobody gives a shit aboutNorthwestern football that year.
There's nobody ever in americahas ever said hey, how about
that 1999 northwestern team?
They sure, they sure were tough.

(19:09):
No one's ever said that.
Um, so year ends and I'mgetting a physical for the blue
gray all-star game was onchristmas day and to go play in
this thing and it's for seniorsthat are graduating that you
know are supposed to be going tothe NFL.
I end up going to that.
There's two all-star games.
There's the Senior Bowl and theBlue-Gray game was kind of the

(19:31):
second one I didn't make.
The Senior Bowl is more forfirst and second round draft
picks.
The one I was in is more formiddle round to late round draft
picks and that's the when I wasin.
So, just to give you aperspective, I wasn't going to
be, like you know, some firstrounder here.
But, um, I, uh.
It ends up, uh, just randomly inthe physical.

(19:52):
Everything's fine, anythingbothering you, just anything we
need to know.
Just casually.
The doctor says that I go.
Ah, not really I've been doinggetting this one thing down my
leg the last six weeks.
It's describing it to him.
You touch my shoulder here.
I feel it in my ankle, he goes.
Wait, so I'm pressing thisright now on your shoulder.

(20:13):
John, you said you're feelingyour ankle.
I go.
Yeah, he goes.
No, I go.
Well, it's a stinger, he goes.
You don't get stingers in yourleg, buddy, I go.
Okay, got an MRI, didn't passthe physical.
They said well, we got to getthis checked out before I
approve you to go play in thisgame.
Got the damn MRI, me and my dadand the head athletic trainer

(20:34):
at Northwestern, you know, wentto meet with the doctor for the
MRI results shortly thereafterand he pointed out this
contusion to my spinal cord.
Okay, and he said you're done.
He goes listen, man, there'snothing wrong with you.
But if you keep playingfootball, it's just a matter of
time, because if you see thisgray area here, it's weakening,

(20:56):
so it's weaker than everybodyelse's and it's just a matter of
time before that thing snapsand you're in a wheelchair the
rest of your life.

Speaker 2 (21:02):
Yeah, man, spinal cord injury is no joke.
That thing snaps and you're inthe, you're in a wheelchair, the
rest of your life.
Yeah, man, spot awkwardinjuries.
No joke, look at me, man.

Speaker 3 (21:08):
Well, that's buddy.
That's why, when we weretalking man, you know it's like.
Can I just tell you somethingsince we talked?

Speaker 2 (21:13):
Yeah, sure okay.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
So I told you my mom was in a wheelchair.
She had, she had multiplesclerosis.
We talked about this off offcamera and my mom's, my mom's
amas at that time of my life wasprogressing, you know, it was
getting a little bit worse andworse, and so the idea of being
in a wheelchair with this thingand no one was going to take
that risk, you know.
So you got your dreams ofplaying a man.
I fall gone.
But you're also like, thank godthey did this physical and we

(21:37):
didn't find out when it snapped.
You know what I mean Like.
So you got that kind of going.
But then since, since I'mhearing you talked, I'm on an
airplane going to Vegas lastweek, last Thursday, and I fly
United, I fly first class andthey have all these damn movies
and shit on the back of the seatthat you can choose from and

(21:57):
whatever.
I must have seen this thing onthere the last 10 times I've
flown, always scrolled rightpast.
It didn't know what it wasabout.
Okay, because the title doesn'treally show what it's about and
I'm like, eh, you know what,I'll watch this one today.
It was about I forgot his damnname.
I'm following him on Instagramtoo.
I forgot his name.
I'm following him now, butInstagram, too, I forgot his

(22:24):
name.
I found him now, but the stuntdouble for Harry Potter.
Okay, while they were filmingHarry Potter, he was doing a
freaking stunt perfectly healthyguy, just like you were, and I
still am all right, buddy, thereyou go exactly.
Yes, it's just a roadblock loveit, buddy, I'll tell you what
man you might be the healthiestperson I know mentally every
time we've talked um, but it wasa situation where where is

(22:45):
perfectly healthy living thislife as as a stunt man for in in
hollywood and um, he snappedhis vertebrae and it put him in
a wheelchair.
So, just just like that, youknow what I mean.
So I don't know if thealgorithm of life is talking to
me, buddy, because they knew meand you were talking, they were
gonna have this, but somethingmade me watch that fucking movie
the other day, brother.

(23:05):
So anyway, buddy, yeah it's ait's.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
It's a crazy experience.
Being a spinal cord injury likejust learning a whole new life.
It's basically a paradox.
It's like your life is slippedupside down and you have to
learn everything new and youhave to rely on a bunch of
people.
So it requires a tremendousamount of patience.
You know so, but I am gratefulevery single day I wake up every

(23:30):
single day and I'm grateful tobe talking to you right now, man
.

Speaker 3 (23:34):
I really am.
Thank you, man.
You got you got to watch thatmovie.
I think you're going to have alot of relatable things with him
.
Thanks for having me here.

Speaker 2 (23:42):
Of course, yeah.
So this pain that you had, whatdid it feel?
Like your foot fell asleep.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
It didn't even.
It wasn't even a pain, it wasjust.
Whenever you hit me on myshoulder or my neck, I felt the
sensation in my ankle.
So there's only one.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Do you still feel it?

Speaker 3 (23:58):
No, no, they don't feel it.
That's fine, in fact.
In fact, I got the itch when Iwas about 26 years old, a few
years later, to say fuck it,let's go play in the nfo.
And uh and uh, I startedworking out for it and I like
gotta hurt my ankle once workingout.
I'm like you know what fuckthis?
I'm too old.
So that one I actually regret alittle bit.
I should have.
Just I know, because to thisday, dude, I'll wake up off a

(24:19):
dream in the middle of the damnlight.
It'll be like this detailedshit, dude, it didn't even start
happening until I was in my 40s, by the way, you know what I
mean.
Yeah, like that, I decided togo back and play and then I wake
up and realize, wait a minute,I'm not 28.
You know what I mean.
Yeah, but uh, brother, I don'teven know what position you're
talking about.
Gronkowski, fuck Gronkowski.
How about these other guys likeJason Kelsey?

(24:40):
Travis Kelsey oh yeah, travisKelsey, the Kittle guy on the
49ers.

Speaker 2 (24:47):
Fucking the guy on the Ravens, Mark Andrews.

Speaker 3 (24:56):
Brother, these guys are like fucking power forwards
and small forwards in the NBAplaying tight end dude.
I don't even know if I can playtight end right now.
Well, I was with Jason Travis'sbrother, jason Kelsey.
We're playing blackjacktogether and uh, and he was a
center for those that don't knowand he just retired from the
Eagles and I'm like, ah, dude, Iran a four seven in college.
I don't even know what positionI would be able to play in the
NFL right now.
And he goes dude, I ran a 4.7.

(25:17):
He's the fucking center.
So I don't know man, I think Iprobably would have had to gain
30 pounds and play defensivetackle or something.

Speaker 2 (25:26):
Okay, so we got a little past your origins.

Speaker 1 (25:31):
You grew up in.

Speaker 2 (25:31):
Schauburg.

Speaker 3 (25:32):
That's right, you went to all these colleges.
Yeah, man.

Speaker 2 (25:36):
You attended football teams and all this stuff and
then, what degree did you get inand how did you like progress
from like where you were towhere you are now?
Okay because, like you're afucking star.

Speaker 3 (25:51):
Thanks, man, I appreciate that.
Yeah, we went from um.
So it was december of my senioryear in college when this
happened and this is actually myfifth year, because I stayed an
extra year for football, so Iwas actually done with school
Now.
My plan had been to play in theNFL.
So that just gets turned upsidedown in December.
So, okay, well, what the fuckis?

(26:12):
I was going to just train for,hopefully getting drafted, and
it didn't work out that way.
So now I don't have a plan.
And didn't work out that way,so now I don't have a plan.
Luckily, at NorthwesternUniversity they have an
outstanding as I'm sure mostgood colleges do have a very
quality career services center.
So I go on to the careerservices center and just start.
They had companies coming in tointerview seniors.

(26:34):
I just start putting myself intime slot after time slot with
every damn company that Ithought might be interesting.
And there was this one damncompany man, it was an insurance
company, um, and uh, I neverforget it to get the the manager
.
His name is don mano, he sitsdown and sits across from me and
the first question he asked meis like so what attracts you?

(26:55):
What's what attracts you tobeing in the in the employee
benefits?
I didn't know the fuckingemployee benefits matter.
I have like 12 interviews overtwo days.
I didn't even know what theydid, but I'm blessed to have
taken that job because it wasthat interview with that guy
that he started speaking mylanguage and that was to make

(27:17):
money.
And my dad was a high school gymteacher.
You know, we grew up inSchaumburg.
We had we're middle-classfamily.
We definitely weren't rich, sowe kind of always wanted that
money.
You know what I mean.
Like I remember one of myfriends had a fricking new
Mustang when he was 16 and wethought he was so damn rich you
know what I mean and we justdidn't have things like that and

(27:37):
anyway.
So I was driven by money andI'll never forget.
He told me I should be.
If I do what I should be doing,I could be making one hundred
grand by the end of my secondyear at the job, and the base
salary was only 30 grand though.
So he was explaining it to mein terms of how commissions work
and renewal commissions andthings like that, and all I

(28:00):
heard was I have a realopportunity to make a hundred
grand in two years and that'sall I could hear, because we
thought my dad was pretty damnwell off and he was probably
making about that as a, you know, tenured teacher at Schaumburg
high school and, uh, you know,public school teachers in
Illinois are not underpaid, theyget paid pretty well and he was
probably around that amount,maybe a little bit less at that
point, but $100,000 in my head.

(28:21):
I had that $100,000 in my head.
Well, I also had a job offerwith Accenture.
It was called AndersonConsulting back then.
They changed their name a fewyears later and the job offer
there, I want to say it was morethan the $30,000.
It was like $52,000 orsomething like that and there

(28:44):
was no commissions.
And when the environment wasexplained to me, it was about
team settings and working ondifferent projects and these big
accounts that you're going toget and all this stuff and
you're going to work under theumbrella of this person and
you're going to learn from him,and then you could advance to
this.
And I asked him the samequestion how many years in until
I would have the ability tomake 100 grand?
And it was not in two years, along time.

(29:07):
And it wasn't me dictating whenthat would be.
Either it was other peoplemaking that decision for me
versus the insurance salesenvironment.
You're controlling your ownfuture, man.
If you get, you get good atthis.
Guys, I'm trying to be out ofthis.
You know what I mean.
You could sky's the limit onwhat you could make, so I took
the risk.
You know Accenture was a they'recalled again Anderson.

(29:29):
Arthur Anderson was a very bigcompany, very known in Chicago
Downtown office right in theloop.
Holy shit, you were atAccenture.
That's the job, bro.
Um, I took this job with GreatWest Life and Annuity that no
one ever fucking heard of.
Um, they're based out of Denver.
Literally nobody knew who thefuck they were.
And um ended up being great forme, man, because they they

(29:51):
taught me how to sell.
We took professional salescourses which really, even even
then, was the end of a dyingbreed.
A lot of companies didn'treally train their sales reps
anymore.
These guys sent us out to theirhome office for two weeks.
We did role playing, sat inclasses, and that's the best
skill set I ever had reallylearning to sell.

Speaker 2 (30:08):
That's amazing.
Yeah it is.
So let's fast forward to thesocial media guru you are.
When did that start?

Speaker 3 (30:24):
So it started about a year and a half ago.
I um, I started posting becauseI was trying to, um, I had
decided to write a book, okay,and the book was really going to
be just me dusting off of abook that I had written 10 years
earlier.
So this is 2021 and I I wentlike, okay, I could do the 10th
anniversary of my book it'scalled Paid Training that I
wrote back in 2011 with a newperspective on it.

(30:47):
Well, I thought I'd go starttalking about it on social media
, maybe be on some podcasts, geta little energy around it and
have shit else to do.
It's during the pandemic, right?
Well, as I started rewritingthe book, the book was nothing
like the original version.
So I decided you know what?
I'm going to make a whole damnnew book and didn't really have

(31:08):
a name for it.
But during one of the podcastsone like this, where I'm
somebody else's guests theyasked me about how I left
corporate America to work formyself, and the question was
surrounded by money.
And they asked me about how Ileft corporate America to work
for myself, and the question wassurrounded by money.
Okay, did you make more money?
Did your salary go down?
How long did it take you tomake more?
And I go you know what?

(31:30):
I actually gave myself a 2,000%raise when I did this and it
just came out right off the topof my head and the guy goes what
?
And then we all startedthinking about it and I started
doing the math in my head.
I go, no, I it literally.
I kind of just threw it out thetongue and cheek.
But no, it was about a twothousand percent raise.
Like literally gave myself atwo thousand percent raise for
doing the exact same job.

(31:51):
The only difference is now Iwas up on top of the org chart
and not making money for otherpeople.
I was making it for myself.
And the more I leaned into that,the more I started thinking
about how I could help otherpeople, things that I picked up
along the way that they ain'tgoing to pick up.
Dude, they're not going to pickit up either.
They're not going to realizethe scam of corporate America

(32:14):
keeping people as little piecesof the chess game to make
someone else rich and protectthe king.
You know what I'm saying?
They might never even figurethat out, which I figured that
out at the age of 27 when Istarted my company, but then
also when you're out on your ownlittle things along the way to
make that company successful.
When you're competing againstbigger companies that have been

(32:34):
around for 100 years, have 200offices around the world, have
20,000 employees Shit, how areyou going to compete with them?
Dude, you're one person.
You don't have any capitalbehind you.
You're working out of yourhouse at your damn kitchen table
.
Well, you know what, buddy,that's for me to know.
The client doesn't have to knowthat.
Shit.
Do little things Like.

(32:54):
I'm not going to name my companyafter myself and draw attention
to the fact of how little weare.
I'm gonna give it a big name.
You know what I mean.
And we're not gonna say I'mworking out of my house.
I'm gonna get a freaking box atthe ups store and I'm gonna
call it suite number 300 withthis fancy address.
You know what I mean.
You know and this is fucking2005, bro that I'm doing this
shit.
I mean nowadays, get the fuckout of here, like between

(33:15):
fucking voice over ips and howeasy it is to make a website.
Now I mean shit.
You could make yourself looklike you're a billion dollar
organization, dude.
You could go buy paid mediaspots and bullshit, Dude do a
press release on Yahoo Financeabout how cool you are, Like
none of that shit really existed.
It might have, but not.
It wasn't as easy to do as itis now.

(33:37):
I'll tell you that much.
Yeah, man, I mean that's what Idid.
So in promoting 2,000% raise,the social media kind of started
taking a life of its own on,where the social media aspect
not only became more fun, it'smore popular.
You know, not everyone wants tosit there and read a book, buddy

(33:58):
, Not everybody wants to tuneinto a podcast.
As you know, it's hard to getpeople to sit and watch a whole
fucking podcast.
Social media is a lot different, man.
And once you hit that algorithmwith Instagram like for me, for
YouTube, I post a podcast.
You know who's watching thatpodcast?
People I told about to go watchit, or people from my Instagram
that I told to go to YouTubeand watch it.
You know what I mean?

(34:19):
That YouTube algorithm I'm noton it yet, I don't know.
Maybe there is an algorithmthat that works.
I don't.
I don't know it yet.
But Instagram, I've already hitthat algorithm and I put a reel
out there.
Not only is it going to go tomy half a million followers.
It's going to go like to newpeople too, and then they're
going to follow me because of it.
I mean, how cool is that?

Speaker 2 (34:37):
that dude.
That's amazing.
How is it like, how do youthink it would feel you behind
500 000 people?
Can you imagine that like you,and then you look behind and
you're like there's 500 000people that follow me dude.

Speaker 3 (34:56):
I'm gonna tell you right now, bro, I didn't think
it was even fucking real, likewhen I was, when I was at about
a hundred thousand followers.
Yeah, it was a big deal, but Ikind of questioned a little bit
of it because I had used thesocial media company at one
point to help me try to grow myshit and never do that by the
way, anyone that's listening tothis, because they're all full
of shit I'm pretty sure one ofthem sent me like a bunch of

(35:17):
fake, like bot followers.
So I always kind of questionedhow many people are real.
And as it's grown, it's becomevery clear that it's fucking
real, because I can't walk downthe fucking street without a
person coming up and saying hito me.
Like, if I see a person come upto say me and my dad send your
shit back and forth every day,dude, you're the fucking

(35:38):
funniest guy on the Internet.
That's a real person that Icould see telling me this.
Not, it's not a bot, you know.
You know what I mean.
So and that happens literallyevery time I leave my house now,
which is which is prettyfucking cool and wherever I'm at
in the world.

Speaker 2 (35:52):
Yeah yeah, like you're, you've reached fame and
like fortune.
Thank, you.
It's like really it's inspiring.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (36:03):
Because you did it on your own merit.
You know, and I'm justwondering you have the life man
Obviously like when you werewith all those chicks, bro.
I was like get the fuck out ofhere, man.
I was like get the fuck out ofhere.
I was like what the fuck?
I was like John, you're notgoing to invite Max.

(36:26):
What the fuck is this?
You're like say hello to Maxeverybody.
Next, time.

Speaker 1 (36:36):
I'll remember that.

Speaker 3 (36:37):
We're going to have to remember that.
Shout out, max.
What's up?
Max Dude, you should have toldme this two days ago.
I was filming, I was filming.
So when's this going to air?
Probably the next couple ofweeks, yeah.
Probably We'll do this atprobably in a week, all right,
so this might be out rightaround now-ish when this is
airing, or it's going to comeout very shortly.

(36:59):
You'll like this.
I'm doing a YouTube seriescalled bombshell blackjack,
where I just have a randompretty girl just sit down with
me and play blackjack and theydon't really know what the fuck
they're doing and it's justcombining, just, you know, fun
to watch with blackjack.
So tune into bombshellblackjack next.
We only have three episodesright now, so I don't know we'll

(37:24):
see how those go.
We'll see how those go beforewe do a fourth let me uh, let me
get back to this.

Speaker 2 (37:29):
So, so you reach fame , fortune, like, and like people
like see your life and like,wow, this guy's cool, he's
awesome and some people might beenvious.
Do you know what I mean?
So when you wake up in themorning, do you feel like you've
reached your purpose, you'vereached what you've wanted, or
do you feel like it's justbeginning?

Speaker 3 (37:52):
good question.
Um, I I'll tell you what man.
Um, a lot of times people askme okay, so where are you going
with this?
What's your, what's yourfucking plan like?
Okay, you did this now, nowwhat?
And I actually just got into abig argument with a guy named
bradley in las vegas.
He has a podcast that I wasjust on and we we almost went to

(38:12):
blows with each other becausehe wants you to sell courses.
He goes well, you're doing allthis shit, but you're not making
any fucking money on it.
So what the fuck are you doing?
And I go listen, motherfucker.
All right, here's what I'mdoing.
Look at my fucking DMS rightnow.
I got 20, probably in the lastweek, with people telling me I
changed their fucking lives andhow much I motivated them to do
something with their life.

(38:33):
And it's not by me yelling, payme a thousand fucking dollars
and I'll toughen you, the fuckup.
It's by me literally just beingme and um, whenever I hear about
any opportunities to monetizeor or anything else, it's just
like, yeah, I'll look at it,I'll entertain that idea, but if
it's going to do anything tosacrifice the brand and that

(38:54):
brand being not, not, notmonetary brand, that brand being
that people are digging thisand it's changing their lives,
and if I, if I um, undercut thisis not the right word but like,
if I undercut myself in thatvalue proposition by taking away
my credibility with anything,dude, dude, I was just fucking

(39:15):
doing a?
Um, golden nugget online casinojust paid me to fucking do it,
put a reel up, and I did itbecause it was on brand and it
was fine to give a couple bucksand there's a promo code if you
want to get, you know, fiftydollars, a slot player or some
shit like that, and it's fine.
I'm glad to have done it.
But it's like, even then I waslike posting this, I'm not even
comfortable posting this.
It's like because I don't, Idon't need to make money doing

(39:36):
this.
You know what I mean.
But I still did because I'mbrandon, I have a fine
relationship with them and stuff, but but it's not like a
priority for me at all, man.
So so you know I I'm kind ofjust thinking out loud while I
get to the answer of yourquestion, which which is you
know I, I do think I've made itin the sense that I've served a
purpose, you know what I meanand I do think that if I was

(39:59):
gone tomorrow, you know know, ayear from now, people will still
talk to me because of the stuffI've done and that's the stuff
I've done in the last year and ahalf, Not the stuff I did that
made me millions when I wasyounger, the fact that I was
like helping people.
So as long as I could keepgrowing that and reaching a
wider and wider audience anddoing it my way, I mean I think

(40:21):
I'm going to keep doing that.
I mean right now, bro, I getpressure from people to you know
it's an election year.
You know I'm getting pressurefrom people to you know, fucking
speak up, dude.
Everyone knows you like Trumpand it's like, first of all, you
don't know that I nevercommented about that and, yeah,
I said it was fucked up when hegot if he tried to assassinate

(40:42):
or the guy tried to assassinatehim, but I would have thought it
was just as fucked up if hetried to assassinate biden or
obama.
You know exactly like you knowit's crazy and and I say all
that because it doesn't matterhow I feel about politics, it
doesn't matter how I feel abouta lot of things.
This page and what I'm fuckingdoing is trying to help people
be the best version ofthemselves.
Okay, so whether I like Trumpor Kamala Harris or or, or you

(41:05):
know, fucking some guy walkingdown the fucking street, doesn't
really fucking matter.
I want people to be the bestthey could fucking be.
You know Jimmy Kimmel is agreat example.
You know he follows me and Iposted this thing about hey,
jimmy Kimmel follows me Kind ofmade a joke about it.
Well, go look at the comments ofthat fucking post.
People hate Jimmy Kimmel, thatare lean on the conservative
side, and I don't really knowwhy.

(41:26):
Nor do I fucking care.
That's not what this page isabout.
This page is about being thebest he could fucking be, and
you got a guy out of him that'sdominated the industry he's in.
He's got a fucking TV show onABC.
Okay, that's pretty fuckingsuccessful for a person that's
chosen to be a comedian in hislife.
You know what I mean.
You can't take that away fromhim.
So, whatever the fuck you tryto do in your life, you try to

(41:46):
get to the top of thatmotherfucking mountain, and
that's what we're doing here.
Period.

Speaker 2 (41:52):
So you definitely made a purpose.
You know what?
Something comes to mind withwhat you just said.
Something comes to mind withwhat you just said.
So for my podcast, the reasonwhy I started it is because I
wanted to share my story.
I wanted people to feelgrateful for the little things
they have in life.
You know, breathing Breathing,I thought, was a right, not a

(42:17):
privilege, and it got taken awayfrom me.
Man, you know, and what Ialways tell people is it's like,
uh, people are like, oh, do youwant to?
You're gonna make shit to themoney.
You're gonna be famous one day.
You're the only likequadriplegic podcast, your host,
and I'm like dude, it's notabout the money, it's about the

(42:39):
journey there you go.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
That's what it's about.
Yep, you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
I love that it's I'm here to inspire and motivate
people yeah, I don't need, Idon't, I don't need your
freaking promo code right, Idon't need you to tell me if I
like trump biden, rfk, jr.
I don't fucking care.

Speaker 3 (42:59):
I'm here to motivate people, people who are having a
bad day, because it could be alot worse all the time, Brother,
when I walked in here this isthe first time we've met in
person, right, we FaceTimed acouple times but I got this
feeling over me, not because ofyou and the wheelchair, not even
about you.
It just reminded me of watchingboth of my parents passed away

(43:22):
and I don't know.
It just reminds me of stuffthat I saw my dad taking care of
my mom.
That, as an adult now lookingback, you know.

Speaker 2 (43:37):
You all right.

Speaker 3 (43:37):
Yeah, it's like you know, as a kid kid especially
you don't realize what's evengoing on.
You know what I mean and likewhat you just said, dude, like
I'm leaving here, I'm leavinghere in an hour and I'm going
about my day.
This is every day for you, man.
You know what I mean and thenyou're still doing this.
You have a smile on yourfucking face and you're still

(43:59):
doing it, you know.
And it just reminds me, dude,of like things I probably didn't
realize as a kid that myparents were going through with
my mom and shit.
And keep doing what you'redoing, brother, it's good shit
yeah, well, dude, it's.

Speaker 2 (44:14):
It's been an absolute pleasure talking to you
honestly and I appreciate youcoming from Vegas to go do this
podcast in Illinois because Iknow you probably have a busy
schedule, but definitely a greatconversation with you.

(44:36):
You're an amazing guy, I've gotto say.

Speaker 3 (44:39):
This is my first time in Sleepy Hollow.
Sleepy Hollow for everyone thatdoesn't know, because I know
most of you don't know, even ifyou live in Chicago.
It's this little town that'sthis big right outside of
Schaumburg, but I've never metanyone that actually lives here.
So people actually live inSleepy Hollow.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
Dude, you gotta do something for me.
You gotta take me gambling withyou, you wanna gamble.
Yeah, I'm down.

Speaker 3 (45:03):
So let me ask you a question, man, so okay, so
what's your instrument?
The quad father?
Okay, so I'm friends withsomebody else, just totally
randomly, as a radio host, andand he, he calls himself the
quad father too.
Is that like a funny, likeparaplegic joke?
You guys all call yourself thequad, the quad father.
It's kind of funny.
But but he, he's, he uses hisarms.

(45:26):
So what does quad mean?
This quad?

Speaker 2 (45:29):
so quadriplegic means you can't like quadro, so he's
a tetraplegic.
So a quadriplegic is a personthat is paralyzed from the neck
down okay I'm paralyzed from theneck down in the worst possible
spot, the cervical one, spinalcord so I usually about 20 to 15
percent of people die stayalive really with that accident.

(45:53):
So I'm just trying to live mybest life, you know, yeah yeah,
well, I'm looking at you.

Speaker 3 (45:58):
You got the military stuff, uh, behind you.
Man, I mean, that's pretty,pretty dope.
You know, when I talk about,like my growth on social media,
um, you know you lean intodifferent things that the
audience you know.
You know you listen to people.
Okay, what was popular?
Why did people like comment somuch on this one?

(46:19):
Why did I get DMS about that?
And it's like, oh shit, Ididn't even know.
And I have this affinity toward,or they have definitive towards
me.
I should say law enforcementand military folks just love my
fucking page.
Dude Like you would would notbelieve.
And Max, it's the funniestthing, brother, I put out a damn
reel because I talk about likenot being a W-2 employee and

(46:41):
working for yourself and peoplebe like you're shitting on W-2
employees, quit shitting on them.
So I made a reel.
I would never do a reel likethis now, but I go hey, guys, if
you want to be a w-2 employee,go be a w-2 employee.
My dad's a teacher.
Hey, if you're a cop, go be acop.
I'm not.
You know, maybe this page isn'tfor you.
I'm talking about people insales that want to go be
entrepreneurs.
That was originally who I wastalking to.
Well, I start getting floodedby people, like in fucking law

(47:04):
enforcement, being like listen,motherfucker, we all follow your
page and you motivate us, notnot only because a lot of us
have side hustles, we're tryingto learn from you, but also just
motivates us to be good fuckingpeople.
We think the damn same way.
And, uh, it was that that pointmax.
I only had about 50 or 60 000followers.
It was that point, at thatpoint, with just little little

(47:26):
moments like that, that I saidyou know, I really got something
here, man, I got something herebrother you know what does it
take to like transition from awt w2 employee to like you're
being your own boss?
yeah, well.
So, first of all, people arestarting to use terms now that I
say all the time that likedon't really gen pop.

(47:49):
Well, so gen pop was around,but I don't think anyone was
using it as effectively as I did.
Now everyone's saying it and,uh, I'll get people to say it
come up to me like I got a guycoming through.
He goes dude, you took my term.
I always call, I always callnon-high limit people gen pop.
I go, yeah, but when you saidit, no one heard you.
I say it all the time.
Now people are, people are allsaying it um, but the other
thing is a w tour, and I don'tthink really anybody was saying

(48:10):
that before.
It can't be a W-2-er and it wasreally born across the idea
that, hey, man, if you're a W-2employee, dude, just so you know
you're never going to be rich.
The system ain't set up forthat buddy.
You can't get rich as a W-2.
So just face the facts and alot of people don't like that.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
But it and a lot of people don't like that, but it's
really morphed, morphed.
That's pretty true.

Speaker 3 (48:36):
You're bending over backwards for a guy you don't
even know people don'tunderstand that if you're a W2
employee, it's not just yourrelationship with your boss.
There's a governing board,there's a board of directors at
that organization that the CEOneeds to answer to.
And you start making too muchmoney, buddy, they're going to
be like why is that guy making600 grand?

(48:58):
Replace him with this person.
And you know there's hot shotsales people out there right now
that are thinking to myself no,not me, I'm too valuable.
Okay, buddy, until you aren't,until you aren't.
So the whole term.
So people in the comments,people that would come at me
disagreeing with me, peoplewould start commenting against

(49:19):
them, calling them W-tours.
You're a W-tour, you don'tunderstand.
So it's really take a life ofits own on man.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Don't you just love trends, Dude?
It's so funny.

Speaker 3 (49:31):
I think people just think it's funny.
Don't put W-tour Fucking lovetrends dude, it's so funny.

Speaker 2 (49:34):
I think people just think it's funny.
Don't put w2 or fuckinghilarious.
Yeah, all right.
Well, I have a one morequestion for you.
Yeah, what is the craziestbender of like gambling you've
ever been?

Speaker 3 (49:44):
on?
Um, let me think aboutdifferent ways to answer that
could have.
I could talk about a benderbetween january and march of uh,
2020.
That, yeah, well, it's threedifferent trips where I just got
destroyed in the bahamas andvegas, and vowed, vowed, that

(50:04):
certain things and, uh, certainthings in blackjack do not mix
on vacations and never do thatagain because, uh, oh, my god,
my God, it was not good.
But, um, I'll tell you what manI had.
Uh, I referenced this, thisstory, earlier, but it was just
a really, really cool three dayperiod man and it was in Vegas

(50:24):
over the Superbowl this pastyear.
Um, superbowl was in Vegas andif you've never been to the
hosting city, um, during a superbowl weekend, you should try to
experience it, even if youdon't got tickets to the game,
just because, like, everywhereyou damn turn there's a
celebrity man, everywhere youdamn turn.
And I got invited to play inthis blackjack tournament.

(50:45):
But there was a celebrityblackjack tournament, but I
didn't really know what I waswalking into and I only got
invited because burt BertKreischer was hosting it and he,
he follows me and thinks I'mfunny, so, so, but we get there
and man, it's cool man, I'm justlike fucking Baker Mayfield.
Um, you know, and uh it wasawesome bro and Showtime Pettis,
the UFC guy.
I'll never forget it.
I didn't know who he was, dude,fuck yeah.

(51:08):
So now I'm friends with him soI feel funny even saying this
but I didn't know who the fuckhe was.
And he came up to me and hadhis girlfriend take a picture of
me and him, and then I'llremember exactly what happened.
I don't think he either postedit and tagged me or or we
exchanged information at somepoint and then I realized who he
was and I'm like that's prettyfucking cool, cause I was still

(51:29):
kind of in that growth phase atthat point and I still am.
But when you got guys like thatcoming up to you, it's pretty
fucking dope, right.
And then just the whole seriesof events that weekend and then
stuff that didn't even have todo with that particular party,
we turn around and I'm at, andthen I'm at the Aria, then I'm
at MGM a couple days later and,fucking, charles Barkley is on

(51:51):
the other side of the High LimitRoom later and, um, fucking,
charles barkley is on the otherside of the high limit room and
he's betting pumpkins.
Dude, let's go over to see whathe's betting.
He's got a crowd behind himaround about.
Obviously the pumpkins are 25000 chips.
He's playing two hands 25 and 25and I could guarantee you, if
someone's doing 25 and 25 likethat, it's probably because
that's his cap at the casino.
Casinos can't cap you all, allright.

(52:12):
So who knows, maybe he wouldhave been doing 100 and 100.
Who effing knows?
But he was doing 25 and 25.
And that's pretty fucking cool.
Well, 10 minutes later, a guycomes up to me at my table and
wants to get a picture with meand, by the way, again, I'm half
the followers at this pointthat I have now, bro, and things
have grown really fast.

(52:33):
So he comes over to get apicture with me.
And I go oh cool man, who areyou here with?
He goes oh, those guys overthere.
Anyway, he was part of CharlesBarkley's entourage the guy that
wanted the picture with me justhappened to be buddies with him
and was part of Barkley's thingbut followed me on Instagram
and wanted a picture with me.
A picture with me.
I go wait, you're with thoseguys.
He goes yeah, charles is one ofmy good friends.
I go get the fuck out of here.
He goes you want to meet him?

(52:53):
Barkley gets up and leaves histable, walks over to mine and
somebody caught this on cameratoo.
It's like we're both big guysto kind of meet in the middle of
this crowd of people and dabeach other up.
It almost looked like one ofthose things like staged it,
like I saw which direction hewas walking and cut him off, but
it, but it wasn't.
He was walking to me.

(53:13):
Um, so it was pretty.
It was pretty cool man.
So so that happened thatweekend.
Um, and uh gosh, I think Iended up winning a hundred grand
that weekend.
So that was definitely up there.
Another one is Foxwoods casinoin Connecticut.
Recently I won a $300,000, umblackjack tournament.
David Ortiz, big Papa, what'shis name Big Papi, big Papi,

(53:36):
yeah, big Papi.
I don't know what I'm talkingabout.
Big Papi was there and talkabout a big motherfucker dude.
That guy is big dude.
He made me look little and Iguess he was 100 pounds heavier
when he actually played, buthe's gigantic.
That's crazy.

Speaker 2 (53:55):
So those are the two that would immediately come to
mind I guess.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
So, um, I uh, I have a oh, actually one more one.
Another time I'm at the bahamar.
This is actually when I was onone of my benders that I lost a
couple hundred grand.
This is between january marchof 2020.
I'm at this table post fuckingmalone's.
Next to me, michael Jordanwalks into the fucking room.
Scotty Pippen's in therewatching us play.
It was like literally rememberthat show on MTV back in the day

(54:17):
, the Surreal Life?
It was like the Surreal, likewhere are we right now?
It was fucking cool, and theonly reason I was in that room
was because I was bettingfucking 20 grand a hand before
they all came in.
So they were clearing everyoneout, but not the asshole betting
20 grand a hand that's that'sfreaking amazing.
That's that's crazy he walks inand uh, he's got the suitcase

(54:44):
with him and uh, it's like abriefcase and I go up to him.
And I go because I we're in thebahamas, right so.
I could lead with that.
I'm from Chicago, he'll like me.
Then, if I'm from Chicago and alot of people try to be too
cool for school for that shit,no, dude, don't like go up to
him or whatever.
Listen, motherfucker, you got achance to meet Michael Jordan.
Go fucking say hi, because it'snot like if you're cool about

(55:06):
it, you guys are gonna end upbeing buddies, just like.
Hey, that guy was really cool,let's start hanging out.
No, dude, this is your onechance.
This is your one chance.
You're probably gonna get pal.
You might want to say hi to him, you know?
Um, so I did, and we talked forlike a couple minutes, but uh,
but post malone and uh pippinwere there for a long time.
Jordan kind of just came in andout.
I think there was like somecelebrity golf tournament in
town or something.
That's why they were all therethose are amazing stories.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
Honestly, and uh speaking of honest, right, uh,
since uh your fame and fortune,uh back then like uh, how do I
explain this?
Okay, so back then it's easierto trust people is it easier to
trust people.

Speaker 3 (55:47):
Now it's the same so the trusting people part, you
know, for new people Idefinitely need to pay attention
to it.
You know, you have people kindof up here out of nowhere.
I think I'm a pretty good gaugeof character.
I think most people are.
You know, it's figuring outthat distinction right.

(56:07):
Most people aren't just liketrying to rob me or something
like that, but they might haveulterior motives of wanting to
be around me.
That leads to some kind ofbusiness venture or something
like that.
And it's hard because thatdistinction then, you know,
becomes all right.
Is that the only reason you'rehere, or did you just now?
We're friends and now you'representing with a business idea.

(56:28):
You know what I mean?
It's hard to, it's kind of hardto decipher.
So I kind of just stay awayfrom doing business.
Like, I made this rule about ayear ago and I ain't doing
business with friends of mineanymore.
So you want to be my friend?
That's great, and choose onebecause we ain't doing business
together.
One of the things I think inthat same kind of context,

(56:49):
though, that I've kind offigured out about myself is
that's just become really clearis I've always been kind of an
inclusive person where, like youknow if.
I'm having parties or something.
Hey, everyone's invited hey, ohyeah for sure.
Come on, come on, come on.
And you know there's people inyour life that aren't going to
be happy for you, dude and um,just as a it could be even

(57:12):
family members, bro, and uh, youknow, you look back in your
life and it's like, okay, herewas a sign, here was a sign here
.
This guy only wants to be mybest fucking friend.
When times are kind of shitty,like when it's good, he's not
really like that excited abouther.
He's, he's rolling his eyes.
When something good happens, hedoesn't want to hear about it.

(57:32):
It's like you know what dudefuck that good happens or he
doesn't want to hear about it.
It's like you know what dudeFuck that man, fuck that.
You want to be on this fuckingtrain.
You got to be positive, bro.

Speaker 2 (57:39):
Period Positivity always wins.

Speaker 3 (57:41):
Yeah, yeah.
But it also always amazes me,dude.
It's like okay, these are yourfriends that you grew up with,
or these are your friends that,and someone keeps going up.
Do you want some stranger to goup?
Someone's going up,motherfucker.
Would you rather be a strangeror a person you're associated
with?
I just don't understand it.
Yeah, you know, that's crazy,yeah.

Speaker 2 (58:00):
That's insane.
What's insane, too, is theinfluencers you have met and all
these YouTubers and like BobMenderley, yeah.
I'm a huge like N like BobMundry.
Yeah, I'm a huge Flake and theNell Coy Foulson fan.
I, I, I.
When I was in the hospital andmy girl left me, all I would do
is just watch their videos.

(58:21):
Really.
I would just wait every Mondayto watch their videos.
Man, it was just insane, it was, it was.

Speaker 3 (58:28):
Let's see if.
Let's see if I'm going to trythis.
I've never done this before,but he does it to people all the
time, so I'm going to try it.
If it works, what do you think,bree, is he going to answer?
I don't know, I'm going to do aFaceTime.
He might not answer a FaceTime.
He might be taking a shit orsomething.
Let's see if he does.
If he does, he's sick man, butyeah he's gonna see me with the

(58:56):
headphones on and be like whatthe fuck?
Whose podcast?
This is john quit using me forclout.
Hey, can you hear me?
All right, listen, man.
I'm on this guy's podcast.
Um, he is.
Did you start following mebecause of bob, or?

Speaker 2 (59:10):
no, my brother, my brother what's that?

Speaker 3 (59:13):
my brother he wants to know if he owes you money,
tell me, he owes everyone money.
All right, listen man.

Speaker 2 (59:24):
All right here this is fucking insane.
I'm going to bring it over byyou, max.

Speaker 3 (59:32):
This is fucking insane.
Hey man, hold on.
Sorry, I'm going to bring itover by you, max, hold on.
You guys want to check it?
Yeah, all right all right.

Speaker 2 (59:39):
All right, buddy, here you go.
What's up, man?
My name is Max.
I'm a huge fan of hey, buddy,good to see you.
I'm a huge fan of Nelk, dude.
I uh, I got paralyzed from acar accident when I was in the
military in 2016 and I started,uh, my brother showed me the

(01:00:02):
channel when they had like500,000 subscribers and I was
like, dude, these guys are sofunny and they made my day
because my girlfriend left me,like when I got paralyzed, and I
just kept watching them.
You're watching them.
Fuck her, yeah, fuck her.
You're right, fuck her.
Fuck that bitch.

Speaker 3 (01:00:22):
Yeah, dude, yeah dude , I'm sorry to hear that All
that, that happened.
I'm sorry to hear all thathappened.
No, it's, but it seems likeyou're a big Nelk fan and not a
Bob Metairie fan here.
What's going on?
What?
I'm sorry.

Speaker 2 (01:00:36):
Are you trying to use me to get?
I'm going to join your groupfor a minute.
I'm sorry You're fucking at myback.
I'm just.
I'm sorry I didn't watch BobMetairie when I was in the
hospital.
My brother did introduce me.
Now we're homies so Iappreciate I wasn't asking for

(01:00:58):
that, but I really appreciatethat honestly.
Yeah, man, thank you foranswering.
Yeah, I'll tell him you missedhim.
Alright, well, I'll tell himyou missed him.

Speaker 3 (01:01:17):
I'll tell him All right, bro.
See, bob, this is Bob forgets.
Sometimes he goes back andforth, so he'll be with NELC and
he's doing full send right now.
But he likes to be his ownbrand too, because his
relationship with NELC is in andout.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
Well, do that.
It just made my fucking yearthere you go buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:01:36):
Holy shit man, there you go buddy, god damn it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
All right, dude, thank you so much for coming on
the podcast.
I really appreciate it.
Honestly, I really do.
I really hope the algorithmhelps and I'm able to get my
word on the message.
You know, I want to get the newera of Life to the Max out.
I used to be pretty quiet onthe other podcasts because I had

(01:02:02):
a co-host and we ended up goingseparate ways and I didn't
think I could do it alone.

Speaker 3 (01:02:10):
Well, for people listening too.
One of the things that'sinteresting about Max that I
didn't even really realize waswhen we talked last week.
So you got a big, big mouthlike me or a big mouth like
memory that can't keep our mouthshut.
Well, when you talk to Max,there's plenty of opportunities
to chime in.
Well, as you explained to me,your diaphragm is part of the
paralysis, so it takes a coupleseconds.

(01:02:33):
You're all there mentally, butthe words can't come out fast
enough because of his breathing.
And it has to be one of themost frustrating things when
you're talking to a guy like me,that doesn't shut the fuck up.
John, let me finish the fuckingsentence.

Speaker 2 (01:02:47):
Well, and it's frustrating because I want to
yell.
Like you too, I can't yell, youknow what?
I mean yeah, but no, it's a.
You know, I wouldn't trade,trade my life for anything and
I'm I'm happy god gave it togave this position to someone
that could handle it right onbrother, guys, there's a lot of
people that can't and there's alot of people that are like just

(01:03:09):
upset with the world and Ichoose to say fuck being upset,
fuck the devil taking over.

Speaker 3 (01:03:15):
I'm gonna make the best yep, right on, brother,
keep doing what you're doing,buddy so, without further ado,
look into which camera is him?

Speaker 2 (01:03:27):
camera two, look into camera two.
Tell the people where you're atyour handles and tell them
you're living life to the max,bro.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
At John Sarasani on Instagram is where I'm most
active, but at John Sarasani onTikTok, at John Sarasani TV on
YouTube.
Now, you can go to at JohnSarasani on YouTube, but it's
going to be like pictures of mykids and like my parents'
funeral and stuff like that.
But if you go to at JohnSarasani TV, you're going to see
the content that you're lookingfor and uh, listen, guys, 2000%

(01:03:58):
raise has has brought me intodifferent things and uh, today's
going to be one of thosememories for me.
Buddy, thanks for letting us dothis.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Thanks for coming on.

Speaker 1 (01:04:08):
Just a couple of points.
I'll try.
Just a couple of puns all trynaget by.
Just a couple of teens alltryna survive, live to the max,
cause you don't live it twice.
Couple green thumbs all heightsokay, just a couple of puns all
tryna get by.
Just a couple of teens alltryna survive, live to the max,
cause you don't live it twice.
Couple green thumbs all heightsokay.
Lights, camera, action.
Hold the bullshit Smile, I'mout.