October 21, 2025 • 46 mins
My best friend Zeb joins the After Show.
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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. Thank you. 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 3 (02:02):
Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited. Second time.
On last time I was on, Bex was here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, that was when Bex was here.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So you came in, I came in.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
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. How's that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Let's do it?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, all right, so let's let's go back to Let's
go back to twoenty 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 blew up.
(03:43):
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 to go.
(04:05):
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 was
(04:26):
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 eat too
(04:47):
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 at my phone. They didn't know where
I was. And my first thought of complete shame was
(05:11):
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. And
I got out of that and I talked to some
(05:32):
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 if I joined the
(05:53):
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 I'm doing cardio all
(06:15):
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 remember this, right, yes,
So you work for the city of Haveril in the
(06:38):
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 the same schedules.
And I would see zeb walk in and work out. Now, obviously,
(07:00):
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 would notice that, like you
would be working out with this kid, and then you
(07:20):
see other people working out, maybe they had 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 about him. And I would say to Chris,
if he were here, he would back the story up.
(07:42):
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. Right now.
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
(08:03):
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.
He goes, my name is Zeb. I said, I'm justin.
This is Chris. He said, nice to meet you, Chris
some I'm Zeb, good to meet you. I see you
guys there every day. Keep going, keep doing what we're doing.
We're like, thank you. Zeb walks away. I look at
Chris and I go he say his name is Zeb,
(08:26):
and Chris goes, no, dude, his name's Jeb. I go no,
he said Zeb with a Z. He goes, justin nobody's
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,
(08:47):
and you saw me and you walked over and you 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 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
was like, 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,
(09:10):
so much so that I got married six months after fact,
and I invited you 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):
Apreciate 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. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
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 I when I met Zeb,
when we met Zeb obviously my Chris was there, he's
in recovery. And then you know, sure, sure, slowly but
surely he came to my wedding and he started coming
(09:57):
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 right.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
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? Yeah? Is
(10:33):
that is that repressing?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Being left out because that's where.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
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, 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.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So I left.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So I I grew.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Up, I was.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I was always overweight.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Don't get I don't know how much I you know,
how long your program, as.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Long as you want.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
But we got So I grew up in a big family.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And well, how many brothers and stuff?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
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):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
M uh 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 Canny be Late Storyland story Land, which I went
for the first time this year.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A lot of hand me a lot of hand me down,
a lot of hand me downs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Every Friday, it seems somebody would leave a trash bag
full of closed at the door.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
But hold on, so you so you come from a
very Christian home. Yes, your your dad is a was
dad a pastor?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Is that a minister?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Past dad was a pastor.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
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, like
I didn't get real I didn't have to deal with
(12:31):
the bullying.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I don't know I was I I.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Did get bullied by the local kids in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
When you go out.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
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 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 you as food on the table.
(13:00):
I was always fool on the table, but there wasn't
It was just enough. So when I got capable, it
started work and I started buying a lot of junk food, which.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I started packing on the palms.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (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 the
table I had this is this, That is another one,
(13:34):
that is another one.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's that was.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I was twenty two and I saw a picture of
myself with my sister Abigail, and she was standing in
front of the Crisas tree and I see my gut,
I see my arms, and I was so I felt
so bad about myself. I says that 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 we always say, what's the hottest pot?
Of going to the gym is walking through the front
(13:57):
of us. That's the hardest thing. So I and I
used to work with this kid who was a cook
at the window in andover and his name.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Ricky.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So he joined, and I said, now I have to
go because you. So I went and I did the
same exact thing. I just would go.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
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 you
do that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
How do you do this?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
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 the gym partner, and no one was consistent.
(14:56):
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 my therapy,
and I think you can it's it is like you
(15:17):
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. There's nobody that has that wakes
(15:39):
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 gotta wake up, I gotta make
money to keep a roof over the head, or you
got to wake up because.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You want to have the drive that I had.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I didn't want to go back to that, so I
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 would 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.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Doing legs, he was your gym potter.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
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 and 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 push ourselves.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I remember the one you came. It was in crayon.
You had like, yeah, it was in crayon. You wrote
it on a piece of paper. It was DTP yep,
the first time we did DTP. And it's just it's
pretty much just pyramid. You go up light weight, lightweight,
heavy rep and then heavyweight light rep and huh that
workout couldn't even walk out.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
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 cardigans thing you do
and you take donations, yes, and you go to this
Elvis cardigans.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Note, just cardigans. Don't say I'm getting sent bags.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Oh oh really yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Just send cardigan if you're gonna send it my peel
boxes on my page. But people were sending me like
they're old pants and underwear.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh right, yeah, 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, Will you do useless facts?
Because you're good with the camera. And I think one
(19:50):
time you 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 and 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. But when I met you, okay,
(20:16):
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, These are my beliefs, this is what
I believe, this is my faith. But you never were
(20:38):
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, you bring them cardigans and
(20:58):
you hold a service your dad used to hold it
and your dad was the minister or the pastor. Yes,
then your dad passed a couple of years ago, few
years ago.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Now, right, when was that two thousand and one?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I'm sorry twenty one. Yeahah, so four years ago, four
years and then you've taken you've taken it over. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
We just picked up yeft off so you 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
(21:46):
you wearing a fucking cardigan? Like? 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
(22:08):
because people were wondering 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 3 (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've
been doing the we were doing the sunny services, and
I went in and I said, whatever is in your
het 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 them?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It just blew up.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And that's how the status on social media on.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I didn't expect it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I thought I was going to be known for useless crap, crap,
and 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 ocasions. I
do have to say something. So Justin, you have to
get yourself a friend. A true friend is someone who
(23:49):
tells you things regardless if it hurts your feelings, and
they say it in love. Justin is been you have
been that for me. The constructive criticism is heard as hard.
Many marry, 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
(24:11):
there it has reinforced.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And we work out, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
We see each other here and there and we work
out Wednesdays and it's like, but that bond, that's an
unbreakable bond because of a 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
(24:37):
this 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.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You cannot let this go.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
People are watching you for inspiration, for comfort, like this
is something it's more about. It's more than you. Now
you 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 CARDI like I'm getting
(25:11):
I gotta go to the peel box when i leave
here and pick up more cardigans. And I love that
people want to give and I like that people are
seeing a little bit of kindness, like the world in
this in this state where.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You 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 it's because it happens all the time,
people say I lost my brother to an overdose or whatever.
I'm in recovery. He 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 or
introducing us. And I was like, I was laughing so hot.
I went to Gen. I told we were laugh 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 get problem.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
We'll give you a cat again. Okay, I got the
raccoon catigan for you. And I didn't even know that
you were going to talk about raccoons on the show.
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.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Service with you and your dad is when your dad
was alive, you explained to me after we get out,
I was like, what 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 people in these home in Methuin,
that's where it is. Their families live in mathun Like.
(28:00):
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 to every week. It makes them so happy,
and you should. They are so happy. You used to
post some.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Of them, right, yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
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 with them. Any
(28:41):
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 breathe, there's still purpose, there's still
time to do something into and to And my first
(29:02):
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. They can't leave, like
(29:23):
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 to the staff is not there or
the meaning they're understaffed, or they they just can't physically.
I can't get out there. And it's it's really sad
because I'm coming to them. And this is one or
two women especially, I go in there and they're like
(29:46):
they just crying. 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.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I'll 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.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
And because I'm like, I don't have a good I'm no,
I'm no crooner, I'm no what Frank Sinatra or I
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 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
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 sure 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. Yeah, 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 empty, 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 ago, it's
been yeah, it's been five years. So yeah, I'll never
forget him. Man, you never forget him.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
There's there's a lot just like him with the same story,
and they 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.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You don't expect.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It's like when we talk about the good times, the
good times are right now. We're sitting here, we're healthy,
thank God. But this is the good time.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Smith. We're gonna look back.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
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, 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
(33:24):
Medford from Able 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, you can do something. Buy
somebody a coffee, but don't wait around for them to say, oh,
they did it.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Just I drive away.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, Like, just know that you just made someone's day,
put the extra drawll in tip cup, or doing doing
something outside yourself, outside your comfort zone.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Get outside.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I 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, god. Okay,
I'm glad you said this reminded me. 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,
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 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 got a commassia Surgeryah,
(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.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We've had a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, Okay, real quick, I'm wanna 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. Right.
You had like 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. I work with Ray. Yep, He's
are great because you guys offset each other.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Basically, I'm a sewer jumper.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You're a sewer jumper. Yeah, so a lot of your
content is around what you do there, so you had
ray you do crap. 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 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?
(37:26):
Like Instagram, 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, I was. I was convinced, and I
(37:46):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
The tree or whatever.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So 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.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Playing it up.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You have to write, this is the since I watched
my first oscars.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I've always wanted to be an actors.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, and I was just like, so he played up, Yeah,
and it came over, but it was but that genuine
frustration trying to find this thing was there and 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
(38:59):
next Sunday, you 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 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.
We'll get fun facts every day, Just.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
They're out there, I don't.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love the facts. Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 3 (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
everybody listening. It just starts with you. It's making one
right decision at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (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, yeah, and
that's it. That's true power, it's true.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
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.
(40:37):
It's hilarious you're putting 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.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
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 Zeb's house, you know
what I mean, because I feel like Zeb will protect
me and guide us you know, I'll tell this real
story real quick. There's so many stories I can take
a tell. But we used to go on this boys,
you know, rafting trip every year or go away every year.
(41:12):
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 it? 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, the relaxed one.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah. 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
(42:00):
happened was they were going down probably not paying attention.
They might have been drinking, I don't know, and they
didn't get out 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
(42:20):
cold water, 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.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah remember that. 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, you know, but don't be
too proud to always learning, always learn, always learn, always learning.
(43:02):
You're building on you. Yeah. Two words that you want
to stay away from. Are I know?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh, I know, I know, I know. See I 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.
Have some legs. 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.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
You, I'll go, okay, I'll talk to you. When I
leave here, we'll talk to John.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
You were supposed to make an appointment or you had
an appointment and you missed it. I did. Yeah, so
she wants to see shame Yeah, shame on you. She
wants to see you. So go see Jenna. And then
you know, I've 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,
you don't need to or blow on me.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Absolutely story. Why would you bring that up? I know,
I 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 contact 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, zech 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.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
My neck and I'm gonna lit this down.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
He just did it one day, and you know what,
it sounds weird and it sounds gay, honestly, but the
cold air gave 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 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But I didn't have the hat that day. Yeah, I
don't know where it came from.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I was just like it.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I could feel you were just really like overheating him,
like maybe he just needs cold there.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
It just I just wasn't even thinking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I just it's okay.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Yeah, and then you just you came you, you racked
the weight and you turn out like you, you know what,
keep doing it. But Chris, Chris is absolutely not having
it because he was there, so he's like, do.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Not, 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 only car you use panties?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
No please, I'm not a salvation no.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
No. 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, Zebright, love you too, all right, everybody, We'll
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. Thank you. 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 3 (02:02):
Thank you for having me on. I'm very excited. Second time.
On last time I was on, Bex was here.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
Yeah, that was when Bex was here.
Speaker 2 (02:09):
So you came in, I came in.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
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. How's that.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
Let's do it?
Speaker 1 (03:21):
Yeah, all right, so let's let's go back to Let's
go back to twoenty 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 blew up.
(03:43):
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 to go.
(04:05):
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 was
(04:26):
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 eat too
(04:47):
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 at my phone. They didn't know where
I was. And my first thought of complete shame was
(05:11):
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. And
I got out of that and I talked to some
(05:32):
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 if I joined the
(05:53):
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 I'm doing cardio all
(06:15):
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 remember this, right, yes,
So you work for the city of Haveril in the
(06:38):
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 the same schedules.
And I would see zeb walk in and work out. Now, obviously,
(07:00):
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 would notice that, like you
would be working out with this kid, and then you
(07:20):
see other people working out, maybe they had 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 about him. And I would say to Chris,
if he were here, he would back the story up.
(07:42):
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. Right now.
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
(08:03):
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.
He goes, my name is Zeb. I said, I'm justin.
This is Chris. He said, nice to meet you, Chris
some I'm Zeb, good to meet you. I see you
guys there every day. Keep going, keep doing what we're doing.
We're like, thank you. Zeb walks away. I look at
Chris and I go he say his name is Zeb,
(08:26):
and Chris goes, no, dude, his name's Jeb. I go no,
he said Zeb with a Z. He goes, justin nobody's
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,
(08:47):
and you saw me and you walked over and you 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 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
was like, 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,
(09:10):
so much so that I got married six months after fact,
and I invited you 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):
Apreciate 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. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:36):
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 I when I met Zeb,
when we met Zeb obviously my Chris was there, he's
in recovery. And then you know, sure, sure, slowly but
surely he came to my wedding and he started coming
(09:57):
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 right.
Speaker 2 (10:12):
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? Yeah? Is
(10:33):
that is that repressing?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Is that?
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Being left out because that's where.
Speaker 3 (10:38):
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, 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.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
So I left.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
So I I grew.
Speaker 1 (11:07):
Up, I was.
Speaker 2 (11:08):
I was always overweight.
Speaker 3 (11:10):
Don't get I don't know how much I you know,
how long your program, as.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Long as you want.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
But we got So I grew up in a big family.
Speaker 1 (11:19):
And well, how many brothers and stuff?
Speaker 3 (11:21):
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):
It's amazing.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
M uh 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 Canny be Late Storyland story Land, which I went
for the first time this year.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
A lot of hand me a lot of hand me down,
a lot of hand me downs.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Every Friday, it seems somebody would leave a trash bag
full of closed at the door.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
But hold on, so you so you come from a
very Christian home. Yes, your your dad is a was
dad a pastor?
Speaker 2 (12:06):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (12:06):
Is that a minister?
Speaker 2 (12:07):
Past dad was a pastor.
Speaker 3 (12:09):
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, like
I didn't get real I didn't have to deal with
(12:31):
the bullying.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
I don't know I was I I.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
Did get bullied by the local kids in the neighborhood.
Speaker 1 (12:38):
When you go out.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
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 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 you as food on the table.
(13:00):
I was always fool on the table, but there wasn't
It was just enough. So when I got capable, it
started work and I started buying a lot of junk food, which.
Speaker 2 (13:10):
I started packing on the palms.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
Baby.
Speaker 3 (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 the
table I had this is this, That is another one,
(13:34):
that is another one.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
That's that was.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
I was twenty two and I saw a picture of
myself with my sister Abigail, and she was standing in
front of the Crisas tree and I see my gut,
I see my arms, and I was so I felt
so bad about myself. I says that 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 we always say, what's the hottest pot?
Of going to the gym is walking through the front
(13:57):
of us. That's the hardest thing. So I and I
used to work with this kid who was a cook
at the window in andover and his name.
Speaker 2 (14:08):
Ricky.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
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.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
So he joined, and I said, now I have to
go because you. So I went and I did the
same exact thing. I just would go.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
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 you
do that?
Speaker 2 (14:33):
How do you do this?
Speaker 3 (14:34):
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 the gym partner, and no one was consistent.
(14:56):
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 my therapy,
and I think you can it's it is like you
(15:17):
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. There's nobody that has that wakes
(15:39):
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 gotta wake up, I gotta make
money to keep a roof over the head, or you
got to wake up because.
Speaker 2 (15:53):
You want to have the drive that I had.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I didn't want to go back to that, so I
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 would 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.
Speaker 3 (16:24):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
Doing legs, he was your gym potter.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
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 and 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 push ourselves.
Speaker 3 (18:15):
I remember the one you came. It was in crayon.
You had like, yeah, it was in crayon. You wrote
it on a piece of paper. It was DTP yep,
the first time we did DTP. And it's just it's
pretty much just pyramid. You go up light weight, lightweight,
heavy rep and then heavyweight light rep and huh that
workout couldn't even walk out.
Speaker 2 (18:34):
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 cardigans thing you do
and you take donations, yes, and you go to this
Elvis cardigans.
Speaker 2 (19:17):
Note, just cardigans. Don't say I'm getting sent bags.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Oh oh really yeah, okay.
Speaker 3 (19:21):
Just send cardigan if you're gonna send it my peel
boxes on my page. But people were sending me like
they're old pants and underwear.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Oh right, yeah, 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, Will you do useless facts?
Because you're good with the camera. And I think one
(19:50):
time you 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 and 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. But when I met you, okay,
(20:16):
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, These are my beliefs, this is what
I believe, this is my faith. But you never were
(20:38):
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, you bring them cardigans and
(20:58):
you hold a service your dad used to hold it
and your dad was the minister or the pastor. Yes,
then your dad passed a couple of years ago, few
years ago.
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Now, right, when was that two thousand and one?
Speaker 1 (21:08):
I'm sorry twenty one. Yeahah, so four years ago, four
years and then you've taken you've taken it over. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (21:25):
We just picked up yeft off so you 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
(21:46):
you wearing a fucking cardigan? Like? 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
(22:08):
because people were wondering 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 3 (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've
been doing the we were doing the sunny services, and
I went in and I said, whatever is in your
het 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 them?
Speaker 2 (23:22):
It just blew up.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
And that's how the status on social media on.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I didn't expect it.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
I thought I was going to be known for useless crap, crap,
and 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 ocasions. I
do have to say something. So Justin, you have to
get yourself a friend. A true friend is someone who
(23:49):
tells you things regardless if it hurts your feelings, and
they say it in love. Justin is been you have
been that for me. The constructive criticism is heard as hard.
Many marry, 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
(24:11):
there it has reinforced.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
And we work out, you know.
Speaker 3 (24:15):
We see each other here and there and we work
out Wednesdays and it's like, but that bond, that's an
unbreakable bond because of a 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
(24:37):
this 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.
Speaker 2 (24:50):
You cannot let this go.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
People are watching you for inspiration, for comfort, like this
is something it's more about. It's more than you. Now
you 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 CARDI like I'm getting
(25:11):
I gotta go to the peel box when i leave
here and pick up more cardigans. And I love that
people want to give and I like that people are
seeing a little bit of kindness, like the world in
this in this state where.
Speaker 1 (25:26):
You 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 it's because it happens all the time,
people say I lost my brother to an overdose or whatever.
I'm in recovery. He 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 or
introducing us. And I was like, I was laughing so hot.
I went to Gen. I told we were laugh 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 get problem.
Speaker 3 (27:27):
We'll give you a cat again. Okay, I got the
raccoon catigan for you. And I didn't even know that
you were going to talk about raccoons on the show.
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.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
Service with you and your dad is when your dad
was alive, you explained to me after we get out,
I was like, what 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 people in these home in Methuin,
that's where it is. Their families live in mathun Like.
(28:00):
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 to every week. It makes them so happy,
and you should. They are so happy. You used to
post some.
Speaker 2 (28:19):
Of them, right, yeah, I did.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
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 with them. Any
(28:41):
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 breathe, there's still purpose, there's still
time to do something into and to And my first
(29:02):
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. They can't leave, like
(29:23):
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 to the staff is not there or
the meaning they're understaffed, or they they just can't physically.
I can't get out there. And it's it's really sad
because I'm coming to them. And this is one or
two women especially, I go in there and they're like
(29:46):
they just crying. 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.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
I'll 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.
Speaker 3 (30:02):
And because I'm like, I don't have a good I'm no,
I'm no crooner, I'm no what Frank Sinatra or I
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 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
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 sure 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. Yeah, 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 empty, 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 ago, it's
been yeah, it's been five years. So yeah, I'll never
forget him. Man, you never forget him.
Speaker 3 (32:12):
There's there's a lot just like him with the same story,
and they 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.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
You don't expect.
Speaker 3 (32:54):
It's like when we talk about the good times, the
good times are right now. We're sitting here, we're healthy,
thank God. But this is the good time.
Speaker 2 (33:01):
Smith. We're gonna look back.
Speaker 3 (33:02):
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, 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
(33:24):
Medford from Able 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, you can do something. Buy
somebody a coffee, but don't wait around for them to say, oh,
they did it.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Just I drive away.
Speaker 3 (33:44):
Yeah, Like, just know that you just made someone's day,
put the extra drawll in tip cup, or doing doing
something outside yourself, outside your comfort zone.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Get outside.
Speaker 3 (33:54):
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.
Speaker 2 (34:01):
I 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, god. Okay,
I'm glad you said this reminded me. 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,
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 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 got a commassia Surgeryah,
(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.
Speaker 2 (36:21):
We've had a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Yeah, Okay, real quick, I'm wanna 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. Right.
You had like 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. I work with Ray. Yep, He's
are great because you guys offset each other.
Speaker 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (37:03):
Basically, I'm a sewer jumper.
Speaker 1 (37:05):
You're a sewer jumper. Yeah, so a lot of your
content is around what you do there, so you had
ray you do crap. 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 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?
(37:26):
Like Instagram, 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, I was. I was convinced, and I
(37:46):
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 3 (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.
Speaker 1 (38:22):
The tree or whatever.
Speaker 3 (38:23):
So 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.
Speaker 1 (38:31):
Playing it up.
Speaker 3 (38:32):
You have to write, this is the since I watched
my first oscars.
Speaker 2 (38:37):
I've always wanted to be an actors.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yeah, and I was just like, so he played up, Yeah,
and it came over, but it was but that genuine
frustration trying to find this thing was there and 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
(38:59):
next Sunday, you 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 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.
We'll get fun facts every day, Just.
Speaker 3 (39:21):
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.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
They're out there, I don't.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
I love the facts. Yeah, they're great.
Speaker 3 (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
everybody listening. It just starts with you. It's making one
right decision at a time.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
Yep.
Speaker 3 (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, yeah, and
that's it. That's true power, it's true.
Speaker 1 (40:16):
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.
(40:37):
It's hilarious you're putting 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.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
You know.
Speaker 1 (40:50):
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 Zeb's house, you know
what I mean, because I feel like Zeb will protect
me and guide us you know, I'll tell this real
story real quick. There's so many stories I can take
a tell. But we used to go on this boys,
you know, rafting trip every year or go away every year.
(41:12):
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 it? 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, the relaxed one.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yeah. 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
(42:00):
happened was they were going down probably not paying attention.
They might have been drinking, I don't know, and they
didn't get out 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
(42:20):
cold water, 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.
Speaker 2 (42:29):
Yeah remember that. 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, you know, but don't be
too proud to always learning, always learn, always learn, always learning.
(43:02):
You're building on you. Yeah. Two words that you want
to stay away from. Are I know?
Speaker 2 (43:08):
Oh, I know, I know, I know. See I 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.
Have some legs. 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.
Speaker 2 (43:31):
You, I'll go, okay, I'll talk to you. When I
leave here, we'll talk to John.
Speaker 1 (43:34):
You were supposed to make an appointment or you had
an appointment and you missed it. I did. Yeah, so
she wants to see shame Yeah, shame on you. She
wants to see you. So go see Jenna. And then
you know, I've 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,
you don't need to or blow on me.
Speaker 2 (43:56):
Absolutely story. Why would you bring that up? I know,
I 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 contact 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, zech 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.
Speaker 2 (44:42):
My neck and I'm gonna lit this down.
Speaker 1 (44:47):
He just did it one day, and you know what,
it sounds weird and it sounds gay, honestly, but the
cold air gave 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 3 (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.
Speaker 2 (45:10):
But I didn't have the hat that day. Yeah, I
don't know where it came from.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
I was just like it.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I could feel you were just really like overheating him,
like maybe he just needs cold there.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
It just I just wasn't even thinking.
Speaker 1 (45:20):
I just it's okay.
Speaker 3 (45:21):
Yeah, and then you just you came you, you racked
the weight and you turn out like you, you know what,
keep doing it. But Chris, Chris is absolutely not having
it because he was there, so he's like, do.
Speaker 1 (45:33):
Not, 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 only car you use panties?
Speaker 2 (45:54):
No please, I'm not a salvation no.
Speaker 1 (45:57):
No. 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, Zebright, love you too, all right, everybody, We'll
talk tomorrow.
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