Nick Santonastasso – ZERO LIMITS

Chris Albert 00:00:00 (link to this point)

What's going on Warrior Soul Nation? This is Chris Albert, and welcome to episode number 75 of the Warrior Soul Podcast. You know, gratitude has been one of the most important aspects of my life, and that's because I've learned something since I've become an adult, and that's that bad things will happen. It's not a matter of when, or it's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when. We all know that we're gonna be faced with difficulties in this lifetime.

And it's been no different from any living organism that's ever lived on this Earth. This planet has been testing living things from the beginning of time, and it's been testing them to see how tough they are and whether or not they're able to live on this globe. But the fact of the matter is that in today's society, we have it easier than we've ever had it. You know, we've got all the modern conveniences surrounding us. Most of us don't have to go around and hunt for our food or gather or anything like that.

And we have this thing called the Internet where we can communicate with people from around the world. But still, so many people are depressed. So many people are down on themselves, and they find themselves in ruts where they just can't move forward. This is where I find gratitude to be so significant for my own life. That's because I am constantly reminding myself how good I have it, how I have so many advantages over other people who are not fortunate enough to live in a place like The United States or the Western world, who are not fortunate enough to have clean drinking water, and many who are not fortunate enough to have all their limbs and all of their appendages, many of whom are our brothers in the veteran community.

Today's guest, though, is a textbook case of gratitude, and he has no legs. He's got an underdeveloped right arm and a fully developed left arm with only one finger on it. Nick Santonastasso was born with a birth defect that left him without most of his appendages. But Nick, throughout his adult life particularly, hasn't looked at his situation as one that's made him unfortunate. Rather, Nick has turned everything that's happened to him into a blessing.

And it started by him competing on his varsity high school wrestling team and then continuing with the drive he learned there on the wrestling mats to develop his own massive social media following. And now he's using that drive to compete in the bodybuilding world. I brought Nick on, and we had an amazing conversation about things like gratitude, about drive, about his story. And I think that his story is gonna inspire you just as much or more than it's inspired me, and it's inspired me a whole heck of a lot. So I hope that this episode brightens up your day, whatever you're going through.

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This is Chris Albert, and I'm here to remind you of one thing. Someday, you're going to die. Now that's not some morbid statement or scary idea. It's solid fact. Your time here on this earth is limited.

And we need to be reminded of this as much as possible for one simple reason, to live your best life while you can. This is the Warrior Soul podcast.

So Nick was born with Hanhart syndrome, and he was born with no legs. He's got an under underdeveloped arm on one side and then a fully developed arm with one finger on the other side. But the cool thing about Nick is that he's never let this get him down. I was reading a story about his father talking about when he was two years old, he found him dancing on a table. Apparently, Nick had wheeled over to the table, climbed out of of his seat, and then jumped on the table and was dancing to MTV.

And then ever since then, we find Nick competing in wrestling. He's he's bodybuilding. He's pulling pranks on the on the cast members of Walking Dead, and he's got millions of views on Vine because of these pranks, those are pretty cool, we'll get into those as well. But Nick, man, what drives this determination in you?

Nick Santonastasso 00:06:55 (link to this point)

I think what drives the determination in me is, it's how my parents raised me. Because I feel like my parents could have raised me very sheltered and very, you know, babied, you know, not letting me fall on my face basically to be honest. So when I was born, you know, was born with Hanhart syndrome, super rare genetic disorder. At the time I was the twelfth baby in medical history that they've ever seen it happen to. And they didn't know if my organs were gonna be 100% healthy because it either leaves the babies to undeveloped organs or undeveloped limbs.

So in my case, I was born and my organs were 100% healthy and so I beat that 30 chance to live, and my parents promised each other, I'm the baby, I have three other siblings, I have two sisters and one brother, and my parents promised each other that they were gonna raise me just like the other kids. And I think that was extremely important because from the earliest of ages my parents sat me down and said, you know, Nick, the world's not going to stop for you because you're born like this. You know, although that would be nice, that's not reality, and so your job is to figure out how to do each and everything Nick's way. And I think that's what started me being so creative in the way I go about daily things. And for example, my parents put clothes in front of me and say, you know, figure it out, and they would sit there and watch me try to put it on, or hey Nick, try it this way, or you know, they'd put food in front of me with a spoon and say figure it out, and I remember they would put like cereal in front of me, and I got smart enough to realize that me trying to pick up a spoon was a lot slower than licking my finger, getting the cereal and eating it that way.

So I feel like, you know, the way they raised me, way they put obstacles in front of me, I was just always used to, okay, well if I don't know how to do it, how am I gonna do it? So I feel like I was very creative and very determined from from a very young age.

Chris Albert 00:08:58 (link to this point)

You know, that's that's so important, and and what they taught you to get away from was the victim mentality. You you you literally have never been a victim in your life. And I think so many people don't realize how important that is. This planet's been testing living things from the beginning of time to see if they're fit to live on the planet. And it's up to each and every one of us to figure that stuff out, and I think that's such a valuable tool and a valuable lesson.

Nick Santonastasso 00:09:23 (link to this point)

Absolutely, yeah, like I said, I think I was just very used to you know, I feel like most things were a challenge for me. You know, most things in my daily life were a challenge for me, so I was just very used to, you know, even at a young age, putting myself in these situations where I'm uncomfortable, and that's where the most growth comes, when you put yourself in uncomfortable situations, situations where you just don't know how you're gonna do it, but you accept the challenge and figure it out in the end.

Chris Albert 00:09:54 (link to this point)

Yeah, absolutely. If you hear some growling in the background here, my dog Piper is sitting underneath me and there's somebody walking outside. That's not me growling at all.

Nick Santonastasso 00:10:02 (link to this point)

That's not me either.

Chris Albert 00:10:05 (link to this point)

Man, so you were a kid, did you realize that you had a disability in the first place or was there a point where you actually realized that?

Nick Santonastasso 00:10:15 (link to this point)

Yeah, that's a great question. So to be honest, from all the years before middle school, I didn't really notice I was different too much. You know, I didn't notice the fact that I was in a wheelchair, I didn't really notice that, you know, the aide sitting next to me in the classroom was a little bit different. To be honest, was just a kid, like being a kid, and I think that's, it's funny because that's when our mind isn't, you know, gets toxic about what other people think about you. You know, you're so pure, your head's so pure at that time, so I think, you know, that time I really didn't realize I was different up until middle school.

And middle school and early ages of high school and I labeled that as my lowest point.

Chris Albert 00:11:00 (link to this point)

So why was that your lowest point? I know that that's a crazy age. That was like the worst time in my fucking life. I couldn't stand middle school. But how did, was it your lowest point?

Nick Santonastasso 00:11:12 (link to this point)

So I think we, and I always say this when I speak and you know, to whoever I'm speaking to, I say I think we can all agree that middle school and high school are probably the most judgmental times of your life, know, like it's just like a spiral of events, know puberty, going through all these things, and now everyone's so judgmental, and who wears what, you know, who wears the best clothing, whatever it may be. And middle school was kind of like, okay, like wow, like I kind of got a glimpse of you know how different I was compared to the other kids. And at that point I labeled it my lowest point because I was not only out of shape, but I wasn't comfortable in my skin. I wasn't comfortable with my body and to be honest, I hated the fact that I was born like this. And it got to the point where my big question was why?

And I was basically angry at the world, you know God, universe, whoever made me like this, why did you make me like this? Why do I have to go through these challenges, you know, these kids don't know what I'm going through, why me? And that was my big question, trying to find my why during that time, and you know, at one point I just, I didn't want to live in this body anymore, know, thoughts of suicide came into my head, you know, maybe that's the way, maybe you know, like I said, didn't know what to do, a young kid and I just, I hated the fact that I was born like this. Surprisingly I knew that I got into high school and I realized that the only person that's gonna make a drastic change in your life, whether that's physically, financially, emotionally, spiritually, whatever it may be, if you don't feel good, you know, you're the only person that can make that change and make you feel good again, you know, no one else can do that for you, it's your life. So here I am as you know, a 15, 16 year old kid, figuring out okay, what is gonna make me feel good about myself?

What is going to instill confidence in me because if I feel more confident about myself I can carry myself better and that's one of the, that's basically the topic I'm writing in my book about, but I'll get into that. And so, you know, I was on a journey to find something that was gonna make me feel good about myself, know, make me feel fulfilled, you know, and basically just feel comfortable in my skin, and that's where wrestling came in. And wrestling saved my life. I wholeheartedly believe wrestling saved my life. At the time all my best friends were wrestlers for the high school and my older brother was also a wrestler for that high school and he graduated.

And ever since middle school, coaches wanted me to get into wrestling. They just said, you know, like this would be so cool, but at the time this arm was a little bit longer than it is now and the bone was growing faster than the skin, so it was very tight, like my arm was very pointy, it was like the skin around it was very thin, so like if I banged it up pretty good, I think the bone would have came through. So it was very, yeah, it was very painful, I used to like tuck it away because I didn't want to hit it on anything, And I came home one day and I said, mom and dad I want to be a wrestler. And you know, my parents supported me in everything and anything I ever wanted to do in life. But this one they were like, you know, this Nick, this is super dangerous with your arm, you you can't, it's too dangerous.

And I said, well let's amputate my arm, can we shorten it, can we do something with it? And they kind of looked at me like, Nick, like come on. And I'm like no, know, I want to go ahead and do this, I know that me being a part of a wrestling team, me being labeled as an athlete, me being just a part of something will make me feel better about myself. And so you know, like anything I do in life I tell people, you either do it 110% or you're wasting your time and you're selling yourself short. So we made the decision to go ahead my sophomore year to amputate my arm, and so it was a couple inches longer than it is now, and what they did was they lasered it off and basically did a skin graft, so they pulled extra skin over it and basically made a pillow, a padding over my arm for me so I can bang it up.

And I I went into wrestling. You want me to keep going? Know I'm just like

Chris Albert 00:15:30 (link to this point)

No man, I I I, yeah, of course I do, but that's just a fascinating story to me as far as, ever, you know who Walter Payton was, the football player? Yep. He actually had a finger removed in order to play football because it was I didn't know that. He he had had it injured so bad. But this is like 40 times more hardcore than that is is as far as being able to wrestle.

And I I man, that's that's some absolute dedication to trying to make yourself better and to trying to to to make yourself get into a better place in life.

Nick Santonastasso 00:16:06 (link to this point)

Absolutely.

Chris Albert 00:16:07 (link to this point)

And yeah,

Nick Santonastasso 00:16:08 (link to this point)

I yeah. Go ahead.

Chris Albert 00:16:09 (link to this point)

Oh, what I was gonna say too is wrestling in and of itself, man. That sport I don't know why more high schools don't have that sport. I was a wrestler in in high school as well. And I have to say that there that that sport had the greatest influence on my life more than anything. And because it's the only sport that truly teaches personal discipline, you've got to make weight.

You've got to make sure you're drilling. The practices are absolutely brutal. And I don't know if you know this, but there's a very, very high percentage of successful people who are wrestlers.

Nick Santonastasso 00:16:45 (link to this point)

Wow. I didn't know that.

Chris Albert 00:16:46 (link to this point)

Yeah. High school wrestling has had a major influence on the on the leadership of this country, both in business, politics, and all other venues.

Nick Santonastasso 00:16:56 (link to this point)

Wow, didn't know that, yeah. So, wow, you kind of blew, that like, I'm blown away by that, didn't know that, that's pretty cool, and that you wrestled, that's awesome. And so, me going into wrestling, the one thing that I want to circle back is that, you know, the only limitation or challenge that I saw I had was the fact that my arm hurt. It wasn't the fact that I had no legs and one arm, because I was confident in my ability and my hard work and consistency would make up for my lack of limbs. And that in itself goes to, it starts with you.

It starts with you in anything, whether it's a business plan or whatever kind of goals you're trying to hit this year or this month, whatever it may be, if you yourself don't believe in your vision, you can't expect other people to support you. You can't expect other people to believe in you. And, but even in that, the only person that needs to believe in you is you, you know, it doesn't really matter what other people say, know, my whole life you know, people threw limitations at me. From when I was born, the doctors handed in my parents basically a list and said, you know, these are all the things your son won't be able to do. You know, your son won't be able to be independent or feed himself or dress himself, and you know, where would we be, where would I be, where would you be, where would we all be if we continuously listened to the people that said, oh, you can't do that, or tried to put what they think limits are on us, you know?

Chris Albert 00:18:25 (link to this point)

Yeah, exactly. I think, and in a lot of cases, and this translates over to the veteran community as well, We have this dependence on on doctors to tell us what to do. This dependence on them to tell us what medications we should be putting in our bodies. And I think it's had a really big deleterious effect on on the the recovery of a lot of veterans in this community. And I think, you know, just these lessons that you're putting out there about, you know, taking responsibility for yourself and finding things that can challenge you.

That's that's such a great lesson for anybody, you know, whether you're a veteran, whether you have a disability, whether you're just a normal person who's trying to get by in life. These if you're not being called to action, you have to call yourself to action. That's a huge thing.

Nick Santonastasso 00:19:14 (link to this point)

I like that, yeah. So was, I just knew that if I worked hard enough, you know, if I really set my mind to something that it would make up for my lack of limbs. So you know, we went ahead and we did the amputation, did the recovery and everything, and my junior year I tried out for my wrestling team, and we know you have your JV and your varsity. So junior year, know, I told my buddies, everyone in the room, I'm like, you know, I was the lightest weight, so I with the light guys, I'm like, you know, beat me up. I never wrestled, know, I need to get put through a butt whooping.

I need to get my ass kicked so I can learn what I need to learn to become a better wrestler. Because if people are like not going 110% on me, then I'll never know what it feels like when I'm out there. So my junior year I got my butt kicked like I wanted, and you know, I found out things, you know, that I needed to work on. And that's a part of embracing failure. And I always say, you know, failure is my best friend throughout life.

Everything that I attempted at, everything that I wanted to do, I fell on my face, you know, at least once. Most of the time, a couple 100 times, but you know, at least once I failed at something. And you know, I always say the majority of people when I say the word failure, you're immediately going to associate it with negative. But if we can switch that mindset and start embracing failure because there's so much that comes from failing, there's so much, it's all good, you know? There's so many different approaches you can outtake, there's so many different tactics or different ways you can go about things, different perspectives you learn from falling on your face and you know, putting yourself out there.

So I was like, you know, go kick, kick my ass, know, go as hard as you can, and they did, and there was practices where, you know, I'm crying in the room because I can't get a takedown and I can't get out of the circle because you gotta get a certain takedown, certain number of takedowns to move on. And like you said, wrestling really showed me how far I could push myself physically, but mentally. Because like, it's a total mental, it's a total mental sport, know? Not going, just stopping yourself from not going crazy from the practices, the heat, know, whatever it may be. So my junior year, you know I got my butt kicked and realized I needed some of the things real quick, I realized that I needed to strengthen my neck.

So when people try to head palm me or anything that I was solid, know. So I would do back bridges and I'd do back bridges till I couldn't anymore, you know, strengthen my neck or I'd have someone put their palm on my head and I'd do like reps up, reps left and right, you know, anything to strengthen me, and because I knew if I wanted to get the varsity, of the, you know, most of the time I was so new, most of the times I may not win, but if I didn't give up a pin, that was a win. Because you know, kids were going to their back and giving up the full six points. If I can give up a tech, you know, that's not as many points as you know, a pin. And trust me, was pretty good at neck bridging, my neck bridge was pretty good.

Chris Albert 00:22:37 (link to this point)

That's awesome, that's awesome.

Nick Santonastasso 00:22:38 (link to this point)

So senior year, I, you know, I came back out for the wrestling team and I was the Central Regional one hundred six varsity, know, one hundred six pound varsity wrestler for my high school. And that was, that was like, I always say, you know, Nick's confidence meter jumped up a little bit, know? It was reassurance of what I was capable of doing when I really set my mind to something. And this is where the whole, you know, wrestling saved my life, the whole shift happened, know, I finally got my answer to my why is, I was doing the pranks, which we'll get into, but I would have gymnasiums packed to watch me wrestle, and I'll be the first one to let you know that I wasn't the best wrestler. My senior year I was like three and 16, but those were like two more wins that I got my last year, so I was happy with that.

And I was like, know, why, I'm a very competitive person, like why is there so many people out here, you know, want to watch me wrestle and why do I get a standing ovation every time I get off the mat? And you know, when I went on the mat I gave it my all, know, I went up against, I don't know if you know what like districts and regions are.

Chris Albert 00:23:50 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah, we have them out here in California too. I grew up in Connecticut, we had states and we had counties in Connecticut. Absolutely. In New York, was it?

Nick Santonastasso 00:24:00 (link to this point)

I was in Jersey.

Chris Albert 00:24:01 (link to this point)

Jersey, Jersey, that's my mom's home state. Yeah. Yeah. I've I I we we have the districts in the regions here too.

Nick Santonastasso 00:24:08 (link to this point)

Yeah. So for for those who are listening that may not know what that is, is, know, when when you wrestle, it's it's a team sport until the end where you wrestle for individuals. So you wrestle into, you go into the districts and if you make it out of districts, you go to regions, and if you make it out of the regional tournament, you go to states. I remember wrestling a regional, a regional placer, and it was home, and he kept trying to cement mix me. And I was just so, so good at locking down and just saying bunkered, and I remember his coach was yelling, stick them already, stick them and that kid could not pin me and he had to tech me. So just like things like that, but yeah, here I am like, you know, like why are these people coming to watch me wrestle? You know, I'm not that good, I'm not, like I said, I'll be the first one to admit I wasn't that good. And I came off the mat one time and I had a teacher come up, maybe a teacher, maybe an adult, and you know, maybe just an adult not a teacher, and they said Nick, you know, like teary eyed and I'm like oh God, like what did I do? Know, and they're like my son or my daughter never wanted to do an extracurricular activity, never wanted to do a sport, but they saw you out there today and they were like, I wanna try all these things, know, if this kid's out there, like I wanna try it.

And here I am, 17, 18 year old kid, I'm like, woah, slow down. I realized it clicked that I have so much impact on people by just living my life to the fullest, just putting myself out there and trying new things. It's an example for others and I didn't realize that, know, I didn't really, still to this day it's kinda hard for me to believe how much impact I have on people, because for me it's Nick doing Nick, you know, I'm just living life. And that's where I found my why, I'm like okay, know, I literally, you know, wasn't, like not in a cocky way, I wasn't even trying to impact people, I was just like doing my sport, know, wrestling and I was impacting people and I was like, you know, wow, like I'm on this earth to be an example for others to show them what they are capable of doing if they really want something. And that's when Vine came in, you know.

Chris Albert 00:26:26 (link to this point)

Well let me stop you there because I wanna get into into Vine and and that whole story as well.

Nick Santonastasso 00:26:32 (link to this point)

Just Just cut me off whatever.

Chris Albert 00:26:33 (link to this point)

Yeah. No. It's all good, man. But I just wanna go over some of these lessons from just from high school wrestling in in that experience that you had.

You know, you mentioned the the feeling of failing, the feeling of of being in the center of the ring, the center of the circle, not being able to get a takedown and get out of the circle. You mentioned, you know, just just that kind of that feeling you get when when you are failing at something something. And in the moment it hurts. It hurts really, really bad. But without that failure, there is no chance for greatness.

And and what I mean by that is that your greatness in and of itself was shaped by your failures almost more than than your successes and that determination, that desire to get better. And so I wouldn't even call those failures. I would say those are those are defeats, but they're not failures, you know. And and that's one of the things that I think people lack in this society. We're so set on, you know, we look on the Internet, we see people making money, we see people becoming social media famous, we see all this stuff.

And there's this huge fear amongst people out there that if they try something, if they put themselves out there, if they put their neck out there, they're gonna fail. But I think really, failing means you never really tried or that you gave up, right?

Nick Santonastasso 00:27:56 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. That's perfect. I mean, yeah, failure or just like defeats, let's call them defeats, know, that's like I said, that's where the most growth comes from because you can either do two things. You can turn around and quit, or you can figure out what you need to do to move forward.

And us as humans, it's just, we are addicted to progress. And when you start seeing that you're getting just a little better, a little better at something that you were not so good at, you know, that drives you. So once you get a taste of that progress and once you see yourself like, wow, I'm putting in the work and I'm improving, it builds momentum. So I feel like people need to get over that, you know, the first initial defeat, the first initial, you know, slap on the wrist or you're just like, wow, like, you know, what do I do? And so instead of just like, which I feel like kids nowadays, if something's hard, oh, just give up, you know?

But I feel like if they can get over that first initial thing and realize like, okay, well, I'm not good at this, let me work at it. And then once they feel that, once they see that progress and feel it, it drives you.

Chris Albert 00:29:08 (link to this point)

Yeah. I after, you know, twenty years of not wrestling and, you know, I did a little bit of grappling in the Marine Corps, but after twenty years of not not wrestling, I went into a jiu-jitsu class last year and got choked out by somebody half my size. And I was like, I gotta learn more about this stuff, because if somebody half my size can do that to me, it's it's gonna be it's gonna be something that I need to learn. Was there anybody during this time period outside of your parents or potentially your your wrestling coach or anybody, was there anybody who really guided you along as far as learning these lessons?

Nick Santonastasso 00:29:52 (link to this point)

I feel like, you know what, my friends played a huge role in keeping me right with wrestling, not quitting because it was extremely hard, but one thing that I realized in the room that it was mutual, you know. When we were getting, when we were all getting our butt kicks in the room, right, and the coaches just like, you know, just drilling us, just killing us, and like, they look over and I could crack a smile, know, they're like, dude, if this kid's like, you know, if this kid's like getting his butt kicked, but like still cracking a smile, like let's go, let's keep going. And so I feel like, you know, my friends, you know, us just having that relationship and bouncing our energy back and forth and just keeping each other, holding each other accountable but keeping each other motivated was huge for me.

Chris Albert 00:30:40 (link to this point)

Yeah, that's the best is when you're in a really shitty situation and somebody can crack a joke or somebody can crack a crack a smile. That's that's the best. I mean, that's what builds camaraderie and that's the stuff you remember. So Yeah. So tell me about Vine.

I, you know, I know you had a lot of these short videos out there, but how'd you get into it in the first place? How'd you get exposed to it?

Nick Santonastasso 00:31:05 (link to this point)

Yes, so I was a senior in high school when Vine started and you know, it was hot, like everyone in school was using Vine, know, just posting whatever they wanted to post in school or whatnot, and wrestling, that whole wrestling part gave me enough confidence to put myself out there on the internet, And I feel like that was huge because we can both agree again that the internet can be a very nasty place and you know, there's a lot on the internet. So I realized, saw the taste of of how much impact I have on people, so I was like, okay, I want to find out a way where I can not only inspire people, but make them laugh, because you know, it's a great gift if you can make people laugh, you know. And I sat around and I said, well, if figure out something that has never been done before, you know, a video that has never been done before, never been seen, then it's going to catch, it's got to catch, no one's ever seen it before, right? So I was like, well, I don't think there's many legless dudes pretending to be zombies crawling around Walmart.

And so, you know, my buddies, we came up with this idea and I went to Walmart and I had just regular clothes on, but I just like put some fake blood on me and there was a guy holding paper towels and I came around the corner and I did my zombie screech and he, woah, and he threw the paper towels on my head. And it was like perfect six second clip, like and Vine was six seconds. For those of you who don't know, Vine was an app where you could post six second videos, you had to be as creative as you can in six seconds, which was pretty difficult. And so, you know, I was like, and like I said, the whole vision behind these videos was if an adult or a kid could see like, wow, like look how happy Nick is in a situation, you know, I could be happy in mine, or you know, could start improving whatever they're trying to go through, because you know, I know what it felt like to hate myself, know, and I didn't want other people to feel like that, I didn't want to, you know, and I know there's people out there still today that you know, are going through that, so I I just wanted to help, I wanted to build an outlet, like I said, where I can make people laugh and inspire them, and I filmed that video, and it was a school night, and I said, you know, if this reaches 500 people, you know, I'm winning, you know, because at least couple people out of that 500 got that message that I wanted to get across. And I woke up the next morning for school and it had over 80,000 likes, over 80,000 revines, which means like reposts, and it went internationally viral. And you know, like internationally, like Africa, you name it, like news articles all over, and the main title was NJ Teen Born with Disability Turns into a Positive. And I was like, that's what I wanted, like boom, like Nick, you did it.

And I caught momentum, I was like, I need to keep doing funny, I need to just put myself out there in a funny way, people love it, and that led me to gaining, I gained a million followers in under a year on Vine, and I got this so called internet fame with the pranking and everything and that's when, you know, I was like the zombie king, like you know, my videos were just like killing it and that's when Fox International contacted me, they said, hey, Andrew Lincoln who plays Rick Grimes, sheriff, he was like, we want to pull a prank on Norman Reedus as a company and you know, we want you to be our guy, like you're perfect. So here I am, 18 year old kid, and they're like, you know, we wanna fly you out to Tokyo, Japan, you can bring your family, like we just, and they hired me, and you know, I did this basically, know, this, planned this viral video on Norman Reedus.

Chris Albert 00:34:58 (link to this point)

That's pretty awesome, that's pretty awesome. I watched that video and he took it really, really well. He was a little bit scared, but he took it really, really well. He seems like a really chill guy.

Nick Santonastasso 00:35:08 (link to this point)

Yeah, and it's funny because at the end he goes, he's like, I already, so the funny thing is, he knew about me previously through my videos. Because my videos were so, you know, zombie, that's just his realm, and so they saw my videos, and so when I flew into Japan, they were like, okay, these are the times you have to stay in your hotel room because if Norman, when Norman lands and if he sees you, he's going know what's going on. So it was pretty cool, we had to be like, you know, pretty secretive about it. But yeah, was a crazy, crazy experience and you know, that trip to Japan inspired my whole sleeve on my arm. It's all Japanese culture.

Chris Albert 00:35:48 (link to this point)

That's awesome, that's awesome. Yeah, were you were you nervous when you were coming out and and going after Norman? Were you were were you like extra zombified because of it or?

Nick Santonastasso 00:36:00 (link to this point)

I remember so it they we did like four hours of makeup and then, know, it was it was they put me in a trolley, like with snacks on top, so I was under it and they pushed me in and then like, you know, you could see shadows, but you don't, I'm like, so like it was him and the two ladies with the camera and then they were like, you know, the camera battery's working, gotta switch it out. And then when they left, I'm like, oh my God, like it's just me and Norman Reedus in a room right now. And I was thinking to myself like, I hope I can get something out. Like I hope I can get my zombie screech out because if I just jump out of the trolley and be like, nothing's gonna hit me. So like my I was like scared.

Was like, I hope like something comes out of my, you know, mouth. And but it did and and he he it was great. I mean, went it went super good. So I was just really happy.

Chris Albert 00:36:50 (link to this point)

That's awesome.

That's awesome. So since Vine, right, so we know, I think Vine got got or shut down for a while. Have you found other outlets? Know you're on Instagram, I know you're you're on YouTube. Which one are you focusing on right now?

Nick Santonastasso 00:37:06 (link to this point)

Right now, my main one is Instagram. I've been building that up. I just hit like 386,000 followers on Instagram and that Instagram is where I started fitness, where I started, you know, the whole fitness scheme, if you want me to go into that.

Chris Albert 00:37:23 (link to this point)

Yeah, will.

Nick Santonastasso 00:37:24 (link to this point)

So, yeah, so after Vine shut down, it was either, you know, go to YouTube or make Facebook videos, but I realized, you know, and I still think about it to this day, like what if I kept doing funny videos, but I realized that, you know, I had much more potential and I was much more than just a prankster, you know. When I was 30, 40, 50 years old, didn't want to just be labeled as that guy that crawled around Walmart, you know, so that was like the hungry part of me, the competitive side of me. And from a business standpoint, I'm like, okay, one of the things that I was always drawn to was you know, people that were in shape. And I think it was the fact that I, to myself, I didn't really know if like Nick, could you get in shape, like could you work out, because like it's totally different. It's like, I haven't seen anyone do it in my situation, so I'm like, I wonder if I could do that. And from a business standpoint, you know, I knew you can't buy a fit body, right? You know, you work for this body. So like if I got in sick enough shape, it's extremely marketable because like I said, it's not fake, it's so real, like I did this, you know, I through the training and everything, I did it. And this goes back to the confidence thing, know, I didn't know, I didn't know anything about bodybuilding, I didn't know anything about lifting, but I was confident in my ability to learn what I needed to learn and implement it to get to my vision.

And that's all it is for people, know, like I said, whether it's goals you want to hit or you know, a business plan you want to get through, you just have to be confident in your ability to learn what you need to learn and implement. We can learn anything we want in this world, know, we just got to put it to work. So for the first, you know, made an announcement to everyone, I said, you know guys, I don't want to do the pranks anymore, you know, this is what I want to do. And I said it, I said, I'm going to become a fitness model, I'm going to become a body builder, I'm going to become, I want to break into the mainstream modeling industry and I want to become a keynote speaker. And I said these are the things that are in front of me and I'm going to work towards them and if you want to support me, you support me, if you don't, I appreciate the support through the past ventures.

And you know, I took a lot of heat because like I said, my pranks were hot and then I just like stopped. But it was something I didn't want to do it anymore. I wanted to do something else. And so for the first year, my best friend, one of the friends that I wrestled with in high school, we got into the gym and I got into the gym with a couple buddies and I'm so grateful for these people that took their time and helped me just like, basically just go into the gym and figure out ways for me. But for the first year, me posting these videos, I was losing followers, they weren't really hot, and I don't blame them because I didn't know what I was doing, know, I was a saddle shaped kid, and not lifting correctly, you know, all that stuff.

It was going, to figure out what I needed to do, was literally going into the gym and basically trial and error, you know, fault, you know, just, yeah.

Chris Albert 00:40:34 (link to this point)

I've seen some of your videos with you lifting. I saw I saw, you know, the one with that that one legged monster Yeah. From Instagram. Great guy. Great guy too.

Nick Santonastasso 00:40:44 (link to this point)

Casey, my man.

Chris Albert 00:40:45 (link to this point)

Yep. And I saw saw the method of of bench pressing you were doing it. And I was like, wow, this that had to be from trial and error. Literally going into the gym, trying a bunch of stuff, and then figuring out which works best and I think that's awesome. How long was your experimentation period or is that still constantly

Nick Santonastasso 00:41:06 (link to this point)

It's still good going man. We are still learning each and every day more efficient ways to contract muscle. So like I said, it was going into the gym and figuring out positions, where do I have to sit to hit this muscle or what kind of equipment do I have to use this or what kind of band rig up do we have to do so I can contract, like we're still learning, and that's the beautiful part about everything is each and every day we have the opportunity to learn more than we did yesterday. So for the first year, know, people didn't really take me serious, and I wanted to break into the fitness industry, you know, I was determined. And my knowledge in nutrition got better, know, I started getting, you know, help from other people with training, with dieting, and so I started to get leaner and you know, things were improving, and would post transformation pictures so you could see the gradual difference in my body, and people started to catch on.

I used to, it's funny, I used to pay Instagram accounts to post my videos so I could get out there more. And because, like I said, to me, videos weren't impressive, so I just needed to keep getting myself out there. And then my physique started to change, and people caught on and that's when I landed my first supplement sponsor, which was Kaged Muscle. And they were highly rated on bodybuilding.com and that was like a good stepping stone for me and a confidence booster for me because, know, was like boom, like I landed sponsorship, like I can do anything, know, was just like reassurance for me, a recharge. And then you know, I got even more hungry and my body got even better and that's when Reebok contacted me to work on the Be More Human campaign, and that was the same campaign that JJ Watt and Conor McGregor were on.

So I got to film like, you know, this super cool video at my hometown gym, you know, Reebok flew out and we filmed this super dope video, and you know, that was just like another recharge, another reassurance for me that you know, my work is working, like I'm putting it out there and people are starting to catch on. And you know, from there, I mean, like I said, my knowledge and everything got better, know, I was implementing things, I was learning each and every day, and then I, just about, I'd say nine or ten months ago, I made the decision that I wanted to get on the competitive bodybuilding stage. And I wanted to compete in men's physique and you know, make history because no one's ever stepped on stage looking like me. And so my following was growing, I think I was a little bit over 200 ks followers and you know, I said, I promised myself, I promised my family and I promised my fan base that I was going to step on the stage before the end of twenty seventeen. So basically showing people that you know, I don't know how to compete, know, I don't know how to do the posing, I don't know anything, but I'm going to put myself in this extremely uncomfortable situation because there's massive growth in these situations. I'm going learn what I need to learn and then I'm going to come out smarter, you know, more sharpened than I was before the show. And there's always, there's, for me, whenever I do think there's always a message behind it, there's always something that I want to get across and for me it was, for a business standpoint, I was getting in front of new faces, was getting in front of the competitive bodybuilding world, but I was also showing people like, yo, this kid knew that he didn't know anything about the show. This kid knew that his symmetry wasn't going to be where he wanted to be but he was still gonna put himself on stage for people to judge him.

Like I just wanted to show people like, yo go out, try things, try everything because life is too short to just live with so many what ifs, right? So I hyped up, yeah, you want to go ahead?

Chris Albert 00:45:05 (link to this point)

Yeah, real quick I want to ask you about this process, right? Did you, what's your diet like? What were you putting in your body?

Nick Santonastasso 00:45:16 (link to this point)

So before the competition, before like this, like me super getting into fitness, I had a previous mentor that would own a meal prep company and he would send me meals and I wasn't really counting macros, like I wasn't counting protein, carbs or fats, I was just like, okay I'm gonna eat four consistent meals a day and you know, trial and error, see how my body reacts to it. If I'm gaining too much fat, then I know I need to cut down on my meals, you know, I was just learning, it was like just hands on experience testing out my body because no one knows your body better than you.

Chris Albert 00:45:52 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Santonastasso 00:45:52 (link to this point)

And so that's what I was doing, was just like counting meals, they were prep meals and I was just counting them and then you know, just checking, you know, implementing cardio and then seeing, you know, just watching myself very closely.

Chris Albert 00:46:05 (link to this point)

How did you implement cardio? What were you doing for cardio?

Nick Santonastasso 00:46:09 (link to this point)

So at first, my cardio, I have a bike and the bike is, it's got one wheel in the front and two wheels in the back, so it's a trike, and I would pedal with my, so it's a hand bike, I pedal like this and I would ride like two or three miles, you know, for cardio, but now I have a slip of wrestling mat because like I don't want to rip, I don't want to, like the treadmill rips my butt up and stuff rips So my shorts I was like, I need to find a more efficient way to do cardio because it's going be like in my everyday life. And so I was a part of Elite Wrestling, which was a club that Frankie Edgar volunteers at back where, because me and Frankie, we know each other, we're from the same town. And so I got a piece of wrestling mat and I walk without my arm, so I walk with just my quads, like back and forth, and I walk like that, back and forth for my cardio now.

Chris Albert 00:47:13 (link to this point)

Oh wow, wow, that is definitely innovative, that's crazy.

Nick Santonastasso 00:47:17 (link to this point)

Yeah, I needed, like I said, I needed to just find a more efficient way so I didn't have to rip up my shorts or get cuts all over myself on the treadmill, so.

Chris Albert 00:47:28 (link to this point)

And then, so you're getting ready for the show and, you know, I was a bodybuilding coach for quite a while. I I got coached a couple IFBB pros and and a few men's physique competitors here and there, but mostly bodybuilding. But I know about the men's physique, the posing is very, very important. Yeah. Posing.

So did you have to develop your own poses and your stance and things like that on stage?

Nick Santonastasso 00:47:56 (link to this point)

No, so I wanted to, my main thing was like, I wanted to compete against fully bodied people, know, I didn't want to be put in another class, so I followed everything to a T, you know, the poses, but I've been blessed with having amazing friends in the industry that are extremely competitive bodybuilders, you know pros, guys that don't compete anymore but have a huge impact in the bodybuilding world, and actually about two or three weeks out from my show, we went to a camp with my buddies, they put on a camp, it's called Golden Aesthetics, and basically, you know, a team of guys with amazing physiques, amazing posers, and you know, I learned from my friends, I learned from just, you know, doing it and once I, it's funny, once I figured out, you know, where my body needs to be for the poses to look right, you know, the guys were like, dude, you're like a natural poser, like you don't really, you're in, and I was like, that's pretty cool. But yeah, wanted to follow the guidelines, know, I wanted to make sure my pose just looked like the guy next me, you know, I was just a little bit shorter. And and it's funny to go back in my older videos and see me try to hit a lat spread and it doesn't really look like a lat spread and now like, you know, it's come a long way.

Chris Albert 00:49:23 (link to this point)

Yeah. I think that process, a lot of people think it's just the training, just the just just the dieting and things like that, but it's like a full bore assault on your lifestyle when you're doing something like this, and and there's so much more to it than just hitting the gym and just eating right. There's a lot of mental stuff you have to you have to think about the removal of body hair and the the tanning and taking care of your skin. So your skin looks good and and the posing. I mean, posing is so critical on everything, whether it's body, any of the physique sports, it's bodybuilding, men's physique, classic physique, all of them.

And say, if you're not posing right, your body just doesn't look right up there.

Nick Santonastasso 00:50:07 (link to this point)

Yeah, you can't portray the art the way it's supposed to, you know, if you can't hit the pose right, don't look the right way. So yeah, I was going through this prep, I did a twelve week prep and like I said, I told people, was like, I get on stage, even now, symmetry lacks on my right side, so I'm still trying to build full symmetry, my abs, everything, but I told people, symmetry is not going to be the way I want it, but I'm going to compete anyway. Like, I'm just, you know, like sometimes you're not going to be ready for some things, but you got to do them. You got to at least try them.

Chris Albert 00:50:42 (link to this point)

So important, so important. Yeah.

Nick Santonastasso 00:50:45 (link to this point)

And I have a quick cool story about The Rock.

Chris Albert 00:50:51 (link to this point)

Yeah, let me hear that.

Nick Santonastasso 00:50:52 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah, so I went out to, I was in prep and I think I was two weeks out from my show and I went out to Vegas for Mr. Olympia. It's one of the biggest fitness expos, biggest bodybuilding competitions. And it was a Friday, a Saturday, and a Sunday. And Sunday I didn't make it to the expo, I just hung around the hotel for some reason, and then you know, said to the guys, you wanna go lift, like let's at least do something, And they're like yeah, so we went to City Athletic Club, which is one of the more famous gyms, and it's funny, I walked in and Casey came up to me, One Leg Monster, Casey came up to me immediately goes yo bro, the rock's upstairs lifting.

And I was like, well can I still lift? I still got to get my workout in, know, I'm on prep, I'm two weeks out. He's like, yeah yeah. So like, I went up, I went up these stairs and I remember right to the stairs there was two bodyguards and The Rock was doing dips, like all hoodied out, like bundled up, I'm like holy shit, it's The Rock, really is The Rock? And previously to that, The Rock had tweeted one of my videos because I sent it in for one of the baller contests. I sent him like a video of me bench pressing and he retweeted it, so he already knew how I was, but you know, I told my buddies, I'm like, you know, everyone's going to be bothering him for a picture. I was like, this guy already knows who I am. If he sees me, he's going to want to come up to me anyway. Just don't bother him. And so we went throughout our lift and at one point like, you know, I took my shirt off in the gym, I was shredded, I was just like doing my thing and at one point, know, The Rock came over, he had his headphones in, and he was doing dumbbell curls next to me, and I even look at him, I didn't, to be honest, I didn't show him any attention, I didn't want him to feel like, you know, those guys get that all the time, you know?

Yeah. So I'm treating this guy like a normal person, like I'm not giving him any attention, like we're just working out, and then he goes off in the corner and he takes off his headphone and people, you know, crowd, everyone's getting pictures with The Rock, and you know, I'm like guys, I promise you, just be patient, it's gonna happen, we don't need to go over there. And I was right, that one of the security guards came over and said, hey, know, Dwayne would like to meet you privately, is that okay? And I'm like, yeah, you know, of course. And so they escorted us over into a corner and I have it all, I have the whole thing on video, the whole interaction, you know, I was like, what's up man, how you doing?

And he was like, I'm a big fan, and I was like kind of blown back, and he, you know, we were just talking and he's like, he asked me first, he's like, hey can I have a picture with you, it'd really mean a lot to me and I'm like, yeah, can I have a picture with you? So he took that picture and the one thing I told him afterwards, I said you know, I really respect you, I really respect everything you do and I was like, it's funny, I tell all my close group of friends, I said, I'm gonna do what you did. And what I mean by that is everybody knew The Rock for college football, you know, and him about to go into the NFL, and then everybody knew him for the WWE, and then he branched out into acting, you name it, he was in every industry. I was like, I'm gonna do that. And he said, Nick, you're right, because people like me and you, they put us in any industry and we adapt and crush it.

That like a big reassurance moment for me, you know, that I can impact people up until the highest tier celebrity, you know, regardless of who it is, but for The Rock to say that to me. And you know, I told him about my competition, I told him about my book, he loved it, and the day of my competition, he posted me on his Instagram, and he thanked me for changing, sharpening his perspective a little more on life.

Chris Albert 00:54:41 (link to this point)

That's awesome, man.

Nick Santonastasso 00:54:43 (link to this point)

That's awesome.

Chris Albert 00:54:45 (link to this point)

Me about the competition, the actual day of, like what was the experience like for you?

Nick Santonastasso 00:54:51 (link to this point)

So that prep, like I said, my first prep was pretty stressful. I didn't cheat on my diet once, I didn't go out of line once, and that was in September and that was when Hurricane Irma hit Florida. So even, I had to evacuate from my place, and even through all the evacuation and the storm, and the show got pushed back, the show got pushed back a week, and then they said, okay, we're not gonna cancel it, we're gonna put it on the same day, and then the hurricane came and they were like, okay we need to push it back, and like you know, with competitors, like you're trying to peak, know, have this peak week where you have to implement carbs at a certain time, implement certain amount of water so you look the best on stage. So I was like, I am not bailing on this, like you know, this hurricane's trying to fuck me up and it's not gonna happen. And so I, it came to show day, and some of my friends, some my wrestlers, they flew out from Jersey with my family, and some of my friends from my hometown flew out, and oh man, it was, I was pretty nervous, not really nervous, just anxious, because you know, you put this work in for twelve weeks straight, and finally, you know, you get to show it off for two minutes on stage, three minutes on stage.

And you know, I'm in the back, I'm in the back pumping up with my two boys, my one boy Cody, who literally trained me throughout my whole entire prep, was like my right hand, and you know, he's just, we were pumping up, and I remember just like getting ready to go out on stage, and you have your pre judging and then you have your judging. So you have your pre judging before like, I mean, there's family and friends out there, but it's not crowded because it's just pre judging. And I was pumping up and I was actually, we actually misinterpreted the time, so like I was late on stage. Gosh. But like I got out on stage and I was out of breath from pumping up, and so it's hard to pose when you're out of breath, and there's like some pictures of me where I have like a straight face, because like I was trying to catch my breath and you're supposed to smile the whole time, but you know, I was out there and the thing the thing is you know, people people, I knew people would have clapped for me if I stepped out on 12% body fat, 15% body fat, but that's not me, know.

I came out diced, and I just don't think people were expecting that, and I was pretty surprised about how lean I got, and I went out there and just, you know, to show off just what eat, sleep, and breathe for the last twelve weeks, to show it off to people, that's one of the moment that, you know, every time I think about moments I'm grateful for, that's one of the moments was that, just that experience of competition. And so we did, yeah, so we did the pre judging, and then, you know, we came out for finals, and that's when like it was packed, you know, the lights are on and everything, and one of the best things, you know, I do my front pose, and then my back, my back's pretty sick. I have a pretty sick back, I have a very, excuse me, have a very baby, very small baby waist and then that V taper, and you know, my back's sick and I remember I was hitting my front pose and I was transitioning to my back pose and someone in the crowd was like, show them the back! And you know I hit my lat spread and people were just like, the judges were like, woah, you know, people never seen that before. You know I just knew how much, how proud of myself I was, you know, I was proud of myself and how much light I was bringing to the sport and to the people in the audience. And that's really what, you know, just really really made the difference because I know that I was hitting home with some people.

Chris Albert 00:58:45 (link to this point)

Yeah, that's, I think, especially for that sport where you get so much of it. So much it it's all based on objective opinion. Right? So when you're you're stepping in front of people who are literally judging you and and putting their opinion down about you on paper. But I think whenever whenever there's anybody who can bend their perspective on what the human form looks like and what it should look like, I think that's a good thing for the sport.

I think it's bringing light to a sport that, you know, for and and this is bringing some light, my own person, but a lot of people in that sport feel sorry for themselves when they don't place and they don't, you know, they don't get what they want right off the bat. And I'm not talking about the pro guys. The pro guys are are, you know, they're they're pretty. They're professionals. You know what I mean?

They they they know it comes with the territory, but a lot of people first get into that sport. They don't place how they want to. They they throw it down. They never try it again, and that's not the way to approach it. It's about about getting better.

But, you know, seeing somebody like you compete in this and actually put that kind of effort into where you could have gotten the cheers, but you decided to get absolutely diced and work your ass off, that's that's amazing to me. And that's what the sport is really all about is is pushing yourself.

Nick Santonastasso 00:59:59 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah, and absolutely, I knew how much, I mean, I'm gonna be honest, the industry isn't one of the best industries, know?

Chris Albert 01:00:08 (link to this point)

Right.

Nick Santonastasso 01:00:09 (link to this point)

That's just like plain and simple, and so knew how much light I could bring to the sport, and you know that was my goal, just you know, bring some positivity, but really show people what time it was, you know, that I was working my butt off these past twelve weeks and I wasn't messing around, know. I wanted to get shredded and show people like, bro, if this kid can dial down to 5% body fat, whatever it was, you know, like I can do it. And that's what it is for me, know, anything I do in life, you know, anything I want to attempt or I want achieve, whatever it may be, how can I bring value to others? You know, how can I help others in any way, whether that's you know, just a mindset or just inspiration or making people laugh, it's always for me, it's just like, I'm gonna do this for me, but how can I bring value to others while I do it?

Chris Albert 01:00:56 (link to this point)

Yeah. That's that that that's huge, man. So you've you've done the competition, now you're you're working on a book and you probably you're looking toward the future and and you have a few more goals left on that list. You're you're trying to become a public speaker, right, and and and an author and and these things, what's your book gonna be about?

Nick Santonastasso 01:01:18 (link to this point)

So my book, the rough draft should be done this week, and we're going to you know, get things going, which I'm excited about, it's going be called Nick's Way. And it's called Nick's Way because it's based around, it's not fully, but it's based around the skill of confidence. And I, when I was younger, I didn't realize that confidence was a skill. I thought you were just either had confidence or you didn't have confidence, right? So it's to show people that confidence is a skill and it's extremely important into, you know, whatever you're doing to be confident that you can achieve things and that, know, with a skill you can sharpen it.

You can always get it, you know, more, you know, you can always get your skill better by just working on it. And how I didn't know how to do any of these things. I didn't know how to become a fitness model, I didn't know how to become a keynote speaker, didn't know how to become a mainstream model or break into the modeling industry, but I was confident, I was confident in myself that I could do it, you know, and to show people, you know, so many people are scared to do things but I feel like they don't believe in their self. And if you truly believe in yourself, you're like unstoppable, you You can go out and achieve whatever you want. So basically, it goes, you know, story, it's like a, for each section, it's like a story, and then it's the principle, and then it's how the reader can apply it to their life, with some exercises too.

And so it's just broken down in sections like sound mind, like you know, always challenging your mind, always personal development, know, you need personal development because you need to grow, whether you know, if you're growing in one area, you need to grow in all areas of your life. So sound mind, sound body, whether that's, you know, you don't have to be super shredded, but just feeling active, getting in the gym or living a little healthier lifestyle, your body and your mind are connected. In a good analogy that my boy Cody always tells me because we like cars, if you have a Ferrari and you're putting regular fuel into a Ferrari, the Ferrari is not going to perform how a Ferrari is supposed to perform. It's not the So right the body and the mind, they're connected and it's one. So when you put that right fuel into your body, it's going to improve all the other aspects of your life.

So sound mind, sound body, manifestation, goal setting, know, just showing these people these sections of my life, stories about my life, the principle behind it and then how they can apply it to themselves.

Chris Albert 01:03:42 (link to this point)

That's awesome. And so you're you're finishing up the rough draft this week. How was the writing process for you? Were you, are you spending most of your days writing? Do you have specific times in the day that you write?

Nick Santonastasso 01:03:54 (link to this point)

So I'll be a 100% honest. The book idea, we started it a couple months ago and you know, I was like, okay, like I'm going write a book and you know, was writing and writing and writing and then it was like 10 pages and I was like, I'm done and you know, showed it to my manager and my friend, I'm like, hey, like this is what I got and he's like, okay, we need to make this longer, there needs to be more value. So up until recently, up until last week, we just recreated that outline of the story, the principle and the application. So I got this whole new outline of the book and basically you know, take each section and I've been just writing them. So I'm a night owl.

I feel like, know, the night it's just like calm, there's nothing around, and it's just me time and I'm just like up later hours. So I do most of my writing, I like to do it at night, but want to get this thing done, know, I want to get this out to the people, and you know, it's pretty exciting for me to be able to have a tangible book, and it's my book, and I never had that done, so you know, I'm pretty motivated to get this done. So we just I just started on the new outline, and you know, I plan to get this this done by by the end of the week or so.

Chris Albert 01:05:16 (link to this point)

Awesome, man. That's that's amazing. And so what else do you have on your on your in your prospects right now? What other kinds of things are you thinking about doing?

Nick Santonastasso 01:05:29 (link to this point)

So right now, you know, the main thing I'm focusing on is building my speaking company as a keynote speaker. So just, we're getting all of our marketing, our marketing situated way, you know, anything, you know, there's a, I didn't realize how much goes into the backside of a company.

Chris Albert 01:05:48 (link to this point)

Yeah.

Nick Santonastasso 01:05:49 (link to this point)

Yeah, so you know, we're putting all the right people in the right places, you know, just learning. I'm only 21, so there's a lot for me to learn about business. And so right now my main focus is speaking, you know, I want to break into the mainstream modeling industry. Right now my modeling pictures on Instagram are most liked pictures now. So it's funny how just like the demand of things or what people like switches.

So you know, the modeling, the speaking, the fitness, the fitness is a lifestyle, so you know, I can't let myself go. I'd love to just eat food, to be honest, I'm a foodie, I love food.

Chris Albert 01:06:27 (link to this point)

And you're Italian, man.

Nick Santonastasso 01:06:28 (link to this point)

Yeah, we, yeah. Grew up with one protein, three carbs on the plate, so.

Chris Albert 01:06:35 (link to this point)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Nick Santonastasso 01:06:37 (link to this point)

So, you know, I, one of my goals is, with the speaking company, is to, you know, really break out internationally, but that gives me basically opportunity to, you know, not only go out and do gigs internationally and, you know, impact people, get compensated for it, get a vacation, but I get to eat food all over the world. So I want to go to like Italy, I want to go to The Netherlands, I want to go all over and eat food, and and when we look back at this in like thirty years, I'm gonna have a a show on the Food Network where I'm just eating food because that's how I wanna go out. That's how I wanna retire, Hell yeah. I I one of the one of the things on the on the list, I mean, we're prioritizing the list, we know the speaking and everything, but one of the one of the things that I wanna get into is DJing, and I wanna become a DJ and because I I I love music, you know, I I know every hip hop song, you know, there is out right now, like I'm a big hip hop rap guy, and I want to, you know, as a DJ, they pay you for entertainment, and and I know that I can, I know through speaking I get a crowd hyped, so I can definitely do it through music, I just gotta learn?

So here and there, I'm starting to learn DJ with one, starting to learn how to DJ with one of my friends, and but I don't know, it makes me smile because I really like music and you know, when I when I get onto something that I'm passionate about, it's I'm I'm a force to be reckoned with.

Chris Albert 01:08:04 (link to this point)

I love hip hop too. I I'm not a big fan of today's hip hop, though. I'm a big nineties hip hop guy. Okay. Playing Nas, like Nas. Nas hip is hop. I I just can't get with it, man. It's it's it's different it's a different animal than it was.

Nick Santonastasso 01:08:20 (link to this point)

It is. It is and and, you know, that's tough because like if if you wanna get in the industry, you'd have to adapt, so it's good for me for like the DJing that I, you know, I'm up to date with all the music and, you know, I listen to it firsthand and, you know, I love music, to be honest. I just Yeah. It's something that I really enjoy.

Chris Albert 01:08:39 (link to this point)

Well, hopefully, you could bring some realness back to the hip hop game because

Nick Santonastasso 01:08:43 (link to this point)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So our one goals is and I see a lot of rappers now for this year, it's like leave Xans in 2017, so leave like the Xanax, all the drugs that some of these rappers are getting together and be like, no, don't do this, don't do that, and that's the type of atmosphere I wanna bring into the DJing world and into the entertainment world is you know, just like, you can you can have a great time, like, sober.

Like, know, you can be hyped in music, like, regardless of, you know, you don't have to do all these drugs to enjoy a concert or whatever, and that's what I wanna I wanna bring a positive, you know, aspect to to that industry.

Chris Albert 01:09:23 (link to this point)

Yeah. No. I think that's awesome, man. Yeah. There's so many there's so many music's changing so much.

There's so many different niches you can get into too. I mean, I've I've been really into EDM and and dubstep and and all these these kind of new things that come out. I've been to a bunch of festivals, but like, there's so many different different venues that you take advantage of. And the thing is too, you're with your social media empire, you know, between YouTube and Instagram, you have a venue to do a lot of these things already, you know, as far as the public speaking, getting your message out, putting songs out there, that's and it's great that we live in these modern times when this has been almost easier than ever, you know.

Nick Santonastasso 01:10:07 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, I'm grateful for the fact, I've come to realize, you know, it doesn't matter what I post anymore, it doesn't matter if it's fitness, it doesn't matter if it's modeling, if it's speaking, or if it's DJing, people love me for me, and just, you know, me putting out content, and that's something that, you know, I take a sense of comfort in because I don't have to you know, say like, what do they like or you know, what what do people wanna see from me because I ask those things and they're like, just do you, just post what you want, we just love following your journey on life and whatever you dabble into and I plan on dabbling into a lot of different things, like I said, like DJing is oh man, it's gonna be awesome.

Chris Albert 01:10:44 (link to this point)

That's that's amazing, man. Do you have any personal habits or or or maybe pieces of advice for for all the guys listening out there right now? Like I told you before we went on, a lot of these guys are are veterans. A lot of them have been through a lot. What would you say to these guys?

Nick Santonastasso 01:11:06 (link to this point)

I would say gratitude is extremely important. You know, us, and especially controlling our thoughts. So we have this, in the world, have this big thought bank, you know, this big thought bank of thoughts that aren't even our thoughts, and we have the opportunity to pull what kind of thoughts we want into our head, you know, think what we want to think. So, you know, pulling only positive thoughts, only allowing positive thoughts into your head because, you know, us as humans, when we take, when something negative happens, we tend to stack things on top of each other. We stack more negative, negative, negative, negative.

Then you have this negative day, negative week, negative month, you know, you're just in a negative slump. So you know, train yourself to, if it's not a positive thought, doesn't make you feel good, you know, ditch it, ditch that thought. And being grateful, being grateful is extremely important and one of the things I do, you know, when you wake up is you can either write them down or think of five things you're grateful for, because what you're doing is you're setting your day up, you know, feeling extremely grateful for, you know, just the simplest things that you know, that you could be grateful for, like the fact that we woke up today, the fact that we can see or we can touch or we can smell, just the little things in life that you know, we take for granted each and every day. When you start your day off

Chris Albert 01:12:24 (link to this point)

Oh I do that every morning too, man. I'm just like, like I actually have it right over here.

Nick Santonastasso 01:12:30 (link to this point)

Yeah yeah yeah, awesome. Yeah so starting your starting your day off with gratitude because it's emotionally impossible to be upset and grateful at the same time. So when we start our day off, you know, grateful, started off on the right foot, know, you that goes into the day, that goes into your work life, that goes into your personal life, you feel good throughout the day. So I for people out there, know, only only think about, you know, positive thoughts, you know, because thinking about the negative things, thinking about the things that we can't control, you know, those things don't help us, you know. We we fuel ourselves with positive things, we're gonna have a positive life, and and that's the beauty behind life is that we are the architect of life, you know.

If we want to wake up and be miserable all day, we can train ourselves to be miserable, you know, miserable all day. You know, if you wake up and you say, you know, I'm going crush this thing, I'm going to have a good productive day regardless of what life throws at me, you're going have a good productive day regardless of what life throws at you. So that would be my main advice, is just be grateful, you know, because whether you think it or not, is always someone that would switch places with you in an instant. You know, always, always. So, you know, being grateful, gratitude, living in a state of gratitude because, you know, life is definitely way too short to, you know, like I said, think about negative things or think about the things we can't control in life.

Chris Albert 01:13:52 (link to this point)

100%, man. Nick, wanna thank you so much for coming on. What where can people find you online? What through what's your Instagram handle and and YouTube and and do you have a website up?

Nick Santonastasso 01:14:06 (link to this point)

Yeah, so people can find me on Instagram at Nick Santo five thirty four. No spaces, you can find me on YouTube at Nick Santo five thirty four, you can type in, you know, zombie prank, you can type in walking dead prank, I'll pop up. I have a website, it's called rawmettlemotivations.com and mettle is spelled m e t t l e, but if you type in, you know, nicksantonastasso.com or, you know, I bought all those domains, no one can sell them back to me. But yeah, man, I just wanna thank you. Like I said, I'm grateful for the opportunity to be able to come on here, you know, just share some of my life story, and like I said, just provide some value and some perspective for the people that are watching it and listening.

Chris Albert 01:14:49 (link to this point)

Yeah. And I just wanna acknowledge you, man. This this what you're doing is truly inspirational and and not just because of the things you're doing, but because of your intent in doing it, which is to inspire other people, which is to to get other people to do amazing things with their lives. And I think that's a beautiful thing, man. I think that's that's so and, you know, regardless of what you do for the rest of your life, just having that intent, I think, is a victory and and means you've gotten to a really, really high place, man.

Nick Santonastasso 01:15:22 (link to this point)

Thank you so much, man. It means the world.

Chris Albert 01:15:24 (link to this point)

Absolutely. Now for everybody out there, I hope that you love this podcast interview as much as I did. I am absolutely inspired, and I'm ready to attack my day. What I want all of you out there at home to do is is, one, to remember your gratitude. Remember to be grateful for where you are right now in this life because like Nick said, anybody, there's a million people out there right now who don't have the luxury of living in the Western world, who don't have the luxury of everything you do, who would switch places with you in a second.

Nick Santonastasso 01:15:56 (link to this point)

Yep.

Chris Albert 01:15:56 (link to this point)

And want you all to get out there and live your best lives. We'll get back at you guys next week with another episode very soon.