Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, here we go. Welcome in everybody. It is
the After Show podcast. I'm justin. I am the only
host left on this podcast. I used to have a
co host named Winnie who's no longer here. Winnie, love
you miss you. She did the podcast with me several years,
but then there was just one. It's just me and
you know, if you haven't been around for a while,
(00:22):
I've been talking about, you know, what I should do
with the podcast as the only person left. Should I
continue the podcast? And the feedback is mostly that I
should should continue the podcast and have different guests on, right, Billy, Lisa,
maybe producer Riley one day, people in this building, people
in my life. You know, we've had Power of Recovery
(00:42):
on Jenna, my stretch girl who I love. Nurse Fiona
has been on before, so different people that I have
relationships with I'm gonna invite on. So we had Lisa
on yesterday. And Lisa has always been a requested guest
on the after Show, but she's just so busy it's
hard to get her in here. She has a lot
of endorsements, a lot of clients, obviously the book club.
(01:03):
But the other person that was heavily requested, was my
best friend in the whole world named Zeb. Now, if
you don't know who Zeb is, which I'm sure you do,
because I posted a tease about today's podcast on my
Instagram and it literally blew up, So I'm pretty sure
you know who he is. You can find him on
Instagram at zeb days. He is my best friend, he's
(01:26):
my workout partner. We've been friends. We're gonna go through
the whole story for a long time. He sits at
eighty four thousand followers on Instagram to my twenty and
I invited him on yesterday. I texted him and I said, Hey,
would you want to come on my podcast any day
Monday through Wednesday of any week. I was thinking in
a couple of weeks, and he said, how about tomorrow?
(01:51):
And here he is. Welcome Zeb.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, talk right into the mic. Come on, pretend, hold on,
pretend like you're making a real that you do every
single day.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, all right, how you doing? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
There? You go?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited. Second time.
On last time I was on, Bex was here. Yeah,
that was when Be's was here. So you came in,
I came in. Yeah, it's been a while, but yeah,
I'm excited when you when you reached out, I was
a little nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I was like, all right, well, I think people, I
think people have a lot of questions or not questions,
but they want to know more about you, want to
know more about us, maybe our friendship. So we'll go
through the whole story, right and get to know Zeb
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Okay, here we go, sit back, relax.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, I'll tell my side of the story first on
how we met, because what happened with you, Zeb is
you know, people know that we work out together, that
we're friends. Obviously, that's in in have Wor that's where
you live. I used to live there. That's where where
we met. Yeah, so we're workout buddies, we're friends and everything.
But then you kind of had this social media takeover
(02:55):
where you've kind of grown this large following. Yes, which
is pretty cool, right, Yes? And you know, so people
watch your videos and what you do with the Cardigans,
and you know what you do every Sunday and how
you give back, and you know, you're just all around
a funny dude. You're really good at it. You know that.
I know that, right, but people don't really maybe they
don't know you per se all the way, you know
(03:17):
what I mean, and they might have questions that maybe
we'll answer today.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
How's that Let's do it?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, all right, so let's let's go back to let's
go back to two thy twelve in twenty twelve. I
got clean in two thousand and eight. And when I
got clean, I put down the drugs that cleaned up
my life. And you know, I replaced one thing with another,
and that would be food for drugs, and so I
(03:43):
blew up. I gained all this weight. If you know
this story, I'm sorry. Just I'll go quick. I gained
all this weight. I blew up to over three hundred pounds.
I think the last time I weighed myself, I was
three hundred and twenty five pounds. I was giant, okay,
And I had dreams in my mind of wanting to
be fit my life. But I never had the courage
or a will power to join a gym and continue
(04:04):
to go. Number one, I didn't know what to do.
Number two. I felt embarrassed and I felt ashamed, and
I was intimidated by people in the gym. So I
would join gyms throughout the years, different times, and then
I would just never go. So in twenty twelve, I
had my final moment right and that was I was overweight,
I was out of shape. And this one day I
(04:26):
was supposed to speak at a recovery event. It was
at eight o'clock at night. I came home from work.
I was cooking at friendlies at the time. On my
way home. Every day I would get a large pizza
with extra cheese and I would eat the whole thing
to the face every single day. Okay, And so this
one day I got home at about three or four
o'clock with my pizza. I eat the whole thing like
I did, But this day, for some reason, maybe I
(04:47):
eat too much food earlier in the day, I got
stuffed and I passed out into a food coma, and
I overslept for my engagement, my speaking thing, and I'll
never forget. I woke up it was like eight thirty
and I came two like I was on drugs. And
I looked at the clock and realized and looked at
my phone. Saw people blowing up my phone. They didn't
know where I was. And my first thought of complete
(05:10):
shame was I want to get high, and because I
was in recovery, I'd been cleaned for four years. I
real quick I was able to play the tape through like,
that's not an option, right, no matter what, we don't use,
no matter what. That's kind of one of the mantras
in recovery. And my next thought was I'm gonna kill
myself because that seemed to be the next viable option.
And at that moment was like a rock bottom for me.
(05:31):
And I got out of that and I talked to
some people and I was like, I need to make
a change in my life. Okay, So I thought about
it in recovery sense, right. So when I got cleaned
from drugs, I went to drug meetings, okay. And what
I did was I showed up no matter what. Right,
didn't use drugs, no matter what, showed up to meetings,
no matter what. So I thought, what if I use
that to the gym. So I said to myself, what
(05:53):
if I joined the gym and just go three days
a week, walk in, walk to a treadmill, walk for
twenty minutes, walk out nobody, I don't talk to anybody,
It'll be fine, good. And I stuck to that no
matter what, and I did that week after week after week,
and eventually I did forty minutes or thirty minutes, and
eventually I did four days in five days. So now
(06:13):
I'm doing cardio all the time. Right now, the cardio
at the gym stood it overlooked the weight room. Okay.
So every day I would go at around three o'clock
and I walk right in with my hoodie on, and
I get on the cardio and I started to get
more confident. But the weight room I would never go on.
I didn't know how to lift weights right now, you
(06:33):
remember this, right, yes, So you work for the city
of Haveril in the waste water department. A lot of
people know that to follow you. So you go at
the same time every day, which is around three o'clock. Yes, okay,
So every day I would go on to the same
treadmill and I would look out at the people that
were lifting weights, like envious of them, okay. And I
would see the same people every day because people have
(06:54):
the same schedules. And I would see zeb walk in
and work out. Now, obviously, as a heterosexual male, I
didn't look at Zev and be like, wow, that is
a fucking beautiful man. But I was like, Damn, that
motherfucker is good looking and he's jacked. And I noticed
it wasn't just that that I noticed about you. I
noticed that you were you had a workout partner, but
you also were helping other people in the gym. I
(07:17):
would notice that, like you would be working out with
this kid, and then you see other people working out,
maybe they have bad form or something, and you would
go over very gently and say, hey, do you need
some help? And I was like, damn, that's crazy. So
eventually I made my way onto the weight room floor.
I had a friend that Chris. Shout out to Chris
who was my workout partner, and we kind of learned
what to do a little bit, and we'd see zeb
every day. We never talked to him, but we talk
(07:38):
about him. And I would say to Chris, if he
were here, he would back the story up. He would say,
I would say, that's what I want to look like,
Like that's my dream goal, like that physique, but not
just the physique, but like that person.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, I'm my own person, but I wanted to
like my dream would be to get into shape and
help others, right, because that's what my life was about
helping others. And so one day I was with Chris
working out doing our thing, and Zeb was there and
he walked by us and he said. He looked at
me and he goes, hey, how you doing. I said good.
(08:11):
He goes, my name is Zeb. I said, I'm justin.
This is Chris. He said, nice to meet you, Chris
some Zeb, good to meet you. I see you guys
there every day. Keep going, keep doing what we're doing well,
like thank you. Zeb walks away. I look at Chris
and I go He says his name is Zeb, and
Chris goes, no, dude, his name's Jeb. I go, no,
he said Zeb with a Z. He goes, justin nobody's
(08:32):
name Zeb. Okay. He said Jeb like Jebediah okay, And
I'm like okay. And then fast forward on one day
Chris didn't show up to the gym and I was
doing legs and your partner, Zeb stopped showing up that
day and I was on one machine, you were on another,
and you saw me and you walked over and said,
where's your partner? I said, he's not here today? You said,
he said, mine's not either. Do you want to work out?
(08:53):
And from that day forward. We worked out every single day,
every day, right, every day, every day. I just kept
showing up because that was I dream. I had this
kid to help me, and you taught me how to lift,
You taught me how to push myself. You were there
for not just gym stuff, but life stuff. And that
was a really special moment, so much so that I
got married six months after facts and I invited you
(09:15):
to my wedding.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yep, there it is.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
We actually kind of bumped somebody off the list so
that you could be there. Yeah, pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And we're still going now now. We work out one
day a week now because I moved to sail in
New Hampshire, but you're still there Choice Fitness baby.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, and it's still leg day when we work.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Out every Wednesday. We do legs together the Foundation. Yeah.
So the really cool thing about ZEB two is see
what happens is I'm thinking about us, you and I
and I'm thinking about I know I'm talking a lot,
but I'm trying to like lead into this. Before I
opened the floor to you, I want to know if
you agree with this. So when I met Zeb. When
we met Zeb, obviously my Chris was there he's in recovery,
(09:53):
and then you know, sure, sure, slowly but surely he
came to my wedding and he started coming out with us,
my friends who are all in recovery. We don't drink,
we don't do drugs. Ye, same, And I think for
you it really helped you because I know at that
time you never drank, and you know, well you did
a little bit, but not really.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Right, it wasn't it was shortlift.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, drugs never really no drugs. So you're straight edge.
But what do you do when you're you know, twenty
eight or the twenty nine years old? People go out
in the weekends. So I remember you saying to me.
You're like, you guys don't drink or anything. And I'm
like no, and he's like, it's amazing you go out
and have fun. He goes, I was going to the
bar on Friday night and drinking ginger ale?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Is that is that repressing?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Being left out because that's where you meet people, right,
And so I look around and people would be drinking
and I'd feel like the I feel like everybody's looking
at you, like.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Why aren't you drinking? And so I would leave the bars,
and it was that was that was shore lived. That
didn't want that feeling anymore. So I left. But and
then I met you guys. So my my story. I'll
share a little bit about me, my journey through coming
to the gym. So I I grew up, I was,
(11:08):
I was always overweight. Don't get I don't know how
much I you know, how long is your programs?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
As long as you want.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
But we got So I grew up in a big family, and.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well how many brothers?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And I got eight brothers and sisters. I have five
brothers and three sisters. We're from Medford, Yeah, shout out.
And we grew up and my father was the only
one work and my mother, she stayed home, homeschooled us
all of us.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Muh So there's one income, very little, you know, with
nine kids, there's not a lot like I've never been
to Disneyland. The closest thing I've been to Disneyland is
can it be Late Storyland? Story Land, which I went
for the first time this year.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A lot of hand a lot of hand me downs,
a lot of hand me downs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yep. Every Friday, it seems somebody would leave a trash
bag full of clothes at the door.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, but hold on, so you so you come from
a very Christian home. Yes, your your dad is a
Was your dad a pastor?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Is that a minister?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Was a pastor? I grew up in the church, going
to a church right here at Medford Square, and so
we grew up. That's that's how we grew up. But
I also being being homeschooled. I tell people they're like, oh,
you know, you have a feel like you missed out.
I said, yeah, I missed out on a lot of things.
But then I also missed out on a lot of things,
(12:28):
like I didn't get real. I didn't have to deal
with the bullying. I don't know I was. I did
get bullied by the local kids in the neighborhood when out. Yeah,
but yeah, it was not the same as going to school.
I don't know how I would have adapted to school
I had. I didn't like school. I didn't see the
point when I got out of school. I didn't see
(12:48):
the point of pain to go back, so I didn't
go to college. I ended up doing college courses later.
But we grew up kind of, I would say not.
I don't want to say poor, because there's a lot
of you know, always have food on the table. It
was always fooling on the table, but there wasn't It
was just enough. So when I got capable start of
work and I started buying a lot of junk food,
(13:09):
which I started packing on the palms.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So I was two seventy at my heaviest, Wow, and
it was just fluff, no muscle, no muscle, no, I
was just big. People like, oh, you didn't look that.
I'm like, yeah, but I was. I was fluffy. And
I saw a picture of myself. This was the breaking point.
I saw a picture of myself from Christmas and on
the table I had this is this? That is another one? Yeah,
(13:34):
that is another one. That's that was I was twenty
two and I saw a picture of myself with my
sister Abigail, and she was standing in front of the
criss tree and I see my gut, I see my arms,
and I was so I felt so bad about myself.
I says, that's how I look. And it was like
a wake up call. So I went and again, like you,
I didn't want to go to the gym. What do
we always say, what's the hottest pot of going to
(13:55):
the gym? Is walking through the front of us. That's
the hardest thing. So I went and I used to
work with this kid who was a cook at the
window in andover and his name uh Ricky. And I said,
if you go to the gym, and he was a
little heavier, if you go to the gym, I'll go
to the gym. So he joined, and I said, now
(14:16):
I have to go because you. So I went and
I did the same exact thing. I just would go.
I walk in, I go right for the treadmill, and
I'd watch people work out because I have no I'm
a novice. I had no idea what I was doing,
and I didn't I was I was too afraid to ask.
I didn't want to seem like, you know, an idiot,
so I didn't want to ask for how do.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You do that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
How do you do this? So I would watch people
work out and then I would copy their workouts. Eventually,
but it took me a long time. It took me
six months. And I dropped the weight that I wanted
to drop and I got on the floor and that's
where my that's where it all started. And then I
just started. I jumped from Jim partner to gym partner,
(14:54):
and no one was consistent. Everybody would fall off. They
would just go you know, they had they did their
own thing. It was never a commitment. It was they
would never have that. I had the drive because I
didn't want to go back to that zeb of overweight zeb.
So the but the gym is done more for me
than physical. It's it's my therapy, and I think you
(15:15):
can it's it is like you go there, you can
walk through those double doors and it's just like everything
for an hour and a half, two hours, it just
fades away and you just put your body through this
test and you push it and it's it's hard. It's
hard because a lot of people are we fight this
lazy bone in our body and uh, we all do it.
(15:37):
There's nobody that has that wakes up with with the
drive to do something. We have to push through and
some of a lot of times people are they're driven
by family. I got to wake up my kids. I
got to wake up. I gotta make money to keep
a roof over their head, or you got to wake
up because you want to have the drive that I had.
I didn't want to go back to that, so I
(15:57):
was so afraid if I stop going to the gym,
I'd end up back in that box that I was,
and I didn't want it. So hold on.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's so similar to me, because when I pushed me
so hard was the same thing. I did not want
to go back to that feeling I had when I
woke up and I wanted to kill myself. So like
I kept pushing through the first year. Every morning I
would wake up, my first thought would be like, I
don't want to go to the gym. Yeah, anyway ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah yep, And I would. I would. I would be
so I wouldn't go home because I knew if I
went home from work, I wouldn't leave home. So I
would do I would literally don't do this at home.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Kids.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I would change in my car going coming from work.
I would change into my work from my work clothes
to my gym clothes. In the car at stop lights,
I'd take my shirt off, I quick put put a
new shirt on, take my my socks, I shoes off,
put shorts on, and I would stay. I would do
five weeks, five days, and I would just But again,
it was I had to at least get in there,
(16:54):
and I felt off if I didn't go I would
like something's missing. And fast forward to I think it
was twenty fourteen. Yeah, twenty fourteen, I met you and
Chris and that day I still remember. I still remember
the squat rack, the old squat rack they used to
have they get rid of. And from that day on,
(17:15):
because Artie didn't show up and he didn't like doing legs,
he was your gym pott. Oh yeah, and I'll hopefully
he's he's learned. But yeah, he didn't show up and
I was like, yeah, I don't I don't have any
work out with legs. And here we are. Yeah, went
to the wedding, met a bunch of your friends which
are now my friends.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, you became part of the family. Yeah, everyone loved you.
And yeah, the legs thing is I always loved training
legs because it's the hardest thing and I like doing
hard things, and it really is. Our friendship in Bond
started with a leg workout. Yeah, and we used to
do crazy workouts. I mean at the time twenty fifteen,
(17:53):
twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen, I was producing for Ryan
Seacrest from ten to two. So which is you basically
do all the work, like all the editing and then
you just sit there. And I used to every day
I go in and while I was eating, I'd look
up hardest leg workout on the internet and I would
show up to ZEB with a whole written out workout
every every day, every day, you know, not legs every day,
but different workouts, and we just pushed ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yep. I remember the one you came. It was in crayon.
You had, like, yeah, it was in crayon. You wrote
on a piece of paper it was DTP.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The first time we did DTP. And it's just it's
pretty much just pyramid. You go up lightweight, lightweight, heavy
rep and then heavyweight light rep and huh that workout
couldn't even walk out. Looked like a baby deal.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Well, our goal was to limp out of the gym
all the time. And you know, it's crazy because our
gym journey has been so wild, Like it's just you know,
I all like major points in my life. I can
think back, like where I was in the gym at
that time. You know, I connect that to everything, you know,
and like you said, eventually you met my friends and
(18:56):
you came part of the family and all that stuff.
And like I said, you were my wedding. And then wait,
so okay, so do you want to talk about the
So you came from a Christian home, right, So I
want to get to this part of it because people
that follow you, they see the Cardigan's thing you do
and you take donations, yes, and you go to this
Elvis cardigans. I note, just cardigans. Don't say I'm getting
(19:19):
sent bags. Oh oh really yeah, okay, just send.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Cardigans if you're gonna send it my peel boxes on
my page. But I was people were sending me like
they're old pants and underwear.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh right, so just cardigans. And it's just it's so
funny to me. Okay, before you explain the whole, like
social media and what you do on Sundays and all
that stuff, what's so crazy to me, so so funny
to me is what do people know you for on Instagram? Right?
They know you for crap? You should know that's where
it started, right, or you do useless facts because you're
good with a camera. And I think one time you
(19:51):
told me years ago, correct me if I'm wrong, that
when you were growing up, when you were a little kid,
you did have dreams of being like on TV or
in movies or acting in some sense. Is that true? Yeah,
So it makes sense that with social media you kind
of found that, you know, because you didn't go that
route in life, and now you kind of had that
kind of outlet. And you're really good obviously you know that.
(20:12):
But when I met you, okay, I learned about you
you were a Christian. What I really loved about it
because I've gone to your church, I've been there. What
I really loved about you is you you never tried
to push it on me or anybody else. You basically
were like, this is what I do, and if you
want what I have, just do what I do. Right,
(20:34):
These are my beliefs, this is what I believe, this
is my faith. But you never were like you know,
because that's what turns people off. I feel like, you know,
and then I end up going to your church and
loved it, you know what I mean. But when I
met you, I learned about that part of your life.
I went to the church at the elderly Home. You've
been holding it for years there Every Sunday you go
for these people in the home that are the forgotten ones. Right,
(20:56):
you bring them cardigans and you hold a service. Your
dad used to hold it and your dad was the
minister or the pastor.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Then your dad passed a couple of years ago, few
years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Now, right, when was that two thousand and one?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm sorry twenty one? Yeahah, so four years ago, four
years and then you've taken you've taken it over. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
There was a little gap because of COVID couldn't go in. Yeah,
but right as soon as you can open the doors.
As soon as they opened the doors, we went back
in and started it back just will be. We just
picked up yefft.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Off so you would You were doing that when I
met you, okay, over ten years ago. Also, I'm not
making this up. The first time that you came out
with my friends and I on Guys Night, you were
wearing a cardigan. Yes, And Chris, who was the biggest
ball buster of the group, could not let it go no.
He's like, dude, are you wearing a fucking cardigan? Like?
(21:48):
And we brought it up for years after and you've
always been the cardigan guy. Okay. So fast forward now
and now that's like your persona right is you have
your church which you document not inside of the church,
but like the car bringing donating cardigans to them. So
you've been doing this right for years now, you just
document it right, Yes, I just because people were wondering
(22:09):
what I did. One I remember the day it was.
It was a cold day. It was a very quick thing.
I had a cardigan on and I didn't even expect
to become the quote Cardigan king end quote that people
call me now.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
And I was just I didn't think. It's life never
turns out the way that you expect it. That never,
it's always. That's the true statement. So yeah, I've we
were doing the we were doing the sunny services, and
I went in and I said, whatever is in your
heart comes out your mouth. Whatever is it, Whatever comes
(22:41):
out your mouth is in your heart. So if you're
spewing negativity and you're playing people down or whatever, you
got to fix your heart. So that's then that blew up.
And I said, Okay, there's something here. And then I
bought a I got I bought a condo. And this
woman had left, who had passed away. She had left
(23:03):
tuppleware containers full of these cardigans. And I said, oh,
I don't want to get rid of these. What I
can do is I'll give them away at the nursing home.
So I get to the nursing home that Sunday and
I'm like, let me just throw one on. So I
threw one on and I did this little fashion show
and then who would have thought, like the my it
just blew up. And that's how the status on social
(23:27):
media on I didn't expect it. I thought I was
going to be known for useless.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Crap Crapho's started with, and.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That's what I started with, and that was going nowhere.
And I have to give you a shout out because
you you had talked to me on multiple occasions. I
do have to say something. So Justin, you have to
get yourself a friend. A true friend is someone who
tells you things regardless if it hurts your feelings, and
they say it in love. Justin is been you have
(23:55):
been that for me. The constructive criticism is heard as
hard many many therapy sessions at the gym of where
I should be, what I should and if you had
overstepped you you were quick to apologize, and that right there,
it has reinforced. And we work out, you know, we
see each other here and there and we work out
(24:17):
Wednesdays and it's like but that bond, that's an unbreakable
bond because of true friendship. And that's why when you
asked me yesterday, I was like, come on tomorrow. And
it's but that he is a true friend and he
is the He is a big part of me breaking
out of my shell. And you said, this is this
(24:37):
is your this is what it is. You need to
do this. And when I went on a hiatus earlier
this year, social media got to me a little bit
and I needed to take a break. I stepped back
for a couple of months, and you came to me
and you said, listen, people listen to you. You cannot
let this go. People are watching you for inspiration, for comfort,
like this is something it's more about. It's more than you.
(24:59):
Now were the force, and so I looked at it.
I prayed about it, and we're back. Yeah, we're back, baby,
We're back at full force. I get cardigans. My trunk,
I bet is packed full of card like I'm getting.
I coulda go to the peel box when I leave
here and pick up more cardigans. And I love that
people wanna give, and I like that people are seeing
(25:21):
a little bit of kindness like the world in this
in this state where you.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Could consider yourself an influencer. Right, anybody who's on social
media with a lodge presence could be considered an influencer
for many different things, food, whatever. I think what you're
doing is so positive. And I'll give you a story,
a quick story. I already told you this, but I
was at an event for my son's school recently a
couple of weeks ago, and there were some listeners there.
They came up to me and said they listened to
(25:47):
the show whatever. And it's always super nice, you know,
I say, I always say thank you for listening. And
this one woman comes up to me and she says,
justin I'm a big fan of the show. Nice to
meet you. I said, nice to meet you too, and
she goes, I just have to say and she kind
of got like choked up, and she goes, I just
want to say thank you. And in my head I
thought she was gonna say for sharing your story and
(26:09):
your addiction, maybe because it happens all the time, people
say I lost my brother to an overdose so or
whatever I'm in recovery goes thank you and I just
want to say thank you. And then she kind of
paused and she said for giving us zeb and I
looked up at her and I'm like, it caught me
off guard, and I'm like, oh yeah, and she goes,
(26:30):
he is just a gift to this earth. He has
gotten me through so much. I love his videos. He
is just a gem and I just want to say
thank you for sharing him with all of us. So
introducing us, and I was like, I was laughing so hot.
I went to Gen. I told we were laughing, my wife,
And that really speaks volumes though, because I know you
have fun doing it with the reels and they're really
(26:52):
funny and stuff, but people really get a lot out
of them. So it's a form of service. And I
know that in my world, the recovery is all about service.
What you do in the Christian world as a Christian
is service. What you're doing every Sunday is service. The
highest calling you can have is it really is. And
I think one of the most profound things about what
you do with the the elderly home. As I mentioned
(27:14):
this earlier when I first started going with you, and
I need to come back. I need to just do it.
What happened was my son was born. It was before Abel.
Once Abel was born. It was like all game over.
But now I can go. So I'm gonna come. I'm
gonna come. I'm gonna heart problem.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We'll give you a cat again.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I got the raccoon cattagin for you. And I didn't
even know that you were going to talk about raccoons
on the show.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I know he wore. We'll get a picture of that
and post that up. But when I went to the
to the to the service with you and your dad
is when your dad was alive, you explained to me.
After we get out. I was like, wow, that was
like really something. And you go justin like these are
the forgotten people, and I go, I know, it's it's
really sad. You go, no, no, no, you don't understand these
(27:55):
people in these home in Methuin. That's where it is.
Their families live in mathun Like. They don't live across
the country and they're not flying here. They live down
the street and they don't come visit their family members.
They are forgotten. In this one hour that I come
in and give a message, you know, about Jesus and
about God and about faith is what they look forward
(28:15):
to every week. It makes them so happy and you
should they are so happy. You used to post some
of them.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Right, Yeah, I did. They there's like hippo laws now
so I but I I also don't film inside because
I don't want to be one of those like look
at me doing good. I do the card to get
out front, and I show you what people is and
I give you a little message. It's a pre uh a,
it's a what are they what they called? It's just
a it's a little bit of what I talk about
(28:40):
with them. Any message I give on Sunday morning to
the Instagram or TikTok, it's it's that's what I'll talk
about with them. And a lot of it is just
is trying to give them some hope. And there's two
things I'll say. One, you hear if you're breathing, there's
still purpose, there's still time to do something into and
(29:01):
to And my first and foremost is put your trust
in God like trust in Jesus. It's it's the best
decision you'll ever make. And second to do with the
nursing home. I say this the only difference between nursing
homes in prison. And I know this sounds harsh, but
this is I've been going for a lot for a
long time. Is the bars. They have ankle brace ankle bracelets.
(29:22):
They can't leave, like they're not just going out. Some
people can't and go into the court yet. And I'm
not bashing, it's just they can't this too the staff
is not there or the meaning they're understaffed, or they
they just can't physically get out there. And it's it's
really sad because I'm coming to them and this is
(29:43):
one or two women especially, I go in there and
they're like they just cry, they cry, they're crying tears,
and they say, I just want to get out of here.
And so I give them a big hug, kiss and
I give them, give them something and I try to
and I'll sing to them. Go I'll go room to room.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, zeb sayings during the second I saw that firsthand.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And we'll sing and we'll sing to them and because
like I don't have a good I'm no, I'm no crooner,
I'm no what Frank Sinatra or thank you? I appreciate it. Yeah,
Like but that little that little time it lights up
that like it's just I'm I don't it's not for me,
it's for them.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
But that's it's very similar to recovery, and service is
you know you're doing it for them, but you are
getting something out of it too, just like not that
you're looking for that, but it gives you. It gives
you peace, right, it makes you feel good because you're
doing something for someone else. That's what service is. Yes,
it's not because I think in this might be my
case more than you because you kind of grew up
(30:40):
in that environment of like, you know, helping others, right,
But we're selfish people. I'll speak to myself like I'm
I'm self centered. I think about myself first and that's
something that I've really had to work on and changing
that line of thinking. So you know, when you help others,
you're helping them and you're doing a service, and that's great,
but you're also getting something out of it too. You know,
(31:01):
it makes you feel good. What was the what was
the gentleman's name when I was going? He since passed
that lived in the home. He was blind, Michael Poet
And was he blind and deaf or just just blind?
But he was he had kidney failure. Yeah, he was
in a wheelchair. This this guy, I'll never forget him.
We would go every week and he would be there.
(31:21):
He was blind, so many health issues, and he was
just the happiest guy. He was so happy. Like I
would sit and talk to him, and I remember thinking, like,
sometimes I would get down on my own life, right,
things aren't going my way, right, maybe I'm fighting with
my wife or whatever. I don't have money that I want, yes,
And then I would think about him. Look at this guy.
(31:42):
This poor guy can't even see he's in this home,
probably no hope of ever leaving. I think he had
no family left, right, Well, we did have family, but
he was not he was not going anywhere. He died there, yes,
you know, like and I remember thinking, that's where perspective
comes in of life. Right, it's the glass half full
or half empt right, put yourself in someone else's shoes.
This guy, you know, here, I am bitching about my life.
(32:05):
So it was just a really good moment with him.
And he passed when a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Ago, it's been yeah, it's been five years.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So yeah, I'll never forget him. Man, you never forget him.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
There's a there's a lot just like him with the
same story, and they're just and that's what the other
thing is. They have stories they have time, they have
they have their life experiences, and a lot of that's
going to just go to the wayside because, like I said,
I posted something yesterday like material is a money, power, fame,
all that stuff is pushed to the wayside. Now now
it's about connection. They just want to They just want
(32:35):
to talk, They just want people to listen. They just
want to be seen, And yes I do. It does
give me, if anything, it gives me an appreciation for
life that life is brief. Life is beautiful, but it's
also very brief, and it's it's life is in between
the lines. It's in the moments that you don't expect.
It's like when we talk about the good times. The
(32:57):
good times are right now. We're sitting here, we're healthy,
thank God. But this is the good time Smith. We're
gonna look back on this and it's getting me emotional
now because like I love my life and I love
the friendships I have with you and and all the
other guys and gals that I have. It's just I
love my family. I love it's life is good. Look,
(33:17):
I can see, I can walk. I drove here. I
take my hat off to people who drive in traffic
every day. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes
to get to Medford from Hayble today. But it's but
I enjoyed it. I was looking at the I was
looking at the foliage. I was enjoying listening to the
show on the way down, and I was just I'm
alive and I can do something. If you are alive today,
(33:38):
you can do something. Buy somebody a coffee. But don't
wait around for them to say, oh, they did it.
Just I drive away, like, just know that you just
made someone's day. Put the extra doll in tip cup,
or doing doing something outside yourself, outside your comfort zone.
Get outside. That's the hardest thing, right, Going back to
the gym, the hardest thing for us to do was
to walk in the gym because we were heavy. I
(34:01):
threw a sweatshirt. I would always wear a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, oh my god, I'm oh my god, oh my god. Okay,
I'm glad you said this reminded me. I'm glad you
just brought me here. So I've been telling this story
a lot recently. I told it like two or three
times randomly to people for whatever reason. Yep, but I remember,
I'll never forget I had just started working out with Zeb,
maybe a month or so. I was still fat, right,
(34:23):
I was not as fat, but I was still, you know,
a out of shape. And my big thing was my breasts, right.
I had a lot of skin, A lot of my
fat goes to my breasts. I actually posted do you
see this Zeb? On my Instagram? Today's the nine year
anniversary of my boob job? Remember the boob job? Yeah?
Remember my wife took care of me and all that stuff. Yeah,
so today's nine years. I had gotta come assia surgery.
(34:45):
It's been nine years, but I remember it was probably
like a month after we started working out and I
got out of work. I went to the gym to
meet Zeb. I walked into the gym. He was already there.
He was sitting down waiting for me. I walk in,
walk up to him like I did every day, and
he looked up at me and he goes, why do
you walk like that? And I'm like, walk like what?
He goes, You walk with your shoulders slumped in, almost
(35:07):
like you don't want people to see your stomach or
something like you're trying to hide it, you know, And
I go, yeah, I don't know, what are you talking about?
Like look at me, you know, like I don't want
people to see this, Like why are you saying that?
And you go, look from this point forward, from this
day forward, starting right now, I want you to walk
with your shoulders back, and you stood up and you
(35:29):
took me and you pulled my shoulders back and you
prop my chest out and you put my chin up.
You go, from now on, I want you to walk
like this, no matter where you are, what room you're
going into the gym, no matter what, with your chin
held I and your chest out and your shoulders back,
because that shows confidence. I don't care if you have
a six pack or if you have tits, I don't care.
You walk like you do have a six pack. And
(35:51):
from that day forward, I'll never forget that that's how
I walk. And over time I ended up losing had
the boob, well before that, losing the chest, getting into shit,
and now like it's so it's confidence, it's confidence, it's confidence.
So you were giving me that confidence before I even
had any confidence in myself. You know. It's just like
moments like that you think back and you're right, we're
(36:11):
gonna get older, right, and we're gonna look back at
these times, these good times. We're doing it right now.
Life is about memories. It's about cherishing those memories. Yep.
And we've had a lot, We've got a lot. Yeah, Okay,
real quick, I want to get to one or two
more things.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Your social media, Yes, so you started the tick. You
had Instagram had no really no movement. You had a TikTok.
The TikTok a few years ago kind of blew up.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You had like a one hundred thousand follower.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, I have one hundred and almost one hundred and
thirty now.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So it was growing, growing, growing, and I remember like
watching it. I really wasn't on TikTok, but you were
doing crap. You should know. With Ray. Ray is the
kid you work with.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I work with Ray.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yep, He's are great because you guys offset each other.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Yeah, he's Yeah, he's young and young and ambitious and
I'm just I'm older, so I and I guide that ambition.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, he's he's a good kid. So you work for
the wastewater department, so you're like in the ship pipes
pretty much. Basically, I'm a sewer jumper. You're a sewer jumper. Yeah,
so a lot of your content is around what you
do there, so you had ray you do crapy. You
should know the TikTok takes off, okay, but then it's stalled.
I remember you saying that sold after one hundred thousand
in and around there, right, So then ZEB kept going
(37:21):
on or whatever, and then I'll never forget your Instagram.
You would talk to me about it and you'd say, like,
how do you grow your Instagram? Like instagramming? I get
no movement, and I'm like, I don't know, don't I
work on the radio. I have like ten thousand followers.
And then one day I'll never forget this. I happened
to put on it go on Instagram, and you had
thirty thousand followers, and I thought you bought them. No,
(37:44):
I was. I was convinced, and I showed at the
gym and I go, what the fuck is this? And
you're like, dude, I don't know. I did like one
or two videos and it's just exploded, and it has
sense exploded. Now you have eighty thousand followers. Yeah, So
what video was it that sent? Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
There was one, the one with and I think I
just reposted it. It was the one with We're in
the I'm looking for the drain in the I'm in
I'm in Hip Hip Hip high Water with waiters on
and Ray is yelling at me trying to find the drain,
and he's recording me, and I'm like, and so I
come over and I shake the tree or whatever. So
(38:23):
that is you know, I played it up a little bit,
but I was frustrated. We're trying to find We're trying
to find the drain for this thing and paying it.
You have to write, this is the since I watched
my first oscars, I've always wanted to be an actors. Yeah,
and I was just like, so he played up, yeah,
and it came over, but it was but that genuine
frustration I'm trying to find this thing was there and
(38:45):
definitely fueling it. But yeah, and uh, from that, I
just reposted it and and it just went and the
people started to attach themselves to the cardigan and waiting,
waiting patiently, like dming me or messaging me, you can't
wait for next Sunday, can't wait? Thank You've helped me
through I this, you know, this reminded me to come
back and you know, hone in on what's really important
(39:07):
and that's what it is. So now instead of what
what I thought was going to take off was the cysk,
Now it's more of the Lord's work stuff that I
do and going to the.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Nursing home andysk is crap. You should know crap. You
shouldn't get fun facts every day.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Just get fun useless facts like you know a giraffe
can clean its own ear with its tongue, Like you
don't need to know that, or you know they're out there,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love the facts. Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
They they they got me my foundation of a few
thousand followers. And then but the cardigans. People want to
see people doing good and what I want people to
do is do good themselves as well, right, And that's
the that's the whole message hopefully they take from my
social media. You know, I'm trying to unplug them for
two minutes of the day that you know, it's not
(39:53):
that bad. Even though the world is in chaos. It
starts with me, It starts with you, It starts with
with everybody listening. It just starts with you. It's making
one right decision at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
And that's that's where that's how we're going to change
the world. That's how we're going to be better. And
it all encompasses love. You have to love, yep, and
that's it. That's ther power.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's true. But I and I think also, you know,
with your social media, no matter what it is, if
it's you know, crap, you should know Lord's work cardigans.
I think people just like seeing you. You know, you're
really good and you're genuine, and I think people can
see that. And that's the point I wanted to convey
in this, is that the person you're seeing, besides like
when you do like the Sunday morning when you run
up like obviously with the thing. It's hilarious you're putting
(40:38):
on for that, you know, but all the other stuff
is genuinely just who you are. You've always been that guy.
And I think I don't need it doesn't need to
be stated. I think people can see that, they can
see that you're just genuine. You're Zeb. You know. I
always make a joke about Zeb that if the world
goes to shit and like the end of the world comes,
I'm gonna go to Zev's house, you know what I mean,
because I feel like Zeb will protect me and guide us.
(41:02):
You know, I'll tell this real story real quick. There's
so many stories I can take a tell. But we
went used to go on this boys, you know, rafting
trip every year or go away every year. And one
year we went all the guys to Socco in New Hampshire,
North Conway, the Socco River. I'm sorry, was that is
that an Instagram follower that's hitting you up on you?
(41:23):
Of course it is. I'll wrap it up very so.
So we went up to the Socco to raft down
to you know that we call that the tubing we
went to We went tubing.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
It was the is this the one we had to
get in the wall? Yes, this is the we went
on the relaxed one.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
The relaxed one.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
So the water was very cold. We went early in
the season, probably in June. You know, it gets warmer later.
So we're going down the Socco, the guys, like six guys,
and we come upon these two women that were stuck
in a in a in a fallen tree. So and
they were larger women. So you know what happened was
(42:00):
they were going down probably not paying attention. They might
have been drinking, I don't know, and they didn't get
how to move out of the way of the tree,
and they went into the tree branches and were stuck
and could not get out of their tubes. Which sounds
like a funny scene, but it was like serious. So
we come along and we're like, oh shit. Before you
know it, Zeb jumps into action into the freezing cold water,
(42:21):
fucking freeze these two women. Like we're watching them like
what the hell is he doing and ended up getting
them out and rescuing them. Yeah, remember that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, not one thank you. I wasn't looking for the
thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
But wow, that's not what we were saying earlier. That's
not why we do it.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
We do it, but yeah, that's wow. Yep.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, I always say that about Zeb. You know, you're
you're a great leader. That's what that you can be
in life. You can be a leader or a follower,
you know. That's why I tried to teach my son
is to be a leader. Don't do what everybody else
is doing. Don't do things just because they tell you
to do them, or they's just because they're doing it.
Be your own person, yes.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
You know, but don't be too proud to always learning,
always learn, always learn, always learning. You're building on you.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, two words that you want to stay away from.
Are I know?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh, I know, I know, I know. Say yeah, yes,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. So zeb thank
you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Thank you for your friendship. Tomorrow we're gonna have some legs.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Have some legs.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, I got some hip issues going on. I'm working
with Jenna, my stretch girl on it. Who, by the way,
ask about you every time I'll go see it.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I'll go, okay, I'll talk to you. When I leave here, we'll.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Talk to Jenna. You were supposed to make an appointment
or you had an appointment and you missed it.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
I did.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, so she wants to see Yeah, shame on you.
She wants to see you. So go see Jenna. And
then you know, I've have been had some hip issues.
So we'll have to do some some friendly hip friendly exercises. So,
I don't know, I hope he covered it all with this. No,
we don't need to or blow on me.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Absolutely. Why would you bring that up? I know, Oh
my head, I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah. Should I tell that one real quick? To end with?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, Now you have to give contacts because he just
can't leave this.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I know, I know. So back in the day, we
used to squat really heavy, and you know, Zeen get overheated.
You get overheated. So when I'm talking, I would have like,
you know, four oh five or three eighty five on
my back, squatting trying to get five reps. I go
down for like three, and zeb would be there like
he's the best fucking hype man you could ever think of,
Like come on, two more, justin two more, screaming in
(44:31):
my ear and he realized, I don't know how that
on those last one or two reps. Before I would
go down to squat down as he's like, you know,
yelling at me, he would blow on my neck and
I'm not gonna lit this down. And he just did
it one day and you know what, it sounds weird
and it sounds gay, honestly, but the cold air gave
(44:54):
me power. Yeah, and you would blow on it and
I would go down and I would get the rep.
So then we started doing that is like, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
At the while I was taking I took my hat
off now and then I was yeah, and then I
would fan you with my hat. The back of Yeah,
but I didn't have the hat that day.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I don't know where it came from. I was just
like it. I could feel you were just really like overheating.
I'm like, maybe he just needs cold there. I just
wasn't even thinking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I just that's okay.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, and then you just you came you, you racked
the weight and you turn around.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Like you you know what, keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
But Chris, Chris is absolutely not having it because he
was there, so he's like, do not.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Don't ever do that again. I can picture that. But
you know what, Zeb, if I was going to be
gay with anyone, I'd rather be gay with you. Well,
thank you everybody. I hope this podcast was good. And
you can follow Zeb on Instagram at zeb Days and
there is a po box on your profile if you
want to donate Cardigans cars.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Only you use panties, no please, I'm not a salvation no. No.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Girls do have our fans of you, so you might
get some used panties. I don't know what goes on there.
I don't know, but Cardigan's only, Cardigan's only. Alright, love you, ZEB,
love you too, all right, everybody will talk tomorrow
All right, here we go. Welcome in everybody. It is
the After Show podcast. I'm justin. I am the only
host left on this podcast. I used to have a
co host named Winnie who's no longer here. Winnie, love
you miss you. She did the podcast with me several years,
but then there was just one. It's just me and
you know, if you haven't been around for a while,
(00:22):
I've been talking about, you know, what I should do
with the podcast as the only person left. Should I
continue the podcast? And the feedback is mostly that I
should should continue the podcast and have different guests on, right, Billy, Lisa,
maybe producer Riley one day, people in this building, people
in my life. You know, we've had Power of Recovery
(00:42):
on Jenna, my stretch girl who I love. Nurse Fiona
has been on before, so different people that I have
relationships with I'm gonna invite on. So we had Lisa
on yesterday. And Lisa has always been a requested guest
on the after Show, but she's just so busy it's
hard to get her in here. She has a lot
of endorsements, a lot of clients, obviously the book club.
(01:03):
But the other person that was heavily requested, was my
best friend in the whole world named Zeb. Now, if
you don't know who Zeb is, which I'm sure you do,
because I posted a tease about today's podcast on my
Instagram and it literally blew up, So I'm pretty sure
you know who he is. You can find him on
Instagram at zeb days. He is my best friend, he's
(01:26):
my workout partner. We've been friends. We're gonna go through
the whole story for a long time. He sits at
eighty four thousand followers on Instagram to my twenty and
I invited him on yesterday. I texted him and I said, Hey,
would you want to come on my podcast any day
Monday through Wednesday of any week. I was thinking in
a couple of weeks, and he said, how about tomorrow?
(01:51):
And here he is. Welcome Zeb.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:53):
Okay, talk right into the mic. Come on, pretend, hold on,
pretend like you're making a real that you do every
single day.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
All right, all right, how you doing? Everybody?
Speaker 1 (02:01):
There? You go?
Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited. Second time.
On last time I was on, Bex was here. Yeah,
that was when Be's was here. So you came in,
I came in. Yeah, it's been a while, but yeah,
I'm excited when you when you reached out, I was
a little nervous.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
I was like, all right, well, I think people, I
think people have a lot of questions or not questions,
but they want to know more about you, want to
know more about us, maybe our friendship. So we'll go
through the whole story, right and get to know Zeb
a little bit.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
Okay, here we go, sit back, relax.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
Well, I'll tell my side of the story first on
how we met, because what happened with you, Zeb is
you know, people know that we work out together, that
we're friends. Obviously, that's in in have Wor that's where
you live. I used to live there. That's where where
we met. Yeah, so we're workout buddies, we're friends and everything.
But then you kind of had this social media takeover
(02:55):
where you've kind of grown this large following. Yes, which
is pretty cool, right, Yes? And you know, so people
watch your videos and what you do with the Cardigans,
and you know what you do every Sunday and how
you give back, and you know, you're just all around
a funny dude. You're really good at it. You know that.
I know that, right, but people don't really maybe they
don't know you per se all the way, you know
(03:17):
what I mean, and they might have questions that maybe
we'll answer today.
Speaker 2 (03:20):
How's that Let's do it?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, all right, so let's let's go back to let's
go back to two thy twelve in twenty twelve. I
got clean in two thousand and eight. And when I
got clean, I put down the drugs that cleaned up
my life. And you know, I replaced one thing with another,
and that would be food for drugs, and so I
(03:43):
blew up. I gained all this weight. If you know
this story, I'm sorry. Just I'll go quick. I gained
all this weight. I blew up to over three hundred pounds.
I think the last time I weighed myself, I was
three hundred and twenty five pounds. I was giant, okay,
And I had dreams in my mind of wanting to
be fit my life. But I never had the courage
or a will power to join a gym and continue
(04:04):
to go. Number one, I didn't know what to do.
Number two. I felt embarrassed and I felt ashamed, and
I was intimidated by people in the gym. So I
would join gyms throughout the years, different times, and then
I would just never go. So in twenty twelve, I
had my final moment right and that was I was overweight,
I was out of shape. And this one day I
(04:26):
was supposed to speak at a recovery event. It was
at eight o'clock at night. I came home from work.
I was cooking at friendlies at the time. On my
way home. Every day I would get a large pizza
with extra cheese and I would eat the whole thing
to the face every single day. Okay, And so this
one day I got home at about three or four
o'clock with my pizza. I eat the whole thing like
I did, But this day, for some reason, maybe I
(04:47):
eat too much food earlier in the day, I got
stuffed and I passed out into a food coma, and
I overslept for my engagement, my speaking thing, and I'll
never forget. I woke up it was like eight thirty
and I came two like I was on drugs. And
I looked at the clock and realized and looked at
my phone. Saw people blowing up my phone. They didn't
know where I was. And my first thought of complete
(05:10):
shame was I want to get high, and because I
was in recovery, I'd been cleaned for four years. I
real quick I was able to play the tape through like,
that's not an option, right, no matter what, we don't use,
no matter what. That's kind of one of the mantras
in recovery. And my next thought was I'm gonna kill
myself because that seemed to be the next viable option.
And at that moment was like a rock bottom for me.
(05:31):
And I got out of that and I talked to
some people and I was like, I need to make
a change in my life. Okay, So I thought about
it in recovery sense, right. So when I got cleaned
from drugs, I went to drug meetings, okay. And what
I did was I showed up no matter what. Right,
didn't use drugs, no matter what, showed up to meetings,
no matter what. So I thought, what if I use
that to the gym. So I said to myself, what
(05:53):
if I joined the gym and just go three days
a week, walk in, walk to a treadmill, walk for
twenty minutes, walk out nobody, I don't talk to anybody,
It'll be fine, good. And I stuck to that no
matter what, and I did that week after week after week,
and eventually I did forty minutes or thirty minutes, and
eventually I did four days in five days. So now
(06:13):
I'm doing cardio all the time. Right now, the cardio
at the gym stood it overlooked the weight room. Okay.
So every day I would go at around three o'clock
and I walk right in with my hoodie on, and
I get on the cardio and I started to get
more confident. But the weight room I would never go on.
I didn't know how to lift weights right now, you
(06:33):
remember this, right, yes, So you work for the city
of Haveril in the waste water department. A lot of
people know that to follow you. So you go at
the same time every day, which is around three o'clock. Yes, okay,
So every day I would go on to the same
treadmill and I would look out at the people that
were lifting weights, like envious of them, okay. And I
would see the same people every day because people have
(06:54):
the same schedules. And I would see zeb walk in
and work out. Now, obviously, as a heterosexual male, I
didn't look at Zev and be like, wow, that is
a fucking beautiful man. But I was like, Damn, that
motherfucker is good looking and he's jacked. And I noticed
it wasn't just that that I noticed about you. I
noticed that you were you had a workout partner, but
you also were helping other people in the gym. I
(07:17):
would notice that, like you would be working out with
this kid, and then you see other people working out,
maybe they have bad form or something, and you would
go over very gently and say, hey, do you need
some help? And I was like, damn, that's crazy. So
eventually I made my way onto the weight room floor.
I had a friend that Chris. Shout out to Chris
who was my workout partner, and we kind of learned
what to do a little bit, and we'd see zeb
every day. We never talked to him, but we talk
(07:38):
about him. And I would say to Chris, if he
were here, he would back the story up. He would say,
I would say, that's what I want to look like,
Like that's my dream goal, like that physique, but not
just the physique, but like that person.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
Right now.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
You know, I'm my own person, but I wanted to
like my dream would be to get into shape and
help others, right, because that's what my life was about
helping others. And so one day I was with Chris
working out doing our thing, and Zeb was there and
he walked by us and he said. He looked at
me and he goes, hey, how you doing. I said good.
(08:11):
He goes, my name is Zeb. I said, I'm justin.
This is Chris. He said, nice to meet you, Chris
some Zeb, good to meet you. I see you guys
there every day. Keep going, keep doing what we're doing well,
like thank you. Zeb walks away. I look at Chris
and I go He says his name is Zeb, and
Chris goes, no, dude, his name's Jeb. I go, no,
he said Zeb with a Z. He goes, justin nobody's
(08:32):
name Zeb. Okay. He said Jeb like Jebediah okay, And
I'm like okay. And then fast forward on one day
Chris didn't show up to the gym and I was
doing legs and your partner, Zeb stopped showing up that
day and I was on one machine, you were on another,
and you saw me and you walked over and said,
where's your partner? I said, he's not here today? You said,
he said, mine's not either. Do you want to work out?
(08:53):
And from that day forward. We worked out every single day,
every day, right, every day, every day. I just kept
showing up because that was I dream. I had this
kid to help me, and you taught me how to lift,
You taught me how to push myself. You were there
for not just gym stuff, but life stuff. And that
was a really special moment, so much so that I
got married six months after facts and I invited you
(09:15):
to my wedding.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yep, there it is.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
We actually kind of bumped somebody off the list so
that you could be there. Yeah, pretty crazy.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And we're still going now now. We work out one
day a week now because I moved to sail in
New Hampshire, but you're still there Choice Fitness baby.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
Yeah, and it's still leg day when we work.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Out every Wednesday. We do legs together the Foundation. Yeah.
So the really cool thing about ZEB two is see
what happens is I'm thinking about us, you and I
and I'm thinking about I know I'm talking a lot,
but I'm trying to like lead into this. Before I
opened the floor to you, I want to know if
you agree with this. So when I met Zeb. When
we met Zeb, obviously my Chris was there he's in recovery,
(09:53):
and then you know, sure, sure, slowly but surely he
came to my wedding and he started coming out with us,
my friends who are all in recovery. We don't drink,
we don't do drugs. Ye, same, And I think for
you it really helped you because I know at that
time you never drank, and you know, well you did
a little bit, but not really.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
Right, it wasn't it was shortlift.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
Yeah, drugs never really no drugs. So you're straight edge.
But what do you do when you're you know, twenty
eight or the twenty nine years old? People go out
in the weekends. So I remember you saying to me.
You're like, you guys don't drink or anything. And I'm
like no, and he's like, it's amazing you go out
and have fun. He goes, I was going to the
bar on Friday night and drinking ginger ale?
Speaker 2 (10:33):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Is that is that repressing?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Being left out because that's where you meet people, right,
And so I look around and people would be drinking
and I'd feel like the I feel like everybody's looking
at you, like.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Why aren't you drinking? And so I would leave the bars,
and it was that was that was shore lived. That
didn't want that feeling anymore. So I left. But and
then I met you guys. So my my story. I'll
share a little bit about me, my journey through coming
to the gym. So I I grew up, I was,
(11:08):
I was always overweight. Don't get I don't know how
much I you know, how long is your programs?
Speaker 1 (11:13):
As long as you want.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
But we got So I grew up in a big family, and.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Well how many brothers?
Speaker 2 (11:20):
And I got eight brothers and sisters. I have five
brothers and three sisters. We're from Medford, Yeah, shout out.
And we grew up and my father was the only
one work and my mother, she stayed home, homeschooled us
all of us.
Speaker 1 (11:35):
Amazing.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
Muh So there's one income, very little, you know, with
nine kids, there's not a lot like I've never been
to Disneyland. The closest thing I've been to Disneyland is
can it be Late Storyland? Story Land, which I went
for the first time this year.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A lot of hand a lot of hand me downs,
a lot of hand me downs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yep. Every Friday, it seems somebody would leave a trash
bag full of clothes at the door.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Yeah, but hold on, so you so you come from
a very Christian home. Yes, your your dad is a
Was your dad a pastor?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Is that a minister?
Speaker 2 (12:08):
Was a pastor? I grew up in the church, going
to a church right here at Medford Square, and so
we grew up. That's that's how we grew up. But
I also being being homeschooled. I tell people they're like, oh,
you know, you have a feel like you missed out.
I said, yeah, I missed out on a lot of things.
But then I also missed out on a lot of things,
(12:28):
like I didn't get real. I didn't have to deal
with the bullying. I don't know I was. I did
get bullied by the local kids in the neighborhood when out. Yeah,
but yeah, it was not the same as going to school.
I don't know how I would have adapted to school
I had. I didn't like school. I didn't see the
point when I got out of school. I didn't see
(12:48):
the point of pain to go back, so I didn't
go to college. I ended up doing college courses later.
But we grew up kind of, I would say not.
I don't want to say poor, because there's a lot
of you know, always have food on the table. It
was always fooling on the table, but there wasn't It
was just enough. So when I got capable start of
work and I started buying a lot of junk food,
(13:09):
which I started packing on the palms.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Baby.
Speaker 2 (13:12):
So I was two seventy at my heaviest, Wow, and
it was just fluff, no muscle, no muscle, no, I
was just big. People like, oh, you didn't look that.
I'm like, yeah, but I was. I was fluffy. And
I saw a picture of myself. This was the breaking point.
I saw a picture of myself from Christmas and on
the table I had this is this? That is another one? Yeah,
(13:34):
that is another one. That's that was I was twenty
two and I saw a picture of myself with my
sister Abigail, and she was standing in front of the
criss tree and I see my gut, I see my arms,
and I was so I felt so bad about myself.
I says, that's how I look. And it was like
a wake up call. So I went and again, like you,
I didn't want to go to the gym. What do
we always say, what's the hottest pot of going to
(13:55):
the gym? Is walking through the front of us. That's
the hardest thing. So I went and I used to
work with this kid who was a cook at the
window in andover and his name uh Ricky. And I said,
if you go to the gym, and he was a
little heavier, if you go to the gym, I'll go
to the gym. So he joined, and I said, now
(14:16):
I have to go because you. So I went and
I did the same exact thing. I just would go.
I walk in, I go right for the treadmill, and
I'd watch people work out because I have no I'm
a novice. I had no idea what I was doing,
and I didn't I was I was too afraid to ask.
I didn't want to seem like, you know, an idiot,
so I didn't want to ask for how do.
Speaker 1 (14:33):
You do that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
How do you do this? So I would watch people
work out and then I would copy their workouts. Eventually,
but it took me a long time. It took me
six months. And I dropped the weight that I wanted
to drop and I got on the floor and that's
where my that's where it all started. And then I
just started. I jumped from Jim partner to gym partner,
(14:54):
and no one was consistent. Everybody would fall off. They
would just go you know, they had they did their
own thing. It was never a commitment. It was they
would never have that. I had the drive because I
didn't want to go back to that zeb of overweight zeb.
So the but the gym is done more for me
than physical. It's it's my therapy, and I think you
(15:15):
can it's it is like you go there, you can
walk through those double doors and it's just like everything
for an hour and a half, two hours, it just
fades away and you just put your body through this
test and you push it and it's it's hard. It's
hard because a lot of people are we fight this
lazy bone in our body and uh, we all do it.
(15:37):
There's nobody that has that wakes up with with the
drive to do something. We have to push through and
some of a lot of times people are they're driven
by family. I got to wake up my kids. I
got to wake up. I gotta make money to keep
a roof over their head, or you got to wake
up because you want to have the drive that I had.
I didn't want to go back to that, so I
(15:57):
was so afraid if I stop going to the gym,
I'd end up back in that box that I was,
and I didn't want it. So hold on.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
That's so similar to me, because when I pushed me
so hard was the same thing. I did not want
to go back to that feeling I had when I
woke up and I wanted to kill myself. So like
I kept pushing through the first year. Every morning I
would wake up, my first thought would be like, I
don't want to go to the gym. Yeah, anyway ahead.
Speaker 2 (16:22):
Yeah yep, And I would. I would. I would be
so I wouldn't go home because I knew if I
went home from work, I wouldn't leave home. So I
would do I would literally don't do this at home.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
Kids.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
I would change in my car going coming from work.
I would change into my work from my work clothes
to my gym clothes. In the car at stop lights,
I'd take my shirt off, I quick put put a
new shirt on, take my my socks, I shoes off,
put shorts on, and I would stay. I would do
five weeks, five days, and I would just But again,
it was I had to at least get in there,
(16:54):
and I felt off if I didn't go I would
like something's missing. And fast forward to I think it
was twenty fourteen. Yeah, twenty fourteen, I met you and
Chris and that day I still remember. I still remember
the squat rack, the old squat rack they used to
have they get rid of. And from that day on,
(17:15):
because Artie didn't show up and he didn't like doing legs,
he was your gym pott. Oh yeah, and I'll hopefully
he's he's learned. But yeah, he didn't show up and
I was like, yeah, I don't I don't have any
work out with legs. And here we are. Yeah, went
to the wedding, met a bunch of your friends which
are now my friends.
Speaker 1 (17:33):
Yeah, you became part of the family. Yeah, everyone loved you.
And yeah, the legs thing is I always loved training
legs because it's the hardest thing and I like doing
hard things, and it really is. Our friendship in Bond
started with a leg workout. Yeah, and we used to
do crazy workouts. I mean at the time twenty fifteen,
(17:53):
twenty fourteen to twenty fifteen, I was producing for Ryan
Seacrest from ten to two. So which is you basically
do all the work, like all the editing and then
you just sit there. And I used to every day
I go in and while I was eating, I'd look
up hardest leg workout on the internet and I would
show up to ZEB with a whole written out workout
every every day, every day, you know, not legs every day,
but different workouts, and we just pushed ourselves.
Speaker 2 (18:15):
Yep. I remember the one you came. It was in crayon.
You had, like, yeah, it was in crayon. You wrote
on a piece of paper it was DTP.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (18:23):
The first time we did DTP. And it's just it's
pretty much just pyramid. You go up lightweight, lightweight, heavy
rep and then heavyweight light rep and huh that workout
couldn't even walk out. Looked like a baby deal.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Well, our goal was to limp out of the gym
all the time. And you know, it's crazy because our
gym journey has been so wild, Like it's just you know,
I all like major points in my life. I can
think back, like where I was in the gym at
that time. You know, I connect that to everything, you know,
and like you said, eventually you met my friends and
(18:56):
you came part of the family and all that stuff.
And like I said, you were my wedding. And then wait,
so okay, so do you want to talk about the
So you came from a Christian home, right, So I
want to get to this part of it because people
that follow you, they see the Cardigan's thing you do
and you take donations, yes, and you go to this
Elvis cardigans. I note, just cardigans. Don't say I'm getting
(19:19):
sent bags. Oh oh really yeah, okay, just send.
Speaker 2 (19:22):
Cardigans if you're gonna send it my peel boxes on
my page. But I was people were sending me like
they're old pants and underwear.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh right, so just cardigans. And it's just it's so
funny to me. Okay, before you explain the whole, like
social media and what you do on Sundays and all
that stuff, what's so crazy to me, so so funny
to me is what do people know you for on Instagram? Right?
They know you for crap? You should know that's where
it started, right, or you do useless facts because you're
good with a camera. And I think one time you
(19:51):
told me years ago, correct me if I'm wrong, that
when you were growing up, when you were a little kid,
you did have dreams of being like on TV or
in movies or acting in some sense. Is that true? Yeah,
So it makes sense that with social media you kind
of found that, you know, because you didn't go that
route in life, and now you kind of had that
kind of outlet. And you're really good obviously you know that.
(20:12):
But when I met you, okay, I learned about you
you were a Christian. What I really loved about it
because I've gone to your church, I've been there. What
I really loved about you is you you never tried
to push it on me or anybody else. You basically
were like, this is what I do, and if you
want what I have, just do what I do. Right,
(20:34):
These are my beliefs, this is what I believe, this
is my faith. But you never were like you know,
because that's what turns people off. I feel like, you know,
and then I end up going to your church and
loved it, you know what I mean. But when I
met you, I learned about that part of your life.
I went to the church at the elderly Home. You've
been holding it for years there Every Sunday you go
for these people in the home that are the forgotten ones. Right,
(20:56):
you bring them cardigans and you hold a service. Your
dad used to hold it and your dad was the
minister or the pastor.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
Then your dad passed a couple of years ago, few
years ago.
Speaker 2 (21:06):
Now, right, when was that two thousand and one?
Speaker 1 (21:09):
I'm sorry twenty one? Yeahah, so four years ago, four
years and then you've taken you've taken it over. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
There was a little gap because of COVID couldn't go in. Yeah,
but right as soon as you can open the doors.
As soon as they opened the doors, we went back
in and started it back just will be. We just
picked up yefft.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Off so you would You were doing that when I
met you, okay, over ten years ago. Also, I'm not
making this up. The first time that you came out
with my friends and I on Guys Night, you were
wearing a cardigan. Yes, And Chris, who was the biggest
ball buster of the group, could not let it go no.
He's like, dude, are you wearing a fucking cardigan? Like?
(21:48):
And we brought it up for years after and you've
always been the cardigan guy. Okay. So fast forward now
and now that's like your persona right is you have
your church which you document not inside of the church,
but like the car bringing donating cardigans to them. So
you've been doing this right for years now, you just
document it right, Yes, I just because people were wondering
(22:09):
what I did. One I remember the day it was.
It was a cold day. It was a very quick thing.
I had a cardigan on and I didn't even expect
to become the quote Cardigan king end quote that people
call me now.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
And I was just I didn't think. It's life never
turns out the way that you expect it. That never,
it's always. That's the true statement. So yeah, I've we
were doing the we were doing the sunny services, and
I went in and I said, whatever is in your
heart comes out your mouth. Whatever is it, Whatever comes
(22:41):
out your mouth is in your heart. So if you're
spewing negativity and you're playing people down or whatever, you
got to fix your heart. So that's then that blew up.
And I said, Okay, there's something here. And then I
bought a I got I bought a condo. And this
woman had left, who had passed away. She had left
(23:03):
tuppleware containers full of these cardigans. And I said, oh,
I don't want to get rid of these. What I
can do is I'll give them away at the nursing home.
So I get to the nursing home that Sunday and
I'm like, let me just throw one on. So I
threw one on and I did this little fashion show
and then who would have thought, like the my it
just blew up. And that's how the status on social
(23:27):
media on I didn't expect it. I thought I was
going to be known for useless.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Crap Crapho's started with, and.
Speaker 2 (23:32):
That's what I started with, and that was going nowhere.
And I have to give you a shout out because
you you had talked to me on multiple occasions. I
do have to say something. So Justin, you have to
get yourself a friend. A true friend is someone who
tells you things regardless if it hurts your feelings, and
they say it in love. Justin is been you have
(23:55):
been that for me. The constructive criticism is heard as
hard many many therapy sessions at the gym of where
I should be, what I should and if you had
overstepped you you were quick to apologize, and that right there,
it has reinforced. And we work out, you know, we
see each other here and there and we work out
(24:17):
Wednesdays and it's like but that bond, that's an unbreakable
bond because of true friendship. And that's why when you
asked me yesterday, I was like, come on tomorrow. And
it's but that he is a true friend and he
is the He is a big part of me breaking
out of my shell. And you said, this is this
(24:37):
is your this is what it is. You need to
do this. And when I went on a hiatus earlier
this year, social media got to me a little bit
and I needed to take a break. I stepped back
for a couple of months, and you came to me
and you said, listen, people listen to you. You cannot
let this go. People are watching you for inspiration, for comfort,
like this is something it's more about. It's more than you.
(24:59):
Now were the force, and so I looked at it.
I prayed about it, and we're back. Yeah, we're back, baby,
We're back at full force. I get cardigans. My trunk,
I bet is packed full of card like I'm getting.
I coulda go to the peel box when I leave
here and pick up more cardigans. And I love that
people wanna give, and I like that people are seeing
(25:21):
a little bit of kindness like the world in this
in this state where you.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
Could consider yourself an influencer. Right, anybody who's on social
media with a lodge presence could be considered an influencer
for many different things, food, whatever. I think what you're
doing is so positive. And I'll give you a story,
a quick story. I already told you this, but I
was at an event for my son's school recently a
couple of weeks ago, and there were some listeners there.
They came up to me and said they listened to
(25:47):
the show whatever. And it's always super nice, you know,
I say, I always say thank you for listening. And
this one woman comes up to me and she says,
justin I'm a big fan of the show. Nice to
meet you. I said, nice to meet you too, and
she goes, I just have to say and she kind
of got like choked up, and she goes, I just
want to say thank you. And in my head I
thought she was gonna say for sharing your story and
(26:09):
your addiction, maybe because it happens all the time, people
say I lost my brother to an overdose so or
whatever I'm in recovery goes thank you and I just
want to say thank you. And then she kind of
paused and she said for giving us zeb and I
looked up at her and I'm like, it caught me
off guard, and I'm like, oh yeah, and she goes,
(26:30):
he is just a gift to this earth. He has
gotten me through so much. I love his videos. He
is just a gem and I just want to say
thank you for sharing him with all of us. So
introducing us, and I was like, I was laughing so hot.
I went to Gen. I told we were laughing, my wife,
And that really speaks volumes though, because I know you
have fun doing it with the reels and they're really
(26:52):
funny and stuff, but people really get a lot out
of them. So it's a form of service. And I
know that in my world, the recovery is all about service.
What you do in the Christian world as a Christian
is service. What you're doing every Sunday is service. The
highest calling you can have is it really is. And
I think one of the most profound things about what
you do with the the elderly home. As I mentioned
(27:14):
this earlier when I first started going with you, and
I need to come back. I need to just do it.
What happened was my son was born. It was before Abel.
Once Abel was born. It was like all game over.
But now I can go. So I'm gonna come. I'm
gonna come. I'm gonna heart problem.
Speaker 2 (27:27):
We'll give you a cat again.
Speaker 1 (27:28):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I got the raccoon cattagin for you. And I didn't
even know that you were going to talk about raccoons
on the show.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I know he wore. We'll get a picture of that
and post that up. But when I went to the
to the to the service with you and your dad
is when your dad was alive, you explained to me.
After we get out. I was like, wow, that was
like really something. And you go justin like these are
the forgotten people, and I go, I know, it's it's
really sad. You go, no, no, no, you don't understand these
(27:55):
people in these home in Methuin. That's where it is.
Their families live in mathun Like. They don't live across
the country and they're not flying here. They live down
the street and they don't come visit their family members.
They are forgotten. In this one hour that I come
in and give a message, you know, about Jesus and
about God and about faith is what they look forward
(28:15):
to every week. It makes them so happy and you
should they are so happy. You used to post some
of them.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Right, Yeah, I did. They there's like hippo laws now
so I but I I also don't film inside because
I don't want to be one of those like look
at me doing good. I do the card to get
out front, and I show you what people is and
I give you a little message. It's a pre uh a,
it's a what are they what they called? It's just
a it's a little bit of what I talk about
(28:40):
with them. Any message I give on Sunday morning to
the Instagram or TikTok, it's it's that's what I'll talk
about with them. And a lot of it is just
is trying to give them some hope. And there's two
things I'll say. One, you hear if you're breathing, there's
still purpose, there's still time to do something into and
(29:01):
to And my first and foremost is put your trust
in God like trust in Jesus. It's it's the best
decision you'll ever make. And second to do with the
nursing home. I say this the only difference between nursing
homes in prison. And I know this sounds harsh, but
this is I've been going for a lot for a
long time. Is the bars. They have ankle brace ankle bracelets.
(29:22):
They can't leave, like they're not just going out. Some
people can't and go into the court yet. And I'm
not bashing, it's just they can't this too the staff
is not there or the meaning they're understaffed, or they
they just can't physically get out there. And it's it's
really sad because I'm coming to them and this is
(29:43):
one or two women especially, I go in there and
they're like they just cry, they cry, they're crying tears,
and they say, I just want to get out of here.
And so I give them a big hug, kiss and
I give them, give them something and I try to
and I'll sing to them. Go I'll go room to room.
Speaker 1 (29:57):
Yeah, zeb sayings during the second I saw that firsthand.
Speaker 2 (30:00):
And we'll sing and we'll sing to them and because
like I don't have a good I'm no, I'm no crooner,
I'm no what Frank Sinatra or thank you? I appreciate it. Yeah,
Like but that little that little time it lights up
that like it's just I'm I don't it's not for me,
it's for them.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
But that's it's very similar to recovery, and service is
you know you're doing it for them, but you are
getting something out of it too, just like not that
you're looking for that, but it gives you. It gives
you peace, right, it makes you feel good because you're
doing something for someone else. That's what service is. Yes,
it's not because I think in this might be my
case more than you because you kind of grew up
(30:40):
in that environment of like, you know, helping others, right,
But we're selfish people. I'll speak to myself like I'm
I'm self centered. I think about myself first and that's
something that I've really had to work on and changing
that line of thinking. So you know, when you help others,
you're helping them and you're doing a service, and that's great,
but you're also getting something out of it too. You know,
(31:01):
it makes you feel good. What was the what was
the gentleman's name when I was going? He since passed
that lived in the home. He was blind, Michael Poet
And was he blind and deaf or just just blind?
But he was he had kidney failure. Yeah, he was
in a wheelchair. This this guy, I'll never forget him.
We would go every week and he would be there.
(31:21):
He was blind, so many health issues, and he was
just the happiest guy. He was so happy. Like I
would sit and talk to him, and I remember thinking, like,
sometimes I would get down on my own life, right,
things aren't going my way, right, maybe I'm fighting with
my wife or whatever. I don't have money that I want, yes,
And then I would think about him. Look at this guy.
(31:42):
This poor guy can't even see he's in this home,
probably no hope of ever leaving. I think he had
no family left, right, Well, we did have family, but
he was not he was not going anywhere. He died there, yes,
you know, like and I remember thinking, that's where perspective
comes in of life. Right, it's the glass half full
or half empt right, put yourself in someone else's shoes.
This guy, you know, here, I am bitching about my life.
(32:05):
So it was just a really good moment with him.
And he passed when a couple of years.
Speaker 2 (32:08):
Ago, it's been yeah, it's been five years.
Speaker 1 (32:10):
So yeah, I'll never forget him. Man, you never forget him.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
There's a there's a lot just like him with the
same story, and they're just and that's what the other
thing is. They have stories they have time, they have
they have their life experiences, and a lot of that's
going to just go to the wayside because, like I said,
I posted something yesterday like material is a money, power, fame,
all that stuff is pushed to the wayside. Now now
it's about connection. They just want to They just want
(32:35):
to talk, They just want people to listen. They just
want to be seen, And yes I do. It does
give me, if anything, it gives me an appreciation for
life that life is brief. Life is beautiful, but it's
also very brief, and it's it's life is in between
the lines. It's in the moments that you don't expect.
It's like when we talk about the good times. The
(32:57):
good times are right now. We're sitting here, we're healthy,
thank God. But this is the good time Smith. We're
gonna look back on this and it's getting me emotional
now because like I love my life and I love
the friendships I have with you and and all the
other guys and gals that I have. It's just I
love my family. I love it's life is good. Look,
(33:17):
I can see, I can walk. I drove here. I
take my hat off to people who drive in traffic
every day. It took me an hour and fifteen minutes
to get to Medford from Hayble today. But it's but
I enjoyed it. I was looking at the I was
looking at the foliage. I was enjoying listening to the
show on the way down, and I was just I'm
alive and I can do something. If you are alive today,
(33:38):
you can do something. Buy somebody a coffee. But don't
wait around for them to say, oh, they did it.
Just I drive away, like, just know that you just
made someone's day. Put the extra doll in tip cup,
or doing doing something outside yourself, outside your comfort zone.
Get outside. That's the hardest thing, right, Going back to
the gym, the hardest thing for us to do was
to walk in the gym because we were heavy. I
(34:01):
threw a sweatshirt. I would always wear a sweatshirt.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, oh my god, I'm oh my god, oh my god. Okay,
I'm glad you said this reminded me. I'm glad you
just brought me here. So I've been telling this story
a lot recently. I told it like two or three
times randomly to people for whatever reason. Yep, but I remember,
I'll never forget I had just started working out with Zeb,
maybe a month or so. I was still fat, right,
(34:23):
I was not as fat, but I was still, you know,
a out of shape. And my big thing was my breasts, right.
I had a lot of skin, A lot of my
fat goes to my breasts. I actually posted do you
see this Zeb? On my Instagram? Today's the nine year
anniversary of my boob job? Remember the boob job? Yeah?
Remember my wife took care of me and all that stuff. Yeah,
so today's nine years. I had gotta come assia surgery.
(34:45):
It's been nine years, but I remember it was probably
like a month after we started working out and I
got out of work. I went to the gym to
meet Zeb. I walked into the gym. He was already there.
He was sitting down waiting for me. I walk in,
walk up to him like I did every day, and
he looked up at me and he goes, why do
you walk like that? And I'm like, walk like what?
He goes, You walk with your shoulders slumped in, almost
(35:07):
like you don't want people to see your stomach or
something like you're trying to hide it, you know, And
I go, yeah, I don't know, what are you talking about?
Like look at me, you know, like I don't want
people to see this, Like why are you saying that?
And you go, look from this point forward, from this
day forward, starting right now, I want you to walk
with your shoulders back, and you stood up and you
(35:29):
took me and you pulled my shoulders back and you
prop my chest out and you put my chin up.
You go, from now on, I want you to walk
like this, no matter where you are, what room you're
going into the gym, no matter what, with your chin
held I and your chest out and your shoulders back,
because that shows confidence. I don't care if you have
a six pack or if you have tits, I don't care.
You walk like you do have a six pack. And
(35:51):
from that day forward, I'll never forget that that's how
I walk. And over time I ended up losing had
the boob, well before that, losing the chest, getting into shit,
and now like it's so it's confidence, it's confidence, it's confidence.
So you were giving me that confidence before I even
had any confidence in myself. You know. It's just like
moments like that you think back and you're right, we're
(36:11):
gonna get older, right, and we're gonna look back at
these times, these good times. We're doing it right now.
Life is about memories. It's about cherishing those memories. Yep.
And we've had a lot, We've got a lot. Yeah, Okay,
real quick, I want to get to one or two
more things.
Speaker 2 (36:25):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (36:25):
Your social media, Yes, so you started the tick. You
had Instagram had no really no movement. You had a TikTok.
The TikTok a few years ago kind of blew up.
Speaker 2 (36:35):
Right.
Speaker 1 (36:35):
You had like a one hundred thousand follower.
Speaker 2 (36:37):
Yeah, I have one hundred and almost one hundred and
thirty now.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
So it was growing, growing, growing, and I remember like
watching it. I really wasn't on TikTok, but you were
doing crap. You should know. With Ray. Ray is the
kid you work with.
Speaker 2 (36:47):
I work with Ray.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
Yep, He's are great because you guys offset each other.
Speaker 2 (36:51):
Yeah, he's Yeah, he's young and young and ambitious and
I'm just I'm older, so I and I guide that ambition.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah, he's he's a good kid. So you work for
the wastewater department, so you're like in the ship pipes
pretty much. Basically, I'm a sewer jumper. You're a sewer jumper. Yeah,
so a lot of your content is around what you
do there, so you had ray you do crapy. You
should know the TikTok takes off, okay, but then it's stalled.
I remember you saying that sold after one hundred thousand
in and around there, right, So then ZEB kept going
(37:21):
on or whatever, and then I'll never forget your Instagram.
You would talk to me about it and you'd say, like,
how do you grow your Instagram? Like instagramming? I get
no movement, and I'm like, I don't know, don't I
work on the radio. I have like ten thousand followers.
And then one day I'll never forget this. I happened
to put on it go on Instagram, and you had
thirty thousand followers, and I thought you bought them. No,
(37:44):
I was. I was convinced, and I showed at the
gym and I go, what the fuck is this? And
you're like, dude, I don't know. I did like one
or two videos and it's just exploded, and it has
sense exploded. Now you have eighty thousand followers. Yeah, So
what video was it that sent? Do you remember?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
There was one, the one with and I think I
just reposted it. It was the one with We're in
the I'm looking for the drain in the I'm in
I'm in Hip Hip Hip high Water with waiters on
and Ray is yelling at me trying to find the drain,
and he's recording me, and I'm like, and so I
come over and I shake the tree or whatever. So
(38:23):
that is you know, I played it up a little bit,
but I was frustrated. We're trying to find We're trying
to find the drain for this thing and paying it.
You have to write, this is the since I watched
my first oscars, I've always wanted to be an actors. Yeah,
and I was just like, so he played up, yeah,
and it came over, but it was but that genuine
frustration I'm trying to find this thing was there and
(38:45):
definitely fueling it. But yeah, and uh, from that, I
just reposted it and and it just went and the
people started to attach themselves to the cardigan and waiting,
waiting patiently, like dming me or messaging me, you can't
wait for next Sunday, can't wait? Thank You've helped me
through I this, you know, this reminded me to come
back and you know, hone in on what's really important
(39:07):
and that's what it is. So now instead of what
what I thought was going to take off was the cysk,
Now it's more of the Lord's work stuff that I
do and going to the.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Nursing home andysk is crap. You should know crap. You
shouldn't get fun facts every day.
Speaker 2 (39:21):
Just get fun useless facts like you know a giraffe
can clean its own ear with its tongue, Like you
don't need to know that, or you know they're out there,
I don't.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love the facts. Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 2 (39:33):
They they they got me my foundation of a few
thousand followers. And then but the cardigans. People want to
see people doing good and what I want people to
do is do good themselves as well, right, And that's
the that's the whole message hopefully they take from my
social media. You know, I'm trying to unplug them for
two minutes of the day that you know, it's not
(39:53):
that bad. Even though the world is in chaos. It
starts with me, It starts with you, It starts with
with everybody listening. It just starts with you. It's making
one right decision at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yep.
Speaker 2 (40:04):
And that's that's where that's how we're going to change
the world. That's how we're going to be better. And
it all encompasses love. You have to love, yep, and
that's it. That's ther power.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
It's true. But I and I think also, you know,
with your social media, no matter what it is, if
it's you know, crap, you should know Lord's work cardigans.
I think people just like seeing you. You know, you're
really good and you're genuine, and I think people can
see that. And that's the point I wanted to convey
in this, is that the person you're seeing, besides like
when you do like the Sunday morning when you run
up like obviously with the thing. It's hilarious you're putting
(40:38):
on for that, you know, but all the other stuff
is genuinely just who you are. You've always been that guy.
And I think I don't need it doesn't need to
be stated. I think people can see that, they can
see that you're just genuine. You're Zeb. You know. I
always make a joke about Zeb that if the world
goes to shit and like the end of the world comes,
I'm gonna go to Zev's house, you know what I mean,
because I feel like Zeb will protect me and guide us.
(41:02):
You know, I'll tell this real story real quick. There's
so many stories I can take a tell. But we
went used to go on this boys, you know, rafting
trip every year or go away every year. And one
year we went all the guys to Socco in New Hampshire,
North Conway, the Socco River. I'm sorry, was that is
that an Instagram follower that's hitting you up on you?
(41:23):
Of course it is. I'll wrap it up very so.
So we went up to the Socco to raft down
to you know that we call that the tubing we
went to We went tubing.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
It was the is this the one we had to
get in the wall? Yes, this is the we went
on the relaxed one.
Speaker 1 (41:38):
The relaxed one.
Speaker 2 (41:39):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
So the water was very cold. We went early in
the season, probably in June. You know, it gets warmer later.
So we're going down the Socco, the guys, like six guys,
and we come upon these two women that were stuck
in a in a in a fallen tree. So and
they were larger women. So you know what happened was
(42:00):
they were going down probably not paying attention. They might
have been drinking, I don't know, and they didn't get
how to move out of the way of the tree,
and they went into the tree branches and were stuck
and could not get out of their tubes. Which sounds
like a funny scene, but it was like serious. So
we come along and we're like, oh shit. Before you
know it, Zeb jumps into action into the freezing cold water,
(42:21):
fucking freeze these two women. Like we're watching them like
what the hell is he doing and ended up getting
them out and rescuing them. Yeah, remember that.
Speaker 2 (42:30):
Yeah, not one thank you. I wasn't looking for the
thank you.
Speaker 1 (42:32):
But wow, that's not what we were saying earlier. That's
not why we do it.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
We do it, but yeah, that's wow. Yep.
Speaker 1 (42:38):
Yeah, I always say that about Zeb. You know, you're
you're a great leader. That's what that you can be
in life. You can be a leader or a follower,
you know. That's why I tried to teach my son
is to be a leader. Don't do what everybody else
is doing. Don't do things just because they tell you
to do them, or they's just because they're doing it.
Be your own person, yes.
Speaker 2 (42:56):
You know, but don't be too proud to always learning,
always learn, always learn, always learning. You're building on you.
Speaker 1 (43:04):
Yeah, two words that you want to stay away from.
Are I know?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh, I know, I know, I know. Say yeah, yes,
you're right.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. So zeb thank
you for coming on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (43:18):
I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (43:18):
Thank you for your friendship. Tomorrow we're gonna have some legs.
Speaker 2 (43:23):
Have some legs.
Speaker 1 (43:24):
Yeah, I got some hip issues going on. I'm working
with Jenna, my stretch girl on it. Who, by the way,
ask about you every time I'll go see it.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
I'll go, okay, I'll talk to you. When I leave here, we'll.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
Talk to Jenna. You were supposed to make an appointment
or you had an appointment and you missed it.
Speaker 2 (43:38):
I did.
Speaker 1 (43:38):
Yeah, so she wants to see Yeah, shame on you.
She wants to see you. So go see Jenna. And
then you know, I've have been had some hip issues.
So we'll have to do some some friendly hip friendly exercises. So,
I don't know, I hope he covered it all with this. No,
we don't need to or blow on me.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Absolutely. Why would you bring that up? I know, Oh
my head, I'm sweating.
Speaker 1 (44:04):
Yeah. Should I tell that one real quick? To end with?
Speaker 2 (44:07):
Yeah, Now you have to give contacts because he just
can't leave this.
Speaker 1 (44:10):
I know, I know. So back in the day, we
used to squat really heavy, and you know, Zeen get overheated.
You get overheated. So when I'm talking, I would have like,
you know, four oh five or three eighty five on
my back, squatting trying to get five reps. I go
down for like three, and zeb would be there like
he's the best fucking hype man you could ever think of,
Like come on, two more, justin two more, screaming in
(44:31):
my ear and he realized, I don't know how that
on those last one or two reps. Before I would
go down to squat down as he's like, you know,
yelling at me, he would blow on my neck and
I'm not gonna lit this down. And he just did
it one day and you know what, it sounds weird
and it sounds gay, honestly, but the cold air gave
(44:54):
me power. Yeah, and you would blow on it and
I would go down and I would get the rep.
So then we started doing that is like, this is unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (45:04):
At the while I was taking I took my hat
off now and then I was yeah, and then I
would fan you with my hat. The back of Yeah,
but I didn't have the hat that day.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (45:12):
I don't know where it came from. I was just
like it. I could feel you were just really like overheating.
I'm like, maybe he just needs cold there. I just
wasn't even thinking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I just that's okay.
Speaker 2 (45:21):
Yeah, and then you just you came you, you racked
the weight and you turn around.
Speaker 1 (45:24):
Like you you know what, keep doing it.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
But Chris, Chris is absolutely not having it because he
was there, so he's like, do not.
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Don't ever do that again. I can picture that. But
you know what, Zeb, if I was going to be
gay with anyone, I'd rather be gay with you. Well,
thank you everybody. I hope this podcast was good. And
you can follow Zeb on Instagram at zeb Days and
there is a po box on your profile if you
want to donate Cardigans cars.
Speaker 2 (45:52):
Only you use panties, no please, I'm not a salvation no. No.
Speaker 1 (45:59):
Girls do have our fans of you, so you might
get some used panties. I don't know what goes on there.
I don't know, but Cardigan's only, Cardigan's only. Alright, love you, ZEB,
love you too, all right, everybody will talk tomorrow
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