The Rebellion: Episode 4 | Quitting Booze and Getting Jacked w/ Kurt Weintraub

Welcome back everybody to episode 4 of The Rebellion. This is Tyson Smith and today we have an amazingly special treat for you. The reason why is you guys don't just get to hear me talk to myself today. This is the first episode that we are bringing on a guest. Today we have on an old friend of mine, an amazing person. The guy is insanely jacked. He's doing amazing things in his life and, uh, we've known each other for a really long time, but we've just recently reconnected. I'd like to introduce all of you guys to Kurt Weintraub. Kurt, thank you for coming on today.

Good to have you.

Yeah, man, that's amazing. So Kurt, can you kind of tell me, tell everybody a little bit about what you do now? And then in a second, we can talk about how we know each other and kind of our story.

Yeah, so what I do is I work in contract manufacturing. I make supplements, dietary supplements, health supplements, skin supplements, all that fun stuff.

It's quite a lot. And so this is interesting because it's a completely different industry than I know anything about. So today I'm gonna have an opportunity to ask Kurt tons of questions about this. It's an entirely different industry than real estate, the things I'm used to. But before, before we actually went live, Kurt and I were just having a conversation talking about how much you can learn from other people. And so even though his industry is separate from mine, there's so much that I can learn about how he operates his business and what he's doing that I can apply on my own. So that's going to be really exciting. To give you guys some backstory, me and Kurt met How did, how exactly did we meet? Was it from Noah Mowbray?

Yeah, it was. So I switched from Chandler High School to Hamilton High School.

Okay.

I came along with Noah and I slowly just ventured off, started doing my own thing. And then we were the party group. So I was like, you know, I'm gonna start linking up with these guys. All of a sudden we're going out to all these crazy little high school parties, throwing house parties. Next thing we know, we're going to a fraternity in college. Shit was crazy.

It was, it was. So I used to play soccer with this kid and he lived in Kurt's neighborhood and then Kurt transferred high schools. That's right. and, um, I think so we, we met through that mutual friend and like Kurt said, we were definitely like the, the party guys in high school. And so we were always looking to, to cook up some kind of jig, some kind of shit.

Can we get into?

Yeah, exactly. Um, back then, right, it was just like, dude, we just wanted to, you know, talk to girls, have a good time. Like I, for me, I remember seeing like the Instagram accounts like TFM and Old Row and I was just like, I just want to be that.

I need to do this. Yeah, do it all.

Exactly, exactly. So it was funny because, um, when I was talking to Kurt, uh, we have like a bunch of like hilarious pictures from when we were in high school together. Um, I kind of want to go through and look at some of them now. Um, so I lost my Apple ID like, uh, what is it, like 2 years ago. And so I've lost all these pictures that I had from like my high school day. And, uh, Kurt shared a bunch of them with me and, um, I'll send him some over that I'll pull up with you guys now.

Um, so every single one of these pictures has some crazy fucking story behind it.

Absolutely.

These aren't just pictures. These are— these are like, oh well, on this night this shit happened, or on this night we got into this type of trouble.

Well, that's what's so funny about it is, is when, when, when you sent it to it, it was literally taking a trip down memory lane, like looking at it. And I can clearly remember like the different events that we were doing. So, uh, I'm gonna send one of them, one of these over to you guys. Oh, here, we'll put this one up. Um, if you guys are not watching the video version, it is available on YouTube and you'll be able to see what I'm talking about. Um, this one from prom. So, uh, we were just like, like Kurt's wearing some pink pants, some salmon pants here. Like, I'm telling you, we just, we thought we were frat stars. We're 18 years old. No date yet, dude. I took, um, I took, uh, my date was Talia.

Oh man.

Yeah, I remember, man.

How times have changed.

Yeah, I asked her, I asked, so the way I asked my date to prom was I me a sign, and it was so shitty. Like, I, I did the absolute bare minimum. Literally in Sharpie, I wrote, I could change your life at prom, and I gave her a handful of like fucking pennies. It was so ridiculous. Um, but let's, let's look at this one. Um, this is one of my favorites, bro.

Oh yeah, senior ditch day. That was one of the best days ever.

Senior ditch day.

That was our peak. We were, we were just working out 7 days a week. We're in high school, we go to school, we work out, then we just go home, wake up, do the same thing over again. And I remember before the senior ditch day, I came up to you and I was like, hey, I heard some shit. I heard if you, uh, eat angel food cake before you go to a pool party, you get blown up. And all of a sudden we're looking back on these pictures and we're like, what the hell is going on here? This shit really works.

Absolutely, dude. It was hilarious. I was like, okay, so it was just like, it's all the carbs and the sugar, it just like gives you an amazing pump. And then here, we got to put this picture up too.

Oh, we have to.

So, so Kurt's right, like after— and this was one of the best things that I have to say about high school was surrounding myself with people like you that were into fitness. We wanted to get big, we wanted to take care of ourselves, and starting that habit early. But it's what we would do is like after school we'd meet up in the gym parking lot, we'd like, we'd roll a little something up, you know, and, uh, we'd just go work out. And it was really, it was like a, you know, we were, we were in there, we were putting the work in, but also it was like a super social thing for us, like all the boys.

It was fun. We'd shoot the Breeze, we work out, we go back out to our car, get a little water bottle, hit the gravity bong, we go right back in there smelling like a fucking skunk. Everybody'd be looking at us and we'd just be pushing weight.

Yeah, it was awesome. And you remember, um, what was that, Shane?

Oh yeah, Shane. I still talk to Shane, dude.

He's the shit.

He was—

he's the original, uh, brofessor for me. Oh yeah, like the guy—

he was the gym bro. Oh yeah, he taught us a lot of stuff.

So I don't remember, how old was Shane?

Um, Shane was in his 30s when we met him in high school, so he's got a kid now.

Okay, he's all grown. Well, so, uh, to give you guys some context, Shane, uh, super cool guy that went to the gym we went to in high school, uh, super jacked, and he was just like a super friendly guy who would show us the ropes, you know? Like, I remember the first time I, I randomly one day I see Kurt like working out with this massive guy, and they were just like killing their legs, like doing the craziest workout. And I was like, dude, who is that?

Yeah, man, it's crazy. He, he had a huge influence on me. I mean, being 18 years old, 17 years old, starting in the gym, and I was skinny. I was like skin and bones, 160 lbs. I didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I walk in there and he looks at me and he goes, what are you, 150 with a wet shirt? At that time I was like, shit, I'm never going back to this gym again. Then he looks at me and he goes, it's all right, just get pussy and fuck bitches. That's all you got to do, lift some weights and fuck bitches. I was like, wait, hold on, this is all so weird to me.

This is good advice.

Yeah, I was in the locker room, I was at the steam room, had a little towel on. He was just looking at me, I was just, oh my God, what's going on? But I believe you.

And you guys got to keep in mind, this guy was literally like, what, 230 pounds, shredded, like huge, massive guy. Um, and let me just put up for reference, he— Kurt says he was skinny. I want to show you guys, uh Oh, you know what? I wish I had, uh, I wish I had this picture of, um, do you remember? So we had a lot of fun during our, like, the last week of high school. Remember how there was the Spirit Days?

Yeah, yeah.

Remember the toddler one?

Oh yeah, I went to school in my underwear and I wore a little, had a little binky in my mouth and a little one of those, uh, whatever you call it, the little bibs. Yeah, I had a bib on.

I'm telling you, I wish, I wish we had that picture because so you're 18 years old and I got that picture in here somewhere.

Somewhere.

Kurt put on a showing. Everybody was like, what the fuck? Because this is, again, after— this is going to the gym, taking care of ourselves, eating right, and also like having influences like Shane, like these people who, you know, were able to be like, yo, yeah, you guys got to keep doing what you're doing, you know, telling us to eat, telling us what to eat, things like that. You got jacked.

Yeah, it worked. It worked. I mean, it's crazy to think that somebody like that— I mean, they had such a big influence on me And so, you know, what I want to do is be able to have that type of influence on people in the younger generation as well, by, you know, inspiring them and letting them know just through past experiences and what, what's happened with me and what I've learned. I think I could have that impact on somebody. So it's just, it's really, it's really crazy what kind of an influence somebody can have on somebody.

Absolutely. And it can be the smallest thing, just like we're saying, like some guy we saw at the gym, right? And that's another thing that people need to understand is, uh, some people are like, they talk about they're like intimidated to go to the gym or whatever. You need to realize that like the biggest dude at the gym is going to be the one who's most willing to like go out of his way to show you what to do, to have a conversation, you know, give you advice. Like they live for that shit. They've obviously been in there for a very long time if they're, if they're huge and they want to pass on. Like if some kid comes up to you, like for me, um, I always see these like groups of like, I call them like the, the TikTok kids at the gym.

Oh, the little kids with the little perms in their hair and they're walking around with their Crocs on and they're like jamming out to the little beats. Exactly.

What, what's going on here? Well, you see them And like, I, I mean, I see a little bit of like myself in them, you know, 100%.

That's why I hate it so much. Like, man, I used to be that. I used to walk around here with some flip-flops on thinking I could run shit and I'm just, come on.

Exactly.

I love it.

I love it. But like, you know that they, um, like for, for you now, if any one of those kids were to come up to you, like you would love to be able to give them advice and like show them, you know, the ropes and what to do and things like that.

Absolutely. Absolutely. Yeah. I love, I love teaching people what I can, you know, I'm always trying to learn stuff, but at the same time, if I know something that somebody doesn't, Why would I not share it? Absolutely. It's about making people better.

Well, and, and that's something that Kurt's always done. I mean, throughout high school, he was always the one who was most knowledgeable about the gym and fitness, and he was constantly telling us these things. You know, he was the one who was getting us to like hit legs and stuff, and, and, and he was putting us on to, to the supplements and, you know, how much protein we need to be eating and all the things like that. So, um, it was a very, very good person to have around. Let's talk a little bit about after high school. So when we graduated, I went to the University of Alabama and you went to ASU. Um, can you tell me a little bit about your experience at ASU and kind of what you were getting into at that time?

Yeah, I can't tell you everything I was getting into at that time, but I could tell you that ASU, I went there for finance, got a minor in real estate. Uh, it was a whole lot of fun. Didn't learn a whole ton, but, um, joined a fraternity my freshman year. Got that whole experience, got that out of my system. Yeah, I mean, ASU, ASU is great. It was where I, it was really where I learned who I was and what I can and what I can't do, my limits. Education came along with that as well. But I learned a lot of how to party. And luckily I got it out of my system because now I'm locked in. I'm able to do the things that I want to do soberly. Just feel a lot more locked in. So I think college, the most, the most it taught me was— I don't really know how to explain it. It just taught me what I should do at that time and what I need to get out of my system and what I need to do to move forward.

Dude, I— it's so funny you say that because I pretty much have like said the exact same thing. Like, I do not regret what I did in college, and having that time was like amazing to go out and just like you know, be a little bit of a piece of shit, just fucking have fun, and pretty much just live for fun. Like, I did not go to college to like learn. No, I went there to have a great time.

No, no, I went there for the fraternity. I went there for the parties, for the chicks, just for all— for that whole entire experience. And then, you know, I was one of those guys that I did not go to class. I would study the whole night before. Luckily, I was able to pass all my tests with straight A's. But, um, yeah, I don't know. This generation, I don't really think that school is necessary. I mean, there's so much knowledge out there that's just so accessible to everybody. It's just, why waste so much money going to college when you have all these resources around you and you can do what you really want to do? I see so many people who go to school and they get their degree in accounting. They want to become a CPA. Why do you want to do that? I mean, you can get so much more real-time experience with jobs doing something that you enjoy instead of a piece of paperwork telling you what you're qualified for.

Right. And you've gotta think about how many people out there are like really interested in, in whatever they're going to school for. Like if you would've asked me in college like, oh, Tyson, are you interested in finance? I would've lied to you and said, oh yeah, like this is really interesting to me. I can tell you right now, uh, no, the fuck it was not. I didn't give a shit about learning about bond yields and the fucking weighted average cost of capital. Like what the fuck? But you make such a good point about how there's so many other opportunities in this day and age. Um, you can get so much real-world experience. And I think that one of the biggest things that has led to not needing to get, you know, to do this, uh, traditional form of education, like going to college is social media because social media allows you to interact with and connect with so many different people where there was something you were super passionate about. For instance, if I was a kid now and I'm 18 years old and I was super interested in the fitness industry, there are so many different people that you can reach out to at your fingertips. You can send them a message and say, hey, this is who I am, I'm interested in whatever it is you do, and then you can put you in real-world experiences, whether that might be an internship or a job, and they can show you to, you know, can teach you to do something you actually want to do. You're not just going to school so you can get an accounting job so you can pay the mortgage and you can have 2 weeks vacation every single year.

Right, right. Yeah, no, I mean, I, you don't go to there's not a single piece of paper that can tell me what I can and can't do. The most experience that I've gotten was from real-time job experience, and it's from, it's from the people I know. The more people you know, the more, the bigger your network, the more opportunities you're gonna have. So, you know, being in your little box and not talking and not introducing yourself to people and not trying to expand your knowledge and your clientele base and whatever it is, you're really putting yourself behind because right now we're at this time and at this age where you can either be stagnant or you can keep moving forward. And if you're stagnant, you're going to fall behind.

Absolutely. Absolutely. So, um, Kurt kind of mentioned something earlier that I want to kind of rehash. So, um, throughout college, throughout high school, we obviously were partying a lot, drinking a lot. Um, since then I am completely sober. Uh, I've stopped drinking and it has been the number one thing for me that has allowed me to really level up. Since I was able to quit booze, I'm way more dialed in on business, fitness, my relationships are better, and I really know what's important to me now, and I'm much more conscious of how I spend my time. Back when I was drinking, I was doing all these activities like going to bars, you know, going to clubs, doing things like that. And I realize now that I'm sober is I fucking hate doing those things. They're not fun unless you're fucked up.

Yup, yeah, no, I mean, it's all about what you want in life. So I mean, you know, you wanna wake up at noon and you wanna feel like shit the whole day and you wanna spend $200, $500, $1,000 at the bar, be my guest. But I'm be waking up at 6 AM, 5 AM, I'm gonna go to the gym, I'm be bettering myself while those people are sleeping, I'm be getting ahead.

Well, and that's another thing is I feel like we're also at this point where back then it was, look, our goal was to go have fun. I don't know about you, but that was my goal.

100%.

Whereas now I don't have that same goal. So going out and partying, shit like that, that's not a habit that's in alignment with where I want to go. Where now, to be in alignment with my vision for myself of who I am, you're absolutely right. It's getting up in the morning, it's going to the gym, it's getting my work in, and then it's going after I, you know, take care of my body, it's going and taking care of my life, taking care of my business. you know, putting in work and working on something that I truly enjoy, which can you talk a little bit more about that, about after you wake up and get, get, get your work in, in the gym, what is it that you are focusing on right now to build?

So right now I'm just trying to build my career. I just got this promotion at work. So I'm kind of running some operations in the manufacturing plant. So really what I'm trying to do right now is just continue to learn and continue to grow in my position because, you know, there's so much opportunity for me to be able to do things that other people are really high paid. So right now what I'm trying to do is just lock in, figure out what my purpose is, be purpose-driven, and just chase that goal, whatever that goal is. I mean, my goal is always changing. Every single day I wake up, I try to be better.

Absolutely. And that's something we were talking about before, before we went live, is that Um, part of having a vision is being able to be on a journey, a journey of something you're constantly working towards. And the fun thing about it is as your journey progresses and as you start climbing the hill, there's no such thing as the top because as soon as you start getting up there, you start to notice these other hills that you need to, you know, that you might divert and start to go, you know, in these different directions. And I think it's a matter of really falling in love with the journey. And I think that's something that's like amazing that I've really learned from being in the gym is like, there's no end goal there. There's no part where it's all of a sudden, hey, I'm done. I'm finished. Like, I don't need to go to the gym anymore. Like, you're constantly, constantly developing, constantly growing. And I think that it's a really good analogy for life or whatever it is you're passionate about, whatever it is you're chasing. For me, building a real estate business, it's not like there's any amount of like money or employees or number of deals or assets under management that once I get to, it's like I'm done. You know, I have these next goals. So at first, when I first started wholesaling real estate, my first goal was, oh, I want to make $10,000 a month. If I can make $10,000 a month, imagine everything I can do. And as soon as I got to $10,000 a month, I wanted $100 grand a month. I was like, I need to get $100 grand every single month. When I do that, think about all these things I'll be able to do. Now that I'm at 6 figures every single month, all I'm thinking about is I need to get to 7 figures a month. How can I get to a million dollars a month? But so much of it, and it's something I don't take for granted, is I've enjoyed every step along the way.

Absolutely.

As you level up, there are more benefits. There are new things that you're able to do and opportunities for yourself. But the one thing that remains the same is you're constantly striving for something, and that's what makes it all fun.

Yeah. And one thing we kind of talked about yesterday was being purpose-driven and One thing that I think that people really are doing is doing something that they don't like. If you're not doing something that you're passionate about, what the hell are you doing? I mean, every single day I show up to work and I'm motivated. I want to, I want to learn more. I want to do more. I want to be better. If that's not the situation with your job, you're in the wrong fucking profession.

Absolutely.

I mean, every single day you should be wanting to learn something new. You want to, you want to grow your skill set. You got to be able to, you got to be able to take on challenges and be ready and be ready for them.

Absolutely. And, and that's such a big thing is that people like, you have to realize whatever you do for work, whatever your vocation is, that is where you're going to be spending the majority of your life. Like, as a person, especially as a man, like, that is your purpose. And it's like, if you don't give a fuck about whatever it is you do to make money or whatever it is, like, your life kind of starts to like Really, what are you even doing it for, you know?

Right.

So for instance, I am sitting here, um, uh, we've got Brayden behind the camera right now, and I know that you love like video and things like that, right? So like, I bet for you it's very fulfilling to be able to do this stuff and be able to work closely with it. I know that Kurt loves the gym, you love health and being able to manufacture these things. And also I know that you're like a very smart, very organized guy. So being able to direct the business and be able to, you know, make key decisions and implement projects processes is probably very rewarding for you.

Yeah, and leadership is one thing that I really try and, try and harp on, is, you know, being a team leader and leading by inspiring people is probably one of the biggest things you can do. Yeah, you know, people, people like to lead by example. So me, I'll never ask anybody to do any, anything I won't do. Yeah, I'll get down, I'll get my hands dirty if I have to, whatever, whatever it takes to get the job done. And then I'll do the high-level shit, but the low-level shit is just as important. So, you know, those bottom-level employees that are working on the bottom line, they're just as important as our CFO, our CFO So you got to treat them all the same and you got to, you got to motivate them and you got to lead them. And you know, there are studies out there that if people are laughing and they're having fun, they're going to retain more knowledge. So my whole thing is when I'm, when I'm working with my employees, as I go down there, I try and make work fun. You got, you got to change the perspective of I'm working a 9 to 5. That's another thing, clock watching. If you're watching the clock at work, you're doing the wrong thing. You got to be able to work 8, 10, 15 hour days if you really are driven and you have a goal. And you have somewhere that you want to reach, and those 15 hours, they fly by because you're engaged and you're there and you're doing something that you want to do.

Absolutely.

If you're working 8 hours a day and you're leaving right at 5 o'clock, you're in the wrong profession, or you're just not going to go very far. That's just the bottom line.

I think that that's actually such a good litmus test for if whatever you're doing, do you actually enjoy? And if that's when the time strikes a certain time, or whenever it is you're able to leave, you're fucking out of there. Then you probably— and it's just the same every single day— you probably don't like what you do. Whereas, like you said, when you're passionate about something that you found and you really get in this flow state of like time just kind of flies by because you're doing something that challenges you and that is rewarding for you to do and complete, then that's how you know that you're doing the right thing, that you are purpose-driven, you're following it. Because you make such a good point, like I know that, that Kurt is probably the first person in the office and the last one to leave.

Yeah, that's one thing I gotta make sure to do that. I'm the first one in, I usually get there around 5:30 in the morning and I won't leave until the last office light's off.

Yeah, well I, so, is how this all, the reason why Kurt is sitting with us here today is I was driving home from my office and I was sitting at a red light and I was kinda scrolling my phone and I saw this Twitter thread and it was somebody talking about selling supplements and I started thinking in my head, I was like, oh, you know, I'm kind of doing a lot more on social media about like fitness and things like that. And I want to be able to give value to people somehow. And I was like, I wonder, you know, I think it'd be interesting to learn more about supplements and, you know, find some, you know, make some kind of connections and some strategic partnerships as far as what I could sell. And I thought, I know somebody who's in the supplement business. So I gave Kurt a call. It was probably like, I don't know, 7 o'clock, somewhere around there. And, uh, he's like, oh, what's going on? Yeah, I'm just, I'm at the office right now, just crushing it, right? And, um, we kind of had a conversation. I was telling him about, you know, what I'm thinking about and, you know, if he could, if he could answer some questions for me. And of course he was able to. And, um, after our show today, we're actually going to go and you're going to show me around the facilities, right?

Yeah, we're gonna go check out some equipment, see how some stuff is made. It's gonna be real cool. It's gonna be a good time.

Absolutely, I'm really excited. The cool thing about the supplement industry is number one, it's a very easy thing to sell, I feel like. Because if you can tell somebody like, hey, I've got this thing that you only have to do is drink it or swallow a pill or whatever, and it's gonna transform your life in some way, it's gonna make you lose fat or it's gonna make you gain muscle, people are really quick to buy it because it feels like an easy solution. We both know that there's not any one supplement in the world that you can take that's just gonna you know, turn you into this like, uh, Greek god.

No, there's a big misconception of, oh, if I take this supplement, I'm gonna lose this weight and I'm gonna get to my dream physique. Well, no, no, your dream physique comes with your motivation and what you're doing every single day. It's, you know, how you treat your body, how much sleep are you getting, what kind of foods are you eating, how much water are you drinking, are you working out hard, are you making sure to sweat, or are you just going in there and swinging a couple weights around? Because that's a bunch of bullshit. Yeah, I mean, if you go in there and you tell yourself that you're working hard but you're really in there and you're just in there for 20 minutes, just walking on the treadmill, you're not going to see any progress. And there's not a single pill in the world that's going to make you look the way you want to.

Right. Well, you got to think about, think about the name supplement. It's something you're adding in, in addition to your already regimen that can help you get to the next level. And that's what I was telling people, like a really common question that I get is like, hey, what kind of supplements are you taking? And it's like, first of all, let's think about what a supplement is. It's something I'm taking in addition to everything else I'm doing. The most important things I'm doing are just my daily habits of the foods that I eat, my activity level, and what I'm doing in the gym. Now, yes, supplements are amazing and they're absolutely— have made life for people who are into fitness so much easier because when I'm not able to, you know, get all the protein I need for the day, being able to supplement and get a quick shot of protein via a shake is really helpful. Or hey, if I'm not eating enough salmon, being able to take some fish oil, things like that. Pre-workout, you know, I wake up, we go to the gym in the morning. I like to have some pre-workout to kind of get me going. These things help, but they're not the ones doing the heavy lifting.

They're not the answer. They're not the answer. The answer is what's going on up here. If you don't take care of what's going on up here, nothing's going to make sense.

Yeah. Well, and that's another thing we were kind of having a conversation with earlier is, um, really being in control of your mind, not being a slave to your urges. So like, I know for me, I've had trouble where it's like, dude, I have a really bad sweet tooth. And so at night, I was like, for a long time, I was just a slave to my urges. You know, I would, I would order like on GoPuff, I'd order some candy or something like that. Right. But eventually I've learned is that I need to be in absolute control of my body. So even though, yes, I want that candy, I can fucking tell myself, no, no, you don't get that. And being able to do that is the beginning point that sets a foundation for yourself. Once you set that foundation of being able to be in control of your urges, then you can take it to the next level. And it's like, hey, I don't really feel like getting up and making them, making my cold calls today. No, it doesn't matter. That's what I have to do. And being able to, to, to get your mind to control your body, to go ahead and do that work that you need to do. And then it just keeps leveling up from that point. Once you're able to be in full control of your body, it's amazing what you can accomplish.

Never negotiate with yourself. Whatever goes on up here, whatever battles, you got to be able to control them. I'm a big believer in how you do anything is how you do everything. You know, if you want to half-ass something, you're going to half-ass the other thing. You know, if you're— if you have a clean office, you're probably going to have a clean apartment, you're probably going to have a clean house. If you have a dirty office, you're probably going to have a dirty house. I mean How you do everything is a universal standard for me.

Dude, that's such a good point. And you know what I really love that you said is never negotiate with yourself. That is so key. And also what you're talking about is how you do one thing is how you do everything. And that's such a good point. And here's another thing that I want to talk about when it comes to this journey of personal growth and development is not everything happens all at once. Nobody's gonna wake up one day and be a fat piece of shit slob before, fat bag of mayonnaise as I like to call them, and then the very next day they're up, they're at the gym, they're eating perfectly, their apartment's clean, they're doing all the things they need to do and just have like a fabulous perfect day. That will never happen. This growth is, it is gradual, right? You need to start with small habits, implement them, and then those habits eventually, the small habits compound into bigger ones.

Yep, I read this book, it's called Atomic Habits, and it's about getting 1% better every single day. And that 1% every single day compounds on itself. So, you know, let's say you just start by waking up and fixing your bed, then that becomes a habit. All of a sudden you wake up, you naturally fix your bed because that's second habit. What else are you gonna do? You're gonna hop in the shower, you're gonna make yourself some breakfast. These, these habits, you got to take them one at a time or else it's gonna be way too overwhelming. You can't do everything at once, so do what you can and do it, do it the best that you can.

Absolutely. And I think that a really good thing for people to do is if you want to start a new habit, to start with something small. If you want, so for instance, I'll be the first to admit is I'm not the best at keeping my shit tidy. There are some things like my car is always clean no matter what. Like it's just something because I've always been in the habit of keeping my car clean. It's something I've always really liked. I like to be in a nice clean car. So that's something I do. But like my office, for instance, like my desk, it's kind of a clusterfuck. My apartment, I'm really bad at like, like I'll get home from the gym, I'll take off my fucking sweaty ass tank top and I'll fucking throw it on the, on the, on the chair or something. And, um, you know, I'll kick my shoes off, things like that. And then I can lead to clutter. Whereas I need to start something small, right? I need to start with the habit of, hey, I'm gonna start whenever I come home from the gym, I'm gonna take all my clothes off at the hamper and I'm gonna put my shoes away right there. And just start with that. And then that is gonna lead into me to, you know, once I can master that part, it'll lead into the next part of like, okay, now after I finish cooking or whatever, I'm gonna make sure that I do the dishes right then and there. And then that'll lead to me having a tidier kitchen. But it's not just, hey, I'm gonna become a more clean person. And like, to go back to Atomic Habits, he says the best thing you can do is a specific action at a specific time and to say it out loud, like to plan out, like, For instance, right when I'm finished with doing the dishes, or, or when, right when I'm finished with making dinner, I'm gonna do the dishes whenever I make dinner. Right? And when you set something like that, that's super specific, you know exactly what needs to be done. Where people get in trouble is they say, oh, I'm gonna become a cleaner person. Okay, well how you gonna do that? Oh, I'm just gonna make sure that I clean things that I— no, there's nothing specific there. And it doesn't lead us anything to start compounding off of, like you said, getting 1% better at something every day.

Right, and it can be something as easy as, all right, I'm gonna go to the gym. Step 1 is put your shoes on, put your shorts on, put your shirt on. You know, you don't got to think, I got to go to the gym. How about you get your water bottle and you get in the car and you sit down and then you back out of your driveway, make it to the gym, then work out.

Right.

You know, you got to break it down into small things and you know, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. So, you know, you can say, I want to be a clean person. I want to work out, I want to get huge, but guess what? Your systems don't reflect that.

Absolutely.

You're gonna be a fat bag of mayonnaise like you said. If you, I mean, everybody says they want to get swole and they want to go in and they want to be able to run and they want to, they want to lift all these weights, but I don't see them doing the right things.

Yeah.

I mean, the idea is there. It's just acting on those ideas correctly.

Well, absolutely. And you do need the system and that, that's such a good point. And especially really owning a business is what has really taught me this. I love that. Would you say that again?

You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the levels of your systems.

Absolutely. So I know in my wholesaling business is we have all of these lofty goals and we have these things we want to do. We back it up with metrics of like, hey, here's what we're going to do in order to get there. Right. It's like I talk about my goal is I want to do 7 figures a month. I can't do the same things that I'm doing right now that get me to 6 figures a month if I want to get to 7 figures a month. So where do we need to change? What systems need to be tweaked? We're making these different movements, but we have a list of exactly our procedures of how we're gonna get there. And if we're not able to reach our goals, we can go back and we can look at what were our systems.

Yep.

And, and what needs to be tweaked or tuned for next time.

Yeah. And there's no such thing as a bad mistake. I mean, if you're making sloppy mistakes, that's a bad mistake, but I, I always take 'em as a learning lesson. You know, nobody's gonna be perfect. There's gonna be bumps along the road. You gotta prepare for those. It's about how you react. To it. And I think that's just the whole thing in life. It's not about what happens, but it's about how you react to it. You know, you can go into work with the mindset of, all right, yeah, I'm going to get through the day. Or you can say, all right, I'm going to take care of this and this and this, and then I'm going to do something else. It's a whole different thing. Even if you work the 9 to 5, you can go in with the perspective that this is going to suck, or you can go in and say, I'm going to kick ass today.

Absolutely.

You're going to be doing the same shit. It's just how you go about it.

I think you said multiple really good things that I want to talk about right there. Number one, I want to talk about like the bumps and stuff along the way. Because we know that growth is not linear, that there are ups and downs. Like specifically, I know that within my fitness journey I have a lot of ups and downs. It's like, like I know in high school we had times it's like, yo, we're going to the gym every single day. It was no problem. And it was because we did have these systems of every single day after, after school we'd go to the gym together. And then I went to college and, um, from there I also had like ups and downs. It was like sometimes I was being in, in a flow with people and it's like we're constantly going to the gym and then boom, I get a girlfriend and I, I fucking become a fat bag of mayonnaise. I stopped doing it, right? Or even like right now, you know, I've started like really seriously tuning in my diet, taking things very seriously. And it's like, I will have weeks when I'm just doing well, I'm super on the ball, but then every once in a while I mess up, right? I'll get into, you know, I'll find myself, oh, I haven't eaten all day and I'm at the airport. My only option is Hudson News. And I, you know, I end up having to fucking eat some, some bullshit. And I go over my calories. Now that sucks, right? And it's a bump in the road. But like you said, it's not about what happens. It's did you learn from it and how do you react? So instead of saying, oh, fuck it, like, you know, I fucked up. No, it's then when I get off my flight and I get home, I go to bed, I wake up in the morning, I do some extra cardio to make up for it. But that's something that's developed over time.

Absolutely. Yeah. No, you're not just going to wake up one day and say, you know, I'm going to start eating healthy, just like we were talking about earlier. You know, you got to ease into it and you're not, you're not just going to cut off all the sugar and all the fun foods because there's no fucking fun in that, one. But two, it's just unrealistic. You got to be realistic with yourself. The more real you are with yourself, the more, the more opportunity there is and the more likely you're going to hit your goals.

Well, you know, I think that this is an excellent thing for us to talk about is being real with yourself. You know, it's a super hard thing to do, to be able to look at yourself and really look in the mirror and ask yourself, Where am I fucking up? What is stopping me from getting where I want to go? And this is something that I know I had to do. I had to look in the mirror and I tell you what, like, I actually had to do this multiple times. It was a collection of things, but multiple times I had to realize like, where am I fucking up? And everything was pointing to the same direction. Like, life was trying to teach me the same lesson over and over. And it was, Tyson Smith, you're drinking too goddamn much. Like I would, you know, it's like I would have a fucking big weekend, wake up on Sunday, feel like absolute dog shit. I know that I was gonna be hungover for the next 2 or 3 days and I was not gonna be performing at my highest. And during those 2 to 3 days, it gave me the time to think like, why the fuck am I doing this? What am I getting out of it? But I repeated that cycle, right? It's not like just I had one fucking bad hangover and I was like, oh, I'm quitting.

Right.

It was like, it took me multiple times and it wasn't until I seriously reflected and looked inward and like, Where do I want to go? What's stopping me from getting there? It was clear. It's like the fucking booze, dipshit. But it's a hard thing to do, to really look in and take personal accountability. Like, hey, I'm clearly doing something fucking wrong. What is it that I need to change? And not a lot of people are going to do that.

Yeah, it's another quote is affirmations without action is delusion. So, you know, if you tell yourself that you're a hard worker or that you go to the gym every day and you work your hardest, if you're not acting on that affirmation, you're lying to yourself. You're not being real with yourself and you're just going to go down that rabbit hole of being the victim. You know, you got to be a product of your environment, not a victim of your circumstance. Absolutely. It's about how you, how you handle those things. And personally for me, you know, I've been lucky enough to do something that I love for a very long time and I'm very passionate about it. But there were bumps in the road, and you know, I— not a lot of people our age have stopped drinking, and that's just something that separates the good from the great. That's, that's my personal opinion. You know, if you can, if you can knock all that shit out, you're already way ahead of the game.

Absolutely. And I think that another thing is that like booze, like I don't want to come on here and say that like alcohol is the absolute worst thing in the world. And I think some people like are, they have a fine relationship with it. But I think in our society nowadays, it's so normalized to like binge drink and, um, have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Now I know a lot of people who don't think they have a problem, but it's fucking up their life, buddy.

Yeah. Yeah. And you know, like on the weekends, if you're, if you're getting good output and you know, you're doing something that's productive while other people are out in the clubs, you know, drinking, they're going to wake up. They're not going to be feeling very good. That puts you just that much farther ahead. And if you can do 3 or 4 or 5 different things like that, that just puts you that much farther ahead. So, you know, it's not, it's not drinking, it's, it's going home and watching TV or doing something else. It's going to work 30 minutes early. It's staying 30 minutes late, getting that one extra task done. If you get that one extra task done every single day, you're going to be way ahead of everybody.

It's, it's back to what we were saying about the compound effect, you know? Yeah. I love the way that your perspective of this, of like when you're not going out and you're getting fucked up on the weekend, you're buying back more time for yourself. To get yourself ahead. And it's not just the one weekend, but it's one weekend 52 times a year. And after 5 years, like, how many extra days did you just buy yourself back that you were using to get ahead of everybody else? It really is, and it seems simple, but it's legitimately a fucking cheat code.

Yeah, you wake up 30 minutes earlier every single day, you have 2 and a half more hours during that week, during that work week, that you can be productive. Just 30 minutes, make it 15, cut that time in half, then you start growing it to an hour. All of a sudden you are way ahead of the curve. Mm-hmm. You're doing a lot more things than the people who are just happy with being, um, happy with being complacent. Yeah, I'm never happy just being at a standstill, you know. I always got to be doing something that's stimulating my brain. And at the time in college, stimulating my brain was getting fucked up and going out and doing stupid shit. And now I get a whole different type of stimulation when, you know, I reach this certain goal that I put to myself about 6 months ago or 3 months ago or even a week ago.

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's a whole different type of reward.

And like the cheap fucking little dopamine or whatever the, you know, the quick high, the little quick high that you get from eating a piece of candy or from skipping the gym to go to sleep, you know, you get that little boost for a little bit, but fuck, you're going to wake up in the morning and be like, why the hell didn't I do that?

Right. Nothing compares to like the, the actual rush you get from fucking hard work and like completing your goals. Like there's nothing even close to it.

Yeah. And you know, work should not feel like work if, if you're being challenged optimally, you know, being over-challenged, it becomes very tiring. Being under-challenged becomes very boring. So, you know, you got to find that sweet spot in between and you got to work towards that and work with that. 12-hour, 14-hour days is not sustainable forever, but it's something that you, you may have to do in the beginning of your career to just get established.

Well, and, and that's something I want to talk about is kind of achieving that flow state. I think that it's a superpower to be able to get into flow. And if in order to get into flow, you have to be at a level where it's not over-challenging, but it's still challenging enough to keep you stimulated and it's not too easy where it just becomes monotonous, and it's that sweet spot. And if you're able to stay in this throughout the day, you'll find yourself not watching the clock and just doing things.

Absolutely. At the end of the day, he'll be like, where the hell did my day go? Alright, I guess I'll take it in tomorrow. But you look back and you said, oh, well, I knocked out this, this, and this. And that's another thing you can do is, you know, just make a to-do list. The feeling of scratching something off your to-do list, there's nothing better. Even if it's small things, you can look back at the end of the day and say, I took care of this, I actually was productive.

I completely agree.

You know, you can get, you can get kind of lost in, in like the nitty-gritty of everything, you know, but in the end of the day, you got to be productive. And if you put down stuff that you can actually achieve and you cross it off the list, there's no better feeling.

And I feel like that is the key to like really being happy and, um, like content in life is being productive and being like a functioning member of society that's out accomplishing things. And I love what you said about like actually make a fucking to-do list and scratch that shit off as you do it. And it doesn't matter. How my new, or whatever it is, whatever's on your to-do list, right? Again, start small. And whether that fucking on your to-do list is something as simple as do the fucking dishes after you cook dinner, and it eventually builds up to like a massive project that's like, hey, we're gonna upgrade, we're gonna move into a fucking 100,000 square foot new facility, right? And then all the different parts that break into that.

Yeah, yeah, no, and so you know, you can have really high goals and you can have really low goals. I mean, this can go to, say you get dumped by your girlfriend, you're depressed, you know, one big thing that you can do is step out of your house, go to the grocery store, go to the gym, you know, do small things that make a huge difference. You know, some people get stuck in this, in this state of mental funk where they just tell themselves they can't do anything or that they're not valuable. You know, I think everybody's valuable in some certain way. It's just about how they perceive it and how they perceive themselves. You can look at somebody and you can see their energy. You know, this person is driven, or this person really hates their life. Absolutely. The difference between those two people is just their purpose.

Absolutely. I said on a, on a different episode, I said that I could take anybody out in the world and I can make them into at least a 7. Now, to some people this might seem fucking vain or anything like that, but here's what I mean by it. You know, you see those people out wherever and they just look like, you know, they're fucking slouched over, they fucking, they look like shit, they obviously don't take care of themselves. You know what I'm talking about? That kind of person. I feel like if you take that person, you fucking— one, you give them some affirmations, you let them know that, hey, you are a fucking valuable person, right? You have merit, whatever it is, right? And then you ingrain that into them. You get them fucking taking care of themselves. We're all granted this beautiful fucking vessel that holds our soul, holds our identity. Stop treating it like fucking a garbage can, a fucking garbage disposal. Take care of it, feed it what it needs to operate at its optimal levels, take care of it, right? Fucking exercise it. And you start doing these things— stand up straight, fucking walk around, look people in the eye— and you'll watch how quickly your life changes.

Absolutely. Things like posture, how you carry yourself, looking at people in the eyes, your tone when you talk to people, you know, holding the door open for somebody. Not just— if somebody doesn't hold the door open for you, that's coming from their own place of of anger, you know, that's not geared at you. It may seem like it is, but those types of people, they're in this mental state where they can't really break the wheel. And, you know, me personally, I feel like I want to be able to motivate people to get out of that mental state, you know, however that is. Everybody's a little bit different, but every single person does have some purpose. What that purpose is, I don't know, because every single, every single person has different desires, likes, wants, needs. Um, but, you know, every single person can be happy. People, people are just in this little thing where they think, I can't be happier. This always happens to me, or this, this never will happen to me. That's, that's just not true. Life is not hard. If you want something, you can go and fucking get it.

Absolutely.

If you want to lay in bed all day and say you're depressed, you're going to stay depressed. If you want to change, wake up, do something, go stand outside, just make baby steps. And all of a sudden it compounds on itself and it's like, it's like a snowball effect. And all of a sudden you're doing all this shit that you never thought you could do. Just from little, little changes.

Absolutely. And I think that is what it comes down to is one, deciding you want to change and getting some semblance of whatever that vision is, and then making sure that you have some actions that are in alignment with wherever it is you want to go. Another thing I want to talk about that you said, um, is people getting these mental funks, right? Their girlfriend breaks up with them, they lose their job, whatever it is. And I saw it, whether it was a TikTok or a tweet or something like that, it was somebody talking about you should never waste a good crisis. When something happens like that, when one door closes on you, whether it is your girlfriend broke up with you or you got fucking fired or something terrible has happened, you need to reframe all those emotions that you're feeling and redirect that energy into productive output.

Absolutely. And you know, rock bottom is one of the best platforms to spring off of. You're at rock bottom. Shit can't really get much worse. I mean, something can happen to where it gets a little bit worse, but you are where you're at right now. You're not happy. It's time to change or you're going to stay in this little state for the rest of your life.

Absolutely.

Rock bottom. I mean, I felt like I was at rock bottom before and I was able to get a grip on myself and change a whole bunch of shit. Took a lot of time, but But it worked out well.

And, and exactly what you said is that, dude, what better place for you, what better foundation to spring out of, right? Once you feel like you're at that moment and you're able to be honest with yourself and say, yo, I'm not fucking happy with what I'm doing right now. Perfect. We know what's not working. We, we know what, what doesn't work to get fucking, to get Tyson Smith where he wants to go, or to get Kurt where he wants to go. It's time to try something out. And then taking off, creating a new habit, and right, deciding who it is you do want to be. That's all it comes down to. Decide who you want to be and then re-engineer the steps for yourself to get there. So if you say, hey, I want to be rich, good-looking, and I want to be rich, good-looking, healthy, well then let's just re-engineer it. What are the daily habits that a rich, good-looking, healthy person is gonna do? They're gonna wake up, they're gonna go to the fucking gym, they're gonna work hard, they're gonna build a business. It's no fucking secret, dude. Every single rich, successful guy in America owns a fucking business for the most part, or is like super high up there running a business. Figure out a way to do that. And it's just breaking down in these simple— every single day, every single— breaking it down into these simple daily actions. Rich, good-looking, healthy guy is gonna go to the gym every day. They're gonna work hard at their business. They're gonna look people in the eye. They're gonna, they're gonna be a person, not a fucking NPC. And you talked about, right? Um, and that's another thing I want to talk about is what you said is that people's— like, somebody not holding the door for you, that's not anything to do with you. It's somebody's inward reflection of themselves projected onto you, right? When somebody's being a fucking dickhead to you out in public or on the street, whatever it is, it's something— it's not anything you fucking did for the most part. It's just, it's somebody— it's something else that they're figuring out and they're lashing out on somebody else.

Absolutely. Yeah, you know, people coming from that negative, that negative state, you know, they're kind of stuck in this, in this wheel where they think that everything's pushed against them and that there's nothing they can do to get out of their circumstance. There absolutely is. I mean, you just got to change the perspective on things. I mean, we've talked about perspective already, but I think that's really everything. I mean, how you look at something, you can look at, you can look at that chair and it'll look completely different, completely different to somebody else. How I look at like going to work or going to the gym is a whole different thing than that fat fucking bag of mayonnaise.

Yes.

I mean, those people dread it. I look forward to going in there and bettering myself. Same with going to work, same with waking up and just doing my normal every single day routine.

Yeah.

You know, it's just, it's got to be a universal standard that you set for yourself. You know, you can't have these little one-offs that you do intentionally. You know, I'm not gonna sleep in today because I can't do that. That's just, I don't resonate. With that. You know, I'm gonna go to bed early because I need my sleep. I don't stay up late. I'm not gonna go out and drink because that's just not a part of my personality anymore, right? I got more important shit to do. And, you know, anybody who wants to hop on that train with me can hop on, but anybody who's not with it, they can hop off.

Absolutely. And it comes down to just being true to yourself, right? I love what you said there, like, you know, sleeping in, going out and drinking— like, that's not what I do. That's, you know, that, that is not in alignment with who Kurt is. And it's having a rock solid idea of who do you want Kurt to be? Like something I've said is that I created this idea in my head of the exact person I want to be, kind of a combination of some of these other people that I've seen. Right. And I have an idea of who this guy is. It's almost this superhero version of Tyson Smith. And then every single day I'm doing things to get me to be that guy.

Yeah. And I saw, I saw some, um, some video and this guy talked about who his hero was, and he said, "It's me in 10 years." And 10 years goes along, and the guy goes, "So, are you your hero?" And he goes, "No, my hero's 10 years from now." You know, it's always chasing something. You know, you can never be happy being stagnant. You know, you gotta be chasing something. You always gotta have a goal in mind. You know, that sense of purpose is everything. That's what gives me energy. You know, people who sleep in all day and they don't really do much, they tend to be a whole lot more tired than the people who are at work really early and staying late.

Absolutely.

Because these people have a sense of accomplishment and it fuels them into their next day and into their, in their daily activities and into everything they do. You know, everything you do, it, it's really, it's how you look at it.

Absolutely. Perspective is so important. Um, one thing I kind of want to finish off on, Kurt, is what do you say to somebody who thinks that it's not important to take care of your body or to be fit?

You're in for a long trip, buddy. Uh, you know, taking care of your body is, is the most important thing. You know, mental health is a very important thing. What you tell yourself, how you tell yourself it, it really, it goes into everything that you do. So if you're taking care of your body, you're going to start feeling a lot better about yourself. Statistically, you're going to feel a whole lot better. You're going to start acting different. You're going to start wanting to grow in different places that you never thought you'd you'd want to grow. You know, opportunities always present themselves, but if you're hiding inside and you're not taking care of yourself, you're shielding yourself from any of those opportunities.

Absolutely. That's amazing. Um, with that, we're going to have to wrap it up. Uh, Kurt, if, if somebody wanted to reach out to you and they wanted to get more advice from you, what would be the best way for them to reach you?

You can find me on Instagram at Kurt underscore Weintraub.

At Kurt underscore Weintraub. How do you spell that?

K-U-R-T underscore W-E-I-N-T-R-A-U-B.

Amazing. Well, thank you so much again, Kurt, for coming on, having a conversation. I think it'd be extremely helpful for anybody who's wanting to know how to get better, how to reframe their position, reframe their mind to see the world in a different light, um, to be a happier person, to be a healthier person. Um, that being said, we're about to go, go ahead and tour the facilities. We're gonna look, um, go ahead, check out my Instagram. Um, I'll be sure to put some stuff up there and show you guys around, get a kind of behind-the-scenes look. At, uh, where our protein powder is being made and things like that. Uh, thank you guys all for listening. This is episode 4 of The Rebellion. Um, please remember, I know we weren't able to do it today, but if you ever do have questions, submit them, uh, on my Linktree. There is a place where you can submit questions for me to talk about on the podcast. Um, if you are interested in ever coming on and being a guest, shoot me a DM. Love to have a conversation with you. Um, again, thank you guys for watching, and we will see you next time.