EP77 JJ Villar - Pro Dancer / Choreographer

This is episode 77 of the Empowered Athlete Podcast. Hey everyone. It is a crazy time with COVID 19 dominating the news and our lives in every single way possible. We thought we'd bring you an uplifting interview with JG Villars, an incredible guy who has an incredible story. He's come through so much hardship and he is such a positive force in this world. We all need a little bit of that right now. So sit back and enjoy this interview with jj.

You are. Welcome to the Empowered Athlete podcast, created to support athletes in their pursuit of excellence and inspire others toward their best lives. Hosted by Kari Schneider, coach to top performers in sport and life, and Paul Durden, former national and professional volleyball player. Foreign.

Welcome to the Empowered Athlete Podcast. Paul and Kari with you here along with JJ Vieir, who is just a tour de force in the dance choreography production world. You've kind of done a little bit of everything and we're going to get to that in a moment. But first off, how are you doing? How has your 2020 been so far?

You know what, so far has been amazing and it's been filled with not only abundance and light, but a lot of contribution to say the least. Definitely. Today was a very interesting start to my morning. I try to wake up every morning, meditate, do my self developing rituals and my priming and visualize a day that I want to see happen for myself. And it took a left turn in.

The right.

Life happened.

So what went down? What happened for you or whatever you feel like or whatever you can share. What time did you get up in the morning?

This morning I actually woke up later than normal. I woke up at about 8 in the morning. Usually I try to wake up about five to get running, about 5:15, 5:30 so I could do all my morning running, going to the gym, meditation, writing, my gratitudes, everything like that. But this morning I slipped in and I was supposed to do a dance audition for a new show that's coming out to Las Vegas. And then I saw on Instagram that a friend of mine, an artist from town, who had attended one of my events that I held over this weekend, it was a grand opening of a new club, a dance club that I was hosting. He ended up getting in a car accident after leaving my event from drunk driving and so flipped his card. And so when I saw it on Instagram, he was in the hospital, in a hospital bed, all banged up and he didn't really want to say much about it. I contacted him directly and I said, where are you? And he told me and I ditched the audition I was supposed to go to and I wanted to go serve him and be there by his bedside to kind of do a small one on one coaching, see how he's doing, kind of hear his story out. He's an up and coming recording artist who has done a lot of stuff, a lot of good for the community and just kind of made a stupid decision which I've been at myself. So. And being in the industry and being an entertainer, you really come across who is by your side and who's in your corner when shit hits the fan, excuse the expression. And you come to find out that really nobody is by your side when you aren't in that fame, that spotlight, that red carpet event or whatever it is. And being that I've experienced that personally myself before, something in my gut, my heart said I needed to go be by his side. And so I had planned to go do this audition to get another show, which is in turn my income and all that stuff. I blew that off and so I made sure that I was there and I spent about two hours with him and his wife, just kind of being of service to him. And after that I ended up getting a phone call from my tattoo artist who is in town. He's done all my work for the last 10 years and he was in town and he needed a place to stay and so I was like, yeah, you can come stay at my place. He's like, I'll be there after I'm tattooing somebody he's in town for. And it just happened to be a high profile influencer that deals with people that I follow that I mentioned that are what I consider my mentors such as Gary V and people like this in that high level. And so actually he invited me over to watch the tattoo session. So I came over and I'm currently in their house with this very high profile influencer and self development, network marketing, YouTube influencer. And I'm just getting knowledge and I am enjoying my time being the dumbest person in this household right now because some high profile people that are just delivering content and knowledge that I'm just absorbing. So it had nothing to do with how I plan my day to day.

That is awesome. You're rolling with the punches and surveying and you're a walking billboard for his art.

Yes. So the last time I saw him was when after I hit my rock bottom and I ended up starting my self development journey last year when I went to upw, my very first Tony Robbins event in March. I was staying at his house. And every time I've hit either a milestone or a rock bottom, he is anchored and tattooed and marked my body for the last 10 plus years. And after I finished my first event, actually the work that's on my left arm, that's incomplete is what he started because at had Tony Robbins had talked about, you know, unleashing the power within, right. And what beast is inside. And that beast for me was a Dragon warrior. And as I was going through the four day UPW event, I would text my tattoo artist, his name is Adrian, Amazing guy. I would text him throughout the seminar and I would tell him little nuggets because he's also into self development, he's an entrepreneur, him. And I would text him the things that I was learning about. And as I was texting him, he was designing what soon became this Dragon warrior beast that came out within me. And at the end of the fourth day, he designed this imagery of what he gathered from what I was learning and it became the piece on my arm.

So really, really cool, really awesome.

Every marking on my body so far, all the big pieces are based on his interpretation of what I've gone through in my life and or my life vision board.

So if we, for our listeners, if we back up, because they don't know necessarily the journey that you've had and when you talk about rock bottom and that kind of thing, we want to get into that as well. But where did you start? And you know, you grew up in Colombia and how did that, how did you end up in the US and start your career when you're growing up somewhere so far removed, maybe from the entertainment industry?

So in a nutshell, I was born in Bogota, Colombia, and being from a third world country, I actually came up in a semi wealthy family where my dad was a workaholic and alcoholic mom. And coming up in a very typical, now I can say typical, situation of abuse. But I came up in a mental, verbal, physical and sexual abuse environment. And I always followed Michael Jackson. It was the number one artist obviously in South America. And I would, I don't know from when I was born, I was always a performer in my heart. And I can, to my earliest memory, I remember just even copying Charlie Chaplin, dressing up like him, mining being a clown. My sister and I would always like create performances for the family. Every Sunday we were at grandma's house with a family, whole family. It was tradition, especially in the Latin culture. And all the kids, all the cousins would form like a little mini showcase that after dinner we would perform for the family. And so performing was always in my blood. And I don't really know how, but it was for me, if I can recollect it, it was a way of escaping from what I perceived as being my reality. And also I just becoming somebody else. Performing allowed me the ability to feel like I was loved and had that conn from people. And I never felt that I was somebody who people liked, but I could become somebody who people liked with performing. So I would always find myself mimicking and performing to Michael Jackson's music videos with my best friend dressing up like him. And my parents early on wanted to have opportunities for my sister and myself and they saw that we were different. You know, my father was in accounting, same with my mom. And my mom was more of the artistic person. When we got a little bit older, I think I was about nine or so. I just grew up in a very abusive home. And in South America there isn't really much. There's not much of a hitting your kids too hard thing or, you know, like divorce and everything was very frowned upon. And I remember we got an opportunity to come to the United States because my dad and my mom wanted a better life for us and wanted to, you know, kind of help us grow and flourish. And so we came to the U.S. my dad, my mom sold everything that we had and left a really nice lifestyle to come here and have nothing. The irony of it, like, you go to the land of the free and the possibilities and everything, and you go from where we were, you know, living made, four story house cars. I could go anywhere in my, in my town and say, my dad was like a don. So I would be able to purchase things I wanted to and say, put it on Don Roberto's tab. And I didn't. You know, money was not an issue from what I could remember. You know, these are all broken images. Either that or the reality, the version of reality that I've made up for myself after all these years to come to the U.S. to having nothing. So we came to the U.S. my mom got stuck in South America. It was my dad, my sister and I living in a one bedroom. Living in one bedroom in my, in my aunt's house, my dad's sister in la. Until we finally were able to. My dad was able to acquire work and establish himself. My mom was brought over, if I recall correctly. We had a school project to where we were able to write the President. This was at this time I was at Nancy Reagan, Ron Reagan. Nancy Reagan was at the presidency. And my sister wrote the President, a letter would not explain our situation. And somehow Nancy Reagan was able to help my mom get her papers to come to the US School Project, which really kind of interesting. So anyways, fast forward a couple years. I came up in a lot of abuse to where I started being the bad kid. And right after we got to the U.S. my mom got to the U.S. my parents split up. My mom took it as an opportunity, as getting out of an abusive situation. I remember sitting down with my sister and my family, asking my mom to leave the house. And I was, I think, I don't know, maybe 11 or something like that, where we knew that them trying to stay together for the kids, for anybody listening. Don't ever stay together for your kids because you're doing more harm than good. But they were trying to stay together for us, you know, so that they. They didn't come up in a broken split home, but we were in a broken family anyways. So I remember sitting down, having a conversation as a little kid with my sister and asking my mom and my dad to split up. So their marriage split, they went their separate ways. My sister and I kept out back and forth between mom and dad until my sister couldn't handle it anymore. Sister stayed with dad. I kept bouncing back and forth, forth. And in doing all this, I got so messed up in the head of what was right, what was wrong and what I knew that I started making bad choices, getting into drugs, gangs and trouble at school, getting expelled from every school I ever went to, getting kicked out to where I started having a criminal record. And then I started going in and out of jail at a very early age. And then. But throughout all of this, I was performing and somehow even.

I'm sorry, performing where?

So I was a street dancer. I was performing in dance crews. We created a dance crew in like sixth grade with my mom being our little manager. We performed in the streets, you know, and I built. My sister and I, we built this dance crew that was sponsored by the Simi Valley Police Department DARE Program. And the irony of it is I really didn't learn about drugs. Even though I came from Colombia, I was very sheltered, so I still didn't know about drugs, which you probably should, you know, with the stigma that Colombia has. But that was actually my first encounter to drugs and knowledge of drugs was going through the DARE program. Right. And as being one of the elite graduates. And at that time you would do a DARE essay. I won the DARE essay award of writing the best speech on why say no to drugs and got to meet the mayor of Simi Valley. And it was on tv, this public station or whatever as a young kid, you know. And ironically enough, after learning about drugs, I started doing drugs. And then my dare officer, who was the one that sponsored me, my dance team and all that stuff, was my first arresting officer. Fun stuff. So anyways, I performed throughout all that. Being a street kid, dancing on the street. Got into everything my sister did, I would follow. She's three years older, so she got into gymnastics, I did it. She got into cheerleading, I did it. She got into dance, I did it. And then she got into marching band and dancing in color. Guard the flags, rifles and sabers that you see, like the Rose Parade and football games and stuff like that. So I did it. And while I was a gang member, I was doing that. And I was a horrible gang member at that. Even though I was gang banging and doing a lot of stuff that I'm not very proud of, but I'm very grateful I did because it got me to where I'm at now. I was still always performing. So it's like, like I was gang banging in day and performing at night or vice versa. And then I hit enough rock bottoms at a young age that it got me out of gang bang, out of drugs, you know, stopped living that reckless, irresponsible lifestyle. And then I took it seriously.

What was the draw of the gang? Because what you're describing with both at the same time is that you're getting the community and you're getting some of the connection with, with the people that you're dancing with and following your sister and going through different, you know, whether it's dance groups or performance groups. So what was the draw? What were you missing out of what you're experiencing that you were getting out of the gang? Was it that you were just so angry that you needed more attention or what? What was it that kept you in the gang?

At the time, I didn't know where I belonged.

Felt lost.

I felt lost. I didn't know where I belonged at that time. I was questioning everything. Who I was, my own value, my self worth, my sexuality, my ability. What was I going to become in life? Was I worth anything? Who did I really fit into? How? Like I wasn't. I didn't fit in with the popular kids. I didn't fit in with the gang members. I didn't really fit in at performing. Like I just, I didn't fit in with myself. I didn't know who myself was. I had always been performing and becoming somebody else so that people would like me. And I didn't know who me was, you know, so that was, I think, my drive with a lot of it throughout my entire life, actually even up until recently, that I can honestly say if it wasn't for the last year that I did this whole self development journey, I wouldn't be able to be sitting here today telling you and talking and expressing to you about my self realization and understanding that a lot of my choices were based on that. I really didn't feel like I fit in anywhere. I was always wearing a mask. I was just trying to play a part.

You, you have incredible accolades in the industry. So between choreographing, between work with Toni Braxton, between the one production for Michael Jackson and Cirque du Soleil, there's so much there that you've done. Do you feel like that was almost necessary in your life to feel either connected to other people because you can keep recreating who you were with each performance?

So in all honesty, the reason why I am where I'm at is because I always had people believing I wasn't good enough.

People who believed that you weren't good enough. So you had to prove it to them that you were better.

So you kept growing my driving force. So I started. The very first world championship title I ever held was in professional marching band, which is called drum corps. And in that arts, there is. It's as close to the Olympics as you can potentially get. Our training is very military style. I mean, we dedicate, devote ourselves and kill and murder our bodies to reach a level of perfection that I have not witnessed in any other sport other than what people would go through to actually achieve an Olympic medal. And I have three world championship titles in what's called sport of the arts. And I got into that because somebody once said, you're not good to be a part of the best team in the world. And I realize now that everything I've done was based on that conversation or that belief with somebody. And it was always me saying, oh no, watch. Oh no. Okay. And it really propelled me to a level of excellence that I built this, like, unquestionable tenacious work ethic to always better myself. And up until recently, I realized that I was doing it for an external reason other than internally doing it for myself. And I mean, I can't really complain because it got me where I'm at, you know, but at the same time, wasn't sustainable.

Yeah, external approval and spite towards others.

Exactly. You know, and at first, I mean, I have done amazing things you know, and the truth is, when I'm real with myself, I don't think that I'm that great of a dancer or that a great of a. That great of a choreographer or director or this. Like I can look at other people and I can say, wow, they're 10 times better than me. But you won't work me, you know, you won't outwork me and I will not stop. And I will find a way to prove myself, whether it be by adding value to something, and I will do something and I will find a way to be better than what's around me. Because, you know, talent only gets you so far. And especially in my industry, it really is on who you know, what you look like, your connections, your talent is about maybe this big. But what it is that I found out is what are you willing to do that the other person isn't? That's gonna get you there?

Which I was just gonna say, you probably don't know my story, but I had the same mentality that you did, that I was always out to prove that I just wanted to be the best because I wanted to feel good. That was the only way I could feel good is if I was better than the other guys I was playing against. And so all my self worth was tied to that. So I was the same way. Never the most skilled, never the tallest, never the fastest, but I was gonna outwork every single other guy that I'm playing against, period. And the huge negative that which I'm sure you experience is if I'm not winning on the court, then in my own eyes I'm meaningless. Because I believe that for other people to like me, value me in any way, I have to be successful.

And you may not even realize that that's what's happening, that you are equating yourself to not being meaningful. If other people don't perceive you as meaningful, it's just happening. And you're constantly seeing yourself that way, unknowingly.

Yeah, I agree 100%. And I think that the thing that I came across, the knowledge that I have now and again, and I really do, I really do attribute this to the self development work that I did within myself. And I know that everybody says this. If I knew then what I know now, the truth of the matter is, is that had I not done this self development journey for myself, I would not understand that I was always chasing a dream, I was always chasing a goal, or I was always chasing some kind of accolade rather than becoming what I believed I wanted to Achieve, you know, and now that I understand that I truly need to become the person that I would see myself as in the future, I'm going to attract that. And I think that that is what I've come back with. And I started trying to give back to my own community of professionals, performers, athletes, artists. You know, it's like everybody, like I said when I started, it's like everybody's starting to, or trying to chase a dream, you know, and it's like it's not until you really become that and understand it within yourself. And now I don't have to prove anything to anybody. You know, I now love and accept myself and my self worth and I know that this work ethic is me wanting to be better is me wanting to reach the next level is me, you know, that I can make the smarter decisions or ask better questions to become that. And I will attract anything that I want and I will achieve anything that I want because achieving it isn't making me. I need to be that first before I achieve it.

And that's the thing as, I mean, most of the people who listen to this podcast are achievers. So if we're achievers, there's so many of us who are achieving and pushing to achieve more in order to feel good, not realizing that to really achieve and have the fulfillment from it is to feel, have the self efficacy first and then achieve next. And so many of us have gone through this space of occurring to ourselves that we aren't worth anything because we've not kept our word to other people. We've most importantly not kept our word to ourselves. And the more we've done that, if somebody doesn't show up to an appointment with me over and over and over again, or they show up late over and over and over again and they occur to me as someone who is late all the time, they're occurring to me as someone who's unreliable. But we end up starting to occur to ourselves like that. And it's so diminishing over years and years of that kind of behavior. And then we don't understand why we feel so bad.

You know, it's the thing that just came to my mind as you said that and brought a smile to my face because you said somebody that, like in that, in that description just said somebody that's continuously late, you know, and that they're not reliable. If you were to think of it and ask yourself a better question or see it from a different perspective, it's like, well, they're actually reliably late.

Yeah.

And if you, and if you change.

Your perception count on that person, you.

Know, you can, you can count on, you can count on late, you know. So I think that that that was what you just said, that, that example. Now I've learned to understand my model and my values of my world and not care so much about other people's acceptance because they don't know my values, they don't know my model of the world. And I was basing my approval or my success level based on someone else's acceptance or acknowledgement or approval. But I'm like, wait a minute. They see the world in a completely different way than I do. So that really means absolutely nothing. Which led to me understanding no matter how much I want to achieve, if I'm not doing it for the right reasons or under the right values or under the right model of my world, I'm never going to be content with what I, with what I achieve because it's always been based on somebody else's approval.

So I have a question for you on the training side of things now. So what you do is insanely tough on your body. You have grueling sessions, you know, you put your body to the limit all the time. How are you feeling mentally going into training now with this complete shift in your mindset? Because I imagine in the past the fuel was got to be the best.

I'll show them.

I'm going to push through this training and it's coming from that kind of a fuel, maybe a space to power the training. Where do you go now to get to the level you want to be at, to get to the next level?

Well, okay, interesting question. And as transparent and authentic as it could possibly be, I was forced into a position where I am now that I train for me because recently as at the end of 2018, I lost my career as an athlete and as a peak performer with Cirque du Soleil, I lost my career. I hit my rock bottom. That propelled me into my self development. When I was forced out of the company, I left with two ruptured discs in my back which right now I'm still dealing with legally. And I got to a point where I was medically signed off as stated that I am as good as I'm going to get. And right now it's been one of those things that I have not been able to bounce back as a peak performance, to do my craft and to live off my craft because I wake up and I go to sleep and I live in a constant state of pain and because we as athletes, we are based as on a regular, what I call Joe Blow ability. You know, what they're able to offer is what would be given to a regular person rather than an athlete of peak performance like myself. And so their medical help that they give doesn't do jack squat for us. So now for me, I wake up and I put myself through a grueling session because I'm at a point where I have to say, you can't fix me. You're claiming that you can't fix me. Your western medicine isn't going to do anything for me. I have to find a way. So now I wake up every single day and I put myself through a grueling training process to find a way to spiritually, mentally, physically repair myself to the degree that I have changed my entire approach. I've been gone all plant based on an all plant based diet, Stopped drinking, smoking, partying, sleeping well, now doing exercises that I'm told not to do because I'm just following the people that I believe have left clues through their success, you know, and now I have created a new program for myself because no one's willing to help me. And in this legal battle that I'm in, they are basically saying, thank you very much, you're done. And I can't accept that as being my reality. So right now my mind has to supersede my pain level, which has got to be fueled by my passion to find an answer to repair myself. So I'm trying to, I am doing what I can with the knowledge I have and surrounding myself with people that give me the information to get myself so that I can be where I was.

Well, that's, I mean I'm sitting next to a back expert, so I want you guys to obviously chat further. Curry did her masters of science back kinematics, so I'm sure she has dependent that it is what you touched on of healthcare for average Joe is just useless for an elite athlete.

It doesn't catch what you need.

There's always this huge gap that Kari's pointed out. She'll have clients in the gym, a therapist or something. They're getting that person back to life, back to normal life and activity. But what we do as athletes is still far beyond life and normal activity. There's a massive gap, can't be closed. And to be stuck in that is purgatory.

Getting back to performance is a completely different beast than getting back to healed or function. Function at a high performance level is a completely different thing. And if you, I'll use a, I'll use a blown out knee as an example, but there's. One of the athletes that I used to train was an aerial skier. So you have to do your thing and land from 50ft in the air onto skis going down a slope. And she blew out her knee for ruptured her acl and then it's coming back from that. But if she was put into a regular environment for rehabbing an acl, it would take minimally a year and she'd never get back on skis ever again. But in the environment of what we would have to do to get her back properly. She was in the gym two days after surgery and I'm piggybacking her around so that she can do the things she needs to do to get back on the skis in six months and be landing from 50ft in the air. That's the kind of thing that most practitioners, unless they're in high performance sport as a career, don't know what to do because it's just such a different beast. And it's. So you're playing with the edge all the time. So consistently having to kind of feather that line of. Is it too far? We got to be. Because there's always a timeline. Every athlete has a tighter timeline than anyone else. But at the same time, you're dealing with pain and from a, from a history and from a culture that uses, say, alcohol or drugs to numb pain, which is prevalent in the sporting world everywhere. How has the shift been for you in managing what you're managing without the former buffering tools that you would have used before? How, how have you made that shift and are there times that you're just like, I just want to get shit faced right now because I've had it. Like I can't, you know, what's the, what's the one for you that way?

Yeah, I've had many of those. And I don't, I don't like, I don't like taking pills, I don't like taking medication. And like you said, usually even my sports doctor will say, oh, you know, rest and this and that, whatever. And I was like, I just in my heart believe, like, the longer I'm immobile, the longer it takes me to get back. That shift is my mindset, is my determination and my will. And I'm tapping into. Right. It's ironic because now I'm tapping into.

Really?

You don't think I can get back to normal? Okay.

Kind of a skill?

Yeah, I turned it into a skill.

You know, you choose instead of it running you, you're choosing to tap into it when you want so you have the power, you had the choice instead of it running your life, you know.

And I want to make sure that I'm clear, like, because I don't, I don't want to say anything negative about their company because obviously circus is very, very beautiful and amazing. Company has done a lot, a lot of good for a lot of people, both from the performing aspect and as well as for the performers, you know, but in any field, you know, as an athlete, any athlete can really relate to this. And I'm sure if you aren't of value, you're not. People have no use for you.

You're a tool or a cog in the machine.

Yeah. At the end of the day, your business, you know, and when I learned that, you know, after I dedicated my life to something and I realized that if I'm not able to produce and I'm not able to be of value to this thing that I have dedicated my life to, I'm worth nothing in the eyes of the grand picture. And had I known this before, I would have taken a different approach because as athletes and as people, formers and either Olympians or everybody, that's pushing the envelope to the next degree. If you just take a moment and take a step back and realize if you really aren't doing it for yourself and that self gratification and that self growth and self development, you know, without needing to prove it to anybody, when it finishes, when the lights turn off, when the spotlight goes away, when the, the curtains close, when there's no more finish line, it's just you, you know, and you have to know, you have to know how to be able to accept it and push your body to a degree that you're going to be satisfied with it because you achieved your own personal goal. So for me, it's been really that mindset and now I use what I've gone through in my past to push me to that next level, because I will. I'm. Whether or not I get back to that performing level, that high intensity, peak performance, I'm not necessarily sure that that's the direction that I meant to go. Obviously I want to go, but in self developing myself, I've realized that I have more good and more information that I could potentially give others, you know, and help others achieve their greatness. And I feel that now in this day, in my, in my life, I'm 41. Not that I can't. I'm still, I'm 40, I'm turning 41 and I can still outdo a lot of 20 year olds out there, which I love, you know, but that self, that self gratification and that significance has changed for me, you know, so I'd rather help somebody else rather than trying to achieve it for myself because I've been there, I've done that, you know, and granted, you know, I'm always going to be that peak performer and I'm always going to have my body in top shape, you know, but I'm going to be doing it for me, you know, not because I'm trying to achieve something else.

I've been fortunate enough to see you unintentionally inspire almost 800 people. And in that scenario, that was from my perception of things. You coming from your heart and doing what you know how to do and reaching people in a way that's a language, that is your physical language, how you can reach people through your talents and your abilities. And it wasn't something that someone else created and it wasn't a stage or a platform that someone else was going to have you do or direct or pay you for. It was something that you created and then you fed off of what other people like, the energy that you provided other people. So it was like this feeding of back and forth where you gave people energy via your performance and you fed off of their energy that kept being uplifted. And there's much more to this story, but it had to do with a finance exercise and people, you know, paying to trade money back and forth and that kind of thing. It was an exercise to show people how they respond to money and do different things that way. But your response, and you can correct me if I'm wrong here, but was ultimately to give back. And there's not a doubt in my mind that there's more that you have to give from an inspiration level, but also more that you have to give from a contribution level. And this is where for all of us who have come from a space of being so thwarted or put down, whether it's in our own minds or from other people, it's getting out of our own way in order to do the things that we can really do to help other people. And that's really where I see you being able to thrive. So on that note, what are you creating? What's coming next for you? I've seen you do some visual storytelling. You're rehabbing your body. Are you, are you, is there a certain audition or something that you're really after, is there something that you're looking to create and direct and choreograph? What's on your radar of wish list or what you're aiming at? What are you creating for your next step?

So, yeah, I have a couple of things that I'm working on right now. Presently on March 11, I am Co producing one of the largest dance events that is a global world brand named the Choreographer's carnival. That started 21 years ago in Hollywood and has been all around the world. It's where a lot of the main shows that you see of dance competitions on television today, Satan Dance magazine's Dance crew, things like that, where it stems from. And my, the creator and one of my best friends. Finally we've been working on it for a couple of years to bring it to the city of Las Vegas. And we, after a lot of years of trial and error, we finally got a home for it and are going to be producing it here in Las Vegas on March 11th. So that's one of the things that it's a showcase based to where people get to perform and show their work as far as dancers, artists and choreographers so that they too can be discovered. And it's a platform where again, it's based on. It's not a moneymaker. It's a community thing where we give people the ability to be discovered. So it's always about giving back and the exercise that you spoke on. My thing that I have learned is I've always been about everybody else and giving whatever I have, even if I don't have some going to give, I'll find something or I find a way to give. And my lesson within all that has been learning on how to put the oxygen mask on myself first so that I can sustain and survive to continue helping and contributing to others. That's been a lesson, a hard lesson I've been learning. And I'm still trying to. Let me correct that. Not trying to. I'm still perfecting that talent difference of putting that oxygen mask on myself first. That's one of the things that I've been working on now to give back to my entertainment and art and dance community here in Vegas. And then the other thing that I've been working on is transitioning from a performer on stage because the whole thing of trading time for money has been really, it's really hard to get away from when you are an artist because if you're not on stage, in front of a camera, behind the camera, whatever it is, you're not making money, you know, And I wanted to get to a point that I can do different things and diversify different stream of income. So I started coaching clients one on one, as well as holding a mastermind that I call the Phoenix Mastermind, which is based on the Phoenix, which is also on my right arm. Because from it's, it's the saying and a phrase that I've always said to myself that has led me to my excellence or my level of excellence, which is, you know, from the ashes I shall rise and leave a trail of fire for others to follow. And I've believed that model for myself my whole life. And now I've built a mastermind to where all of the end of 2019, all the clients that I was coaching and the mastermind that I was holding was all done for free. It was all done for free to give back, to help others achieve their greatness. And I made the promise to myself that as of 2020, I was going to start charging so that I could put the oxygen mask on myself first and survive and bring myself a level of income to reach my generational wealth. So that's the second thing that I'm working on from a one on one client base as well as a mastermind. And then I'm also working on. By March 10, I promised myself and I gave myself a deadline to finish writing my book that essentially will become a movie that I call. It's called the Little Inner Critic. Teaching yourself on how to tell your inner voice to shut the fuck up.

Are you gonna star in it too? Like Sly Stallone?

So the irony of you saying that is I, I know what the business is. I've been in the entertainment business for over 25 years and I don't want to go through that rat race of auditioning for this, that that's not a life that I want to live. And I take Sylvester Stallone's life story of what he did with Rocky, on how he wrote, directed and starred in that in that movie and what he did and how he had to hold out to make it the right to be with the right tribe, to make it happen. And I'm going to write my best writing, I'm gonna do my best writing, directing and acting possible and hold on to this project that I'm working on and let that be my, my opening door to becoming the best actor, the best writer, the best director I could possibly be. And it used to be significant base driven to where I would always say, you know, I want a Emmy and a Grammy and a Golden Globe or whatever it was you know, and I was like, it's gonna. These awards are gonna sit on my, in my office or in my house and collect dust, just like my other world championship titles, just like all my other medals, just like all my other recognitions and all my other bs. And then I realized I was like, if I focus on what I want to do and what the end product is and how many lives I want to change, I'm going to get there a lot quicker. So that is my goal, to write this book and just kind of like, what was it the Chicken Soup for the Soul did? And I can't remember the author's name right now, but his idea was getting that book into a million hands. And even if you were to sell it at a million or at a dollar, you know, a piece, putting it in a million hands, that will give you a million dollars, you know, so I'm just again, success. These clues I'm trying to. No, excuse me. I am developing the way of asking myself better questions to get to my goal of generational wealth by being able to contribute to as many people globally as possible. But learning how to put the oxygen.

Mask on myself first, that's fantastic. And it's a tough challenge when we're programmed via our circumstances and all of those things and those experiences are what you're overcoming. And we're watching you do it just by changing your language. Just by changing your language, you're starting, you're changing it actively. Not only in the past year, but right in front of us now, currently actively, constantly progressing. That's fantastic. We want to ask you a few just curiosity based questions. If you've had a hard training day, but it's a good training day, what would be your favorite workout to do? What favorite type of workout? Is it a circuit? Is it leg day? Is it. What is it? Is there some choreography? Like, what's your favorite workout day to do?

My favorite workout day is an exercise.

Whatever. Could be either. Could be. It could be dance specific, could be March specific, could be in the gym.

Could be gonna break a sweat.

What are you gonna do to break a sweat? You know what? I hate going to the gym, but when I. This is gonna sound horrible If I'm really 100% honest. I go and I go to a gym, which I belong to, a gym that's got a couple of chains in my city, which is called LVAC. And I purposely go to one that's like 30 minutes away because they have the hottest girls there. The guys with the hot, like the hottest rock Hard bodies that I foresee myself. Like, those are my goals, right? My own physical, personal goals. And what I love doing is I'll go and look at the hottest hard body over there. And whatever machine they're doing, I kind of look and then I go in and I go, kill it. And then I look at the next person and I go. And I go, kill whatever they're doing.

People are just doing their workouts. That's awesome.

You know, do they catch on? Wait, said it again.

Do they catch on to what you're doing?

No, because it's a different person, you know, it's not one individual person. It might be like this really hot girl or this freaking rock hard body guy or this big bodybuilder or this, you know, tone, physique, whatever it is.

You know, that's why you only work biceps all the time.

And I watch because, you know, like, I'm not. I can't. I can honestly say that I'm not really that smart in the gym. I just look and I adapt and I watch and I'm like, okay. And I see them fixing their forms and this. I've never had any formal training besides like being in cert, which I. It's. We train differently than you would in the gym. We don't train in the gym. We train with circus apparatus and stuff like that, you know, so. But when it comes to. I hate lifting heavy shit. It's freaking boring. It sucks. Like, who the hell likes doing this a hundred times or whatever. I don't get it.

That hot looking person was doing it. Then you'll do it.

Exactly, exactly. So as soon as they leave the machine, I'll go to that machine and I get. And I close my eyes and I envision myself with that body and I'm like, yes, yes. And I go. So I have this really messed up version of what I go and do in the gym, but it works because, like, I'm in great shape.

You got to call it the shadow workout or something. Shadowing everybody.

Exactly.

Creeper workout.

Yeah. Because at the end of the day, it's like I don't know what I'm doing at the gym when it comes to lifting weights. Like you put me on circus apparatuses and stuff like that. Yeah. You know, so. And it's just like, it's. It's. For me, I don't know, maybe it's. It's the way my mind works or whatever. I used to say that maybe. I don't know, my ADD or ADHD or whatever. No, but it's how my mind works. It's just like I get bored. You know, I don't want to do three sets of squats and have a therapy around my legs. I don't. It's boring. You know, I'd rather be climbing the silk or, you know, dancing or doing some crazy thing upside down or whatever, just because that's how I've been programmed. But when I see somebody else that has the physical attributes that I want, or I also say to myself, who do I have to become to attract that hottie over there? Oh yeah, I got to be big. So I don't know, whatever mental game I play with myself gets me in the gym every day.

And you're gonna start to find too that it's less and less likely that you're gonna see people that's our age with the attributes you're looking for. You know, it becomes harder and harder for people think that it's harder and harder for people our age to be able to have that body or do those things or recover from that injury. So on that, on that note, what about food? Do you have some favorite, absolute favorite foods or desserts?

No, actually I just started this whole plant based thing and I'm horrible at it because I don't know enough about it. So I eat the same thing every day because it's easy and it keeps me on just learning are just eating plant based. So it's vegetables and it's sweet potatoes and it's tofu and that's pretty much it until I have to learn how to do more recipes and. Or I go to kitchen.

Yeah, there's a, there's a recipe book called the Thug Kitchen and it just like awesome. It's. What is it? Eat like you give a shit or eat something like that. And it's got some options so you can change things up a little bit. And if you had a message for young athletes or dancers or people who are just starting out in the field, what would be a message that you would say to your former self when you were young or say to someone that's up and coming in dance, hang.

Out with better people, hang out with smarter people. I would say become the person that you want to be before you become that person you want to be. I would say take care of yourself and be true to everything that you believe doesn't. Stop trying to fit in. Don't fit in to somebody else's model of their world. Be who you want to be. Be proud of that, Understand that and wear it with pride. And do whatever you got to do to stay true to yourself, even if you're standing by yourself, because being somebody else at the end of the day, when you have nothing else to give, you're going to end up by yourself anyways. So you might as well like the person you're going to end up with, because it's always going to be you at the end of the day.

I can't follow that. You got to say something.

That's beautiful.

That's amazing. That's awesome. One last thing that came to mind when you're saying that is that there was a time where you were afraid of not being accepted, and that's why you were adapting as much as you were. That's my understanding. What are you afraid of now?

Good question. Letting myself down and not being real with myself and diverting back to things that I used to believe in that were comfortable. I used to be afraid of failing, but I love failing. I accept failing because failing is how we grow, and it's how we succeed. And I'm afraid of being comfortable and not being afraid enough to fail so that I can succeed at the level that I want to succeed.

Very cool.

Well, jj, I'm afraid that we have to wrap this up.

Yeah, that's okay. I got to get going myself.

So to your point of being true to yourself, I think your today is the perfect example of that. You woke up with a plan, but instead you got a message that you stayed true to who you really are and you went to help a friend. And great things happen for you because of that, because of the house you're in now and the people you're connecting with. Big things are happening because you're being true to yourself. You're living it in the moment right now, and that's just amazing. That's when good things really happen. So we're excited for you for what you're experiencing today and for the caring that you showed for your friend, putting, you know, your audition to the side. It's a huge decision.

I appreciate that.

Volume is the kind of person you are.

And thank you for your time and coming on and sharing some of your story with our audience. And we can't wait to re interview you once your book is ready. So we're gonna hold you to that. Do you have a goal date?

I have to finish it by March 10, my 41st birthday.

There we go. You're on a time.

I am.

Get writing.

Well, thank you so much, jj. We're so happy to have you on and share everything that you have.

It's a great honor to have been here. Thank you guys so much for your time.

Hey everyone, thank you so much for listening. If you're wanting to connect with Kari and I for online training, public speaking events, or more, simply send your request to infompowerconditioning.com and hey, we need your help to keep growing this show, so please share it with coaches, athletes, trainers, parents, anyone who you think might be interested. Get them to smash that subscribe button and follow the Empowered Athlete Podcast. We can't do it without you. Thanks again for listening.

Sam.