Shawn Stevenson: Welcome to The Model Health Show. This is fitness and nutrition expert, Shawn Stevenson, and I'm so grateful for you tuning in with me today. So this week has been pretty interesting. I actually got invited to speak at my son's school, and it's always interesting to talk to high school students, right? They're just perpetually awkward, perpetually think they've got it figured out, and so it's always a really good experience. But funny enough, my son was the one who talked to his teachers, and they started following me, and kind of made it all happen. And what's really interesting about it is that this is the school I went to for high school. This is one of my first few times like actually back in the building besides like going to a sporting event or something of that nature, because when I was out, I was out. Alright? I was done. And I had a really interesting story and experience there, you know? A lot of people don't know this, and I've talked about it on the show, but I graduated in three years of high school, but not by pure sheer intellectual prowess. Alright? It was because I got kicked out my entire junior year for fighting. At the end of the talk, which I'll come back to, but one of the students asked me, "So what was the thing you liked the least about this school?" And I was like, "Man, that's an interesting question." You know he's looking for his little thing to just be like, "Yeah, I don't like that either." You know? And I said it's like the authoritarian construct of the school, you know? But here's the thing that you have to understand, we need structure, we need authority. Especially when we're young, we need guidance. But I put myself in the position where I was in a place where that authority could kick me out, right? So it was still on me, and I learned so much, it was the best thing that ever happened to me because eventually that experience got me to really get on the right track and actually be here with you today. So listen, the reason I'm bringing this up is that the person that I have on has more experience in working with high school kids all over the place. I mean we were just on an incredible event, the Phenomenal Life Cruise together, and these individuals even when we went to like these incredible islands, like Virgin Islands, and St. Maarten, they're hopping off the ship where other people are going and getting their sunbathing on, going shopping, they're going to schools and speaking to students and trying to pour into them, pour life into them, inspiration and guidance that tends to stick with kids. I wish I had that kind of example because when I got kicked out for fighting, I didn't have anybody giving me advice. I didn't have anybody to look to as a real hero. You know? And so he's become that, him and his partner have become that for so many people. We're talking about they're impacting the lives of tens of millions of people easily, probably hundreds of millions have been exposed to their work at this point. And we're just going to rock the house today with this episode. And so being able to stand up in front of those students, and share some insight- it was actually Life After High School was the class, and so I told them the truth of what's going to happen. And also giving them some insights about their health and wellbeing as they go to the next level. And funny thing, man, funny thing. These kids who my son was like, "Listen, Dad. They're tough." They all wanted to take pictures with me afterwards, and hang out, it was like, "Oh, okay." And my son was like, "Dad, you killed it." But you know, I kept messing with him or whatever during the thing, so he was all good with it. Listen, guys. I want you to really tune in, listen with your heart, listen with your mind, listen with your inner ears and really absorb this information because I think it's going to be transformative for you. Before we do that, I've got to tell you, my son as a result of that- because you know your kids don't tend to listen to you. But he came back home, because I talked about healthy fats during the talk, and he like stole my avocado, he's been like dipping into all my stuff, my healthy fats. Like today I went to have my breakfast, and my stuff was gone. He claimed he didn't like it, you know? But I kind of made fun of people who didn't like avocados in the talk, which I get because I didn't like avocados either. But one of the things that I love for my healthy fats is actually this incredible spicy mayo. Listen, I was not about that mayo life. If somebody put mayonnaise on the sandwich, we basically weren't friends, we were associates. Alright? I didn't get it, but now I totally get it, and it's the quality. Alright? So that typical Miracle Whip, you've got to say 'whip,' Miracle Whip is using these hydrogenated or very unstable poly versions of these fats, right? Polyunsaturated fats. And so these are highly volatile, and exposure to heat, which they use high heat processing, and they become very rancid and create a lot of free radical activity, right? You're just basically eating some white creamy free radical aging you, alright? But this is using a more stable oil, higher in saturated fat, avocado oil for this particular oil. Let me tell you where I get it from; Thrive Market because I get it 25% to 50% off everything from Thrive Market. If you're not using Thrive Market, you're playing yourself, alright? Stop playing yourself because this is a great way to save money and to get the very best foods possible because this is one of the things we use as an excuse. Like, "I can't eat healthy, it's too expensive." You know? And now they're taking that whole argument out of the picture, and creating opportunity. And plus why I really love them, every membership that's paid for, they give away a membership to somebody in need. A teacher, a veteran, a low-income household. So they're hooking other people up by you stepping up and taking advantage of the Thrive Market membership. They're basically like a Costco version of Whole Foods, right? All of these top-tier organic, gluten-free, whatever you're looking for, your particular moniker- Paleo, vegetarian, whatever you're looking for, they have it and they curate the very best companies, the very best foods. Alright? Non-GMO, whatever you're looking for they have them, alright? So I'm just sharing with you what's in my cart right now. Actually I was shopping today, this morning, so I'll share with you. So I have my Primal Kitchen Chipotle Lime Mayo. I didn't want to tell you about this, because I don't want to go to Thrive Market and it's gone, alright? So I'm just giving you a head's up, I put it on everything. And I mean everything, it's crazy. But also I've got in my cart, I'll tell you one more thing that's in my cart, chia seeds. Alright? Check this out. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, chia seeds have been found to prolong satiety, so this keeps you fuller longer, satisfied longer, alright? Chia seeds have been used for thousands of years. It was known as this kind of mystical endurance food. Like we're talking messengers running like hundred plus miles, and they're like popping a few chia seeds into their body. That's crazy stuff, right? What's so interesting about chia seeds and what I really love about it is it's a great source of this soluble fiber, alright? So if you add a little water to the chia seeds, which I recommend you do to get rid of some of the enzyme inhibitors, like maybe a couple tablespoons and add a little water, mix it around, it turns into like this gel. And it kind of helps to coat that lining of your digestive tract and really make things kind of move better, alright? So keep that in mind. It's a great prebiotic obviously if it's doing that kind of work, and a great source of Omega-3s as well. Good stuff for your brain and for your cell membranes. Alright so pop over, check them out, www.ThriveMarket.com/modelhealth. Alright, www.ThriveMarket.com/modelhealth. That's together one word. Not only do you get 50% to 25% off all of your favorite healthy food products and personal care products, by you going to that particular link, www.ThriveMarket.com/modelhealth, you get 25% off your entire first purchase in addition. Like your whole cart, 25% more off, and free shipping. Because I know that free shipping could be the deal breaker. Alright you might order $500 worth of like whatever, your Lacoste, or your Nike, and then it's like $10 for shipping and you're like, "I don't know, maybe I'll just go to the store." You know? So you get free shipping as well. Alright so pop over there, check them out, www.ThriveMarket.com/modelhealth. And now let's get to the iTunes review of the week. ITunes Review: Another five-star review titled 'Changing My Life Completely,' by Jenny From Jenny Bree. 'I found the show about a week and a half ago, and I'm always left inspired after every episode that I listen to. Shawn knows how to give tangible information with scientifically backed and legitimate studies on mind and body. He's inspirational with every message that he sends, and the tips I've received from his show have allowed me to fine tune the details in my life that are now leading me closer and closer to my goals. Thank you Shawn for this podcast and everything that you do.' Shawn Stevenson: Oh wow, that is so incredible. Thank you so much for sharing that with me, and for making me a part of your story. That means so much, truly. So wow, thank you. And everybody, thank you for heading over to iTunes and leaving us these reviews, please keep them coming, alright? Thank you, thank you so much. And on that note, let's get to our special guest and our topic of the day. Our guest today is CJ Quinney, Jr. And listen, everybody wants to marvel at the accomplishments of somebody like Michael Jordan, right? We just marvel at that. But he wouldn't have achieved the level of success that he's had without Scottie Pippen. Right? Without Phil Jackson, and without the other legends in their own right who helped them to win their championships. Yes, Jordan would've been great, but legendary, considered arguably the greatest to ever play the game, he needed the right team. And wow, if anybody knows about building a championship team, it's our guest today, CJ. He's a born leader, gifted communicator who has served as the brain trust for Eric Thomas Empire since its inception, alright? Eric Thomas, hands down he's a friend of the show, family, number one motivational speaker on the planet by far, not even comparable, and CJ remained a mystery to the masses until recently when the Secret to Success Podcast came out, which I had a hand in. I just want to throw that out there, I helped them to make this incredible show, one of the best shows out there, in which he leads alongside ET and it took the world by storm. Shortly after, the world found out what few already knew, CJ is the man responsible for spearheading Eric Thomas & Associates rise from relatively unknown to a multi-million-dollar brand, and the enterprising avenue that's seeing ET as the number one motivational speaker in the world. And I'd like to welcome to The Model Health Show, my friend, CJ Quinney. What's up, man? CJ Quinney: Shawn, how are you doing, man? Thanks for having me on. Shawn Stevenson: Oh it's my pleasure, brother. I'm very, very grateful to have you on the show today, man. So listen man, I would love to first of all talk about your superhero origin story. CJ Quinney: Yeah. Shawn Stevenson: Let's talk a little bit about your path that led you to doing the work that you're doing today. CJ Quinney: Yeah, so a bit of a back story, in high school I was a much bigger guy than I am now. So if you're looking at this live stream, or the Skype version of this, I was a bigger guy and I actually played defensive tackle and was rated one of the top recruits in the state my junior and senior year. Unfortunately, I had a couple back-to-back ACL surgeries, and that kind of derailed my career. I had scholarship offers from everywhere you could imagine, and thought I was going to go on and be this big NFL player. It didn't happen like that. The injuries forced me to sit down, and not play ball anymore, and so luckily I was able to get into Michigan State University, trying to just find my way as a jock who wasn't actually playing anymore. And so I hadn't put a ton of time into my studies, I hadn't put a ton of time into anything else except maybe football and girls, and so getting on a college campus the size of Michigan State, I had some troubles and really struggled through my freshman and sophomore year. And then my junior year, met a guy by the name of Eric Thomas, and to everybody no knows as ET, and we met and there was just a chemistry and a bond that was out of this world. When I heard him talk, just like many of the people listening to the podcast who've heard him, or across the world, when I heard him I was just like captivated. And I had never really envisioned myself being anybody's Scottie Pippen, or right hand, or anything like that. But when I met this guy, I was like, "Man, I've never seen or heard anything like this." And then I saw the character in which he operated, and I told him back then as a twenty-two year old, I said, "Man, I don't know what you're doing in life, but I want to be right here next to you the entire time." So long story short, I ended up graduating, becoming his Graduate Assistant at Michigan State, got my master’s degree and he looked at me and said, "Alright, you've got your degree, we're out of here." And we quit, we had no money, really didn't know how we were going to make anything happen, but he said we were supposed to quit, so we quit. Left all our benefits, and 401k, and we started a YouTube. And I guess I'll fast-forward to now, but that's really the story of how this thing got started, and how this thing got built. Shawn Stevenson: I love it, man. And if you could, since we just fast-forwarded to now, let's talk a little bit about some of the things that you guys are doing. One of the last times I saw you was on this incredible cruise adventure, you know what I'm saying? But you guys now are having impact like internationally, and working with all these incredible sports teams. Let's talk a little bit about what you guys are doing right now. CJ Quinney: Yeah, it's really been incredible. You know, when you think of most speakers, you think of all of them having their particular niche, right? And they all have this space that they operate in, either they're in football, or they're in overseas, or they're in the entertainment industry. Whatever they are, corporate maybe, these messages are so transcendent. Like everybody- I've never seen- Shawn, it blew my mind. We were actually in Detroit, Michigan, and we were at a juvenile justice facility. And there was a kid in there who said that one of the videos, I can, I will, I must. He said, "Man E, you did this video called I can, I Will, I Must, and it changed my life." This kid was sixteen years old, and he was serving like five years in a youth jail for something he had done when he was like fifteen or fourteen years old. He said, "That video changed my life. They let us watch it in here. You know, I can't believe you inspired me." Well we were on a plane to L.A. later that night, we flew from L.A. to Melvin, Australia, and we got to Australia and we had our first event, and there was a white female, she must have been in her mid to late fifties, and she had cancer and she said she bought a VIP ticket. She came to the VIP event, and she looked dead at E and said, "I don't care about any of the business stuff you guys are talking about, I didn't even so much care to see you come speak. I came here to tell you that when I was going through chemotherapy, my students-" She was a teacher, she said, "My students sent me the I Can, I Will, I Must video, and it changed my life forever." And I sat there man, and it hit me like a ton of bricks, and I said here's this young black kid in Detroit who's locked up, got the world against him, who used this video to kind of escape whatever mental prison he was in. And then boom, we fly literally- not even halfway across the world, Shawn. Across the world, and a lady who you- these people couldn't be any more polar opposites, and they both referenced the exact same video. And it's just been an incredible ride, it's been an incredible journey from the professional athletes to the huge corporate companies, and everything in between. It's really been fun to watch people gravitate towards Eric's message the same way I did as a twenty-two year old trying to figure it out in college. You know what I mean? Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, so this is one of the things that I see is this kind of constant thread, and it's the diversity of the impact, you know? And that's rare, you know? And E's brand- and so I'll just share- I don't know if I ever shared this with you man, but the first person to tell me about E was my wife. And I'd just done an interview on Lewis Howes' show a couple years ago, and I guess my wife was just keeping an eye out for it, and she popped over, I guess E's interview came out two weeks before mine. And she told me about it, she was like, "You don't understand. Like this is the greatest thing I've ever heard." You know, I'm just like, "Why are you saying that? Mine's about to come out, too. You know? Like come on." And so I popped over, I checked it out, I was like, "Who is this guy wearing a hat, too?" You know? Like it's kind of like cool demeanor, but the knowledge, the passion, the ability to communicate was just so palpable and powerful, man. And so that was my introduction and I was just like, "This individual is literally a life changer. Like when he speaks, you can't help but be impacted." And so I've seen this first-hand, I've seen E in a private sector and also just on stage at big events, he's the same person through and through. But he's got this very special gift of relating to that particular audience and the people there. And with you kind of being the manager of this, and the person who's really moved this forward, how did you- what was one of the first initial steps to take somebody who was great at this ability to speak, but then translated that into being an international brand? CJ Quinney: Yeah, well I tell people all the time, the most important thing when you have a product, or a brand, or a service, is just the availability, right? Getting it out to the people. And so one of the first things that we did was he's so dynamic, and we wanted to share this message with the world, so that's why the first step when we quit our job was to start this YouTube channel. And we titled it Thank God It's Monday, and we actually started it maybe even before we actually quit, but we titled it Thank God It's Monday because we worked in kind of a more corporate setting if you will, right? And so Shawn, we would notice that when we came in Monday morning, it was like dead in there. I mean you could wave to people, you could say hi, and everybody would kind of like growl at you and shut their office door. Well on Friday, you could hear like music playing, like the whole day everybody is like jamming out. And so E was like- here's the craziest part, he said, "You spend money on Friday. Right? That's like the day everybody goes and hangs out. But Monday is when you actually get a chance to embrace the grind and embrace everything that's going to allow you to have that great weekend." So we started Thank God It's Monday, and we put it out every single week, and we got so consistent with it, and to your point, that theme is applicable to everybody, right? Like students who go to school, guess what? Monday morning, they've got the blah. "I don't want to be here, I had a long weekend, back at school, I've got math class at 8:00 AM." They don't want to be there. The teachers are kind of thinking the same thing, "Boy that was a short weekend," and they're back. In the Corporate America, you know it's the same type thing, and so everybody had these Monday blues if you will, and so we created this phenomena in Thank God It's Monday where people from all over the world began to embrace Monday, and embrace everything that came with that. And so when you talk about E, yes he's a black male from Detroit, born in Chicago, and all of those things, but the things that he talks about are universal themes. Like anybody who's ever listened to E talk, and he talks about getting up, and sacrifice, and being of high character, and high integrity, and making sure you drive through anything that's in your way. Whatever themes they are, they're not themes that are only applicable to one group or another. It's human stuff, you know what I mean? Like it really is just human stuff that we all need. And so everybody hears him. Like my mom, when she was like, "Hey who is this guy?" I was like, "Well he's a motivational speaker, and you've kind of got this negative connotation about motivational speakers. They're like ascending from the heavens and kind of like doing this really weird thing." And she heard him, and she was just like, "I've never heard anything like that." Because it feels as if he's speaking directly to you because he's lived so much life, Shawn. And you know his back story with being homeless, and not knowing who his father was, and all of those things and to be healed, and to truly come through that, and now he's just using that platform to kind of inspire the masses. And it's been amazing to watch, and to watch people gravitate towards it has been just crazy. Shawn Stevenson: Yes, man. And one of those universal themes that I wanted to have you on to talk about is- because this is going to ring true for everybody listening, is overcoming obstacles. You know, because right now people are facing things in their life that they're having a hard time getting past or might not even see a way of getting past. So it wasn't all like sunshine and roses when you guys were like, "I'm out, let's start this thing." You know? Like you went through a lot to build this brand, and also like there was even a time that you didn't even live around the guys anymore. You were like in Europe living. So let's talk about that. CJ Quinney: Yeah so we had this grand plan that we were going to leave and start this company, so now you can imagine I'm the first one in my family to graduate from college, I'm the first one to get a master’s degree, and everybody in my family thinks I'm going to be this huge entrepreneur business man and I'm going to make all this money and everybody is going to ride with me. And for the first few years, Shawn, we actually didn't make a dime. And so we were out in the world just trying to figure it out. But I remember one particular time, I was traveling with my wife, and she works for General Electric, and she's a beast, man. She kills it. And we were on program, which we were talking about moving all over the world. So we were actually on a program, it was a corporate audit staff, and everybody in the program moves. You move every four months. Well out of the fifty people or so that traveled on this program, let's say twenty of them were married, right? Thirty single, twenty married. Of the twenty that were married, my wife being included in that number, there were nineteen wives that traveled with their husband, and there was one husband who traveled with his wife, and that was me traveling with my wife. And I remember going to corporate parties, and I remember going to their Halloween parties and Christmas parties, and people would always ask me like, "Hey, how long are you in town for?" And I would say like, "Hey I actually live with my wife." They're thinking I flew in, like I got some business I run, or I'm doing something big and bad somewhere else, and I'd fly in for the Christmas party or whatever. And I would tell them, Shawn, that I actually lived with my wife, and they would say- because obviously I'm not doing any real work if I'm traveling every four months. And I remember feeling like, man- almost less of a man just to be honest, and I'm not sexist or anything. Not that a woman can't provide, I'm not saying that, but I know the way they looked at me like, "What kind of man are you to just be traveling around the country and letting your wife support you?" And so there were some hard times, man. And I remember one time I tried to go out and get a job substitute teaching, and E called me and was like, "Man, get out of there. You're not substitute teaching, we've got a dream to go after." And so there were some dark times, and some hard moments, and some doubts, and some fears, and a couple times I had to call my mom and borrow money. Now imagine this, here I am graduated with a master’s degree, my mom and dad poured everything they had into helping me go to college, and now I'm turning around two years later and I've got to borrow $500 from my mom. And it was tough, man. And it was tough to hold onto that dream. It was tough to hold onto E being the number one speaker in the world when it seems like the world is against you. And so there were a lot of dark times, but I think E always kept the vision in front of me. I think he did a great job of reiterating the fact that, "Hey we're right on track. We're doing what we need to be doing. It's going to break for us sometime, we're going to catch that break," and so we just kept working and eventually we caught that break, and I'm so grateful now because my life looks so different, and I can't imagine what would have happened if I'd have just caved and been like, "Alright man, I'm just going to get a 9:00 to 5:00 down the street and just doing something I don't like because I'm worried about the pressures of the outside world." Shawn Stevenson: Man, thank you so much for sharing that, man. That's even another layer that I didn't know about, and man, I just want to parallel that and share with everybody that everybody's story is going to look a little different, you know? But especially if you're going to do something outside of the paradigm of what you see is average and normal, you're going to come up against some serious resistance. And one of the greatest lessons- and we're going to keep coming back to this in this conversation, is to keep moving forward. You know, just keep moving forward. And you guys just didn't give up. And so I would love to shift gears a little bit to talk about also with the company, you know? There's somebody right now- there's a person saying, "I want to do this, but I don't have the opportunity." Or, "I want to do this, I don't have the connections." And for them to do the work they're passionate about. What can you say about that? And let's talk a little bit about like you wouldn't even be allowed to speak at schools for free. Like you were reaching out to schools like, "We'll come for free," and they were getting turned down. CJ Quinney: Yeah, and so the thing I would tell somebody - and you're absolutely right - here I am with the greatest motivational speaker in the world, and I'm calling middle schools and they're going, "Eh, we'll pass. We don't have time for that." And what I would tell people out there is create your own opportunity. We didn't wait for somebody to book us for an engagement. Guess what? YouTube was free. YouTube- they let us put as much content, as many videos we wanted on there, they allowed us to do as much as we wanted. And so guess what? What we ended up doing by creating our own opportunity leveraged us to be here. So I told a group of entrepreneurs this the other day. So the guru story, the famous story that he's famous for, and if somebody listening hasn't heard the guru story, just type in 'Eric Thomas guru story' on YouTube, and it'll come up. This video is probably one of the most viewed motivational speeches in the entire world. What people don't know is that opportunity and that video has probably 100 million views. Shawn, that was created out of a free program that we just started at Michigan State. We'd start bringing pizza to a room every Tuesday night, and we were like, "Hey come in here, we'll feed you pizza, just let us talk to you." And they came, and there was about fifty kids that ended up coming that night, and out of it came one of the greatest motivational speeches ever. Guess what we did? We recorded it, we put it on YouTube, and the world found out about it, and now Eric's largely regarded as one of the top speakers in the world. But we created our own opportunity. The world is not going to give you anything. The world is not going to just drop down and give you a business plan, they're not going to give you a loan, they're not going to give you any of that but if you create your own opportunity and operate in excellence, you will attract excellence. So every single week, we operated in that excellence. Because some people, Shawn, will start. They'll do Thank God It's Monday, they might do it five weeks, they might do it seven weeks, they might do it fifteen, thirty weeks. Shawn, we've been doing TGIM, Thank God It's Monday every single week for over ten years now, and still to this day we're doing Thank God It's Monday because we want to make sure that we're always in control of our own destiny. And so as long as we keep giving excellence out, we keep getting excellence back. So no excuses, no complaints. Create your own opportunity, and opportunities will just throw themselves at you. Shawn Stevenson: Yeah man, and that's what's happening with you guys today. It's just like overwhelming how much interest and requests that you guys have. It's insane. And I wanted to also parallel this one with when we first kind of connected, and we were working on getting you guys' podcast going, which is one of the top ten podcasts all the time in the personal development space. And the number one key that I shared with you, which you guys really got, which is why I love you guys so much, you get it. Like you get it and you execute. Number one thing I said is to be Captain Consistency. No matter what, no matter what happens, you guys need to put out a new episode every single week. People will be expecting that and you have to keep showing up. You want this to be like their favorite TV show when they were a kid. You know, for me it was 7:00 PM on Mondays, that's when Alf came on. Alright? Gordon Shumway. It's Shawn time. And my grandma, she had her thing, like Equalizer, right? But this one was like- it's the Equalizer and also Magnum PI. When those two shows were on- no other time did she mess with me. Shawn is the king of the house, but when Tom Selleck comes on with the bushy sexy mustache, I've got to get out, right? I've got to go find something to do. You know? So that's what we want to be for the people, and that's what you're saying. So guys, just keep showing up. Most people just quit, they give up, just keep moving forward. So man, I would love to talk about- because with that, the thing that jumps into mind is like that's easier said than done, Shawn. That's easier said than done, CJ. I've got this fear. And at our Mastermind we just had in Atlanta recently, which guys you'd better get connected to what we're doing, come hang out with us, Breathe University. Alright go to www.BreatheU.com. But we were at this Mastermind and you shared this great story about fear, about using fear when you had this experience of being moved up to Varsity. Can you share that story? CJ Quinney: Yeah, no for sure. So I think fear is first and foremost something that we all experience. Like if anybody tells you they've never been fearful, they're absolutely lying. And so I like to share this story because I experience fear on a daily basis. Right? We all have these anxieties and these things. And so I tell the story of I had never played football before until the ninth grade, and my dad kind of dragged me out of the bed in the ninth grade and was like, "You're going to play football." And I was like, "I don't want to play football." He was like, "I don't care." My dad was- he was the captain of the house, and so he called all the shots, and so I got my butt up on the football field, and I went out there with all my ninth grade friends, and I dominated. Right? I was just a natural athlete, I was a basketball player at the time, but I was still strong enough to play football. So I played freshman football amongst all my peers, and I dominated. And I got a call after the school year was over in the summer from the head varsity coach. And he called me and he said, "Hey CJ, we watched all your film from freshman year, and you're coming up to play varsity." And I was like, "Whoa," I'm like, "I don't know about that," because I'm in the weight room with the varsity guys, and these guys are throwing around 350 pounds 375 on the bench, they're yelling, they're big, they're strong, and I'm remember feeling like, "Whoa, I'm going to get killed." And so all summer I'm working out trying to get on their level, but I see I'm not on their level. And so finally we get out to the practice field, and the first few days Shawn, if anybody's ever played football, you don't pad up the first week. The first week is kind of just conditioning, and you do like some fitting stuff, and you run, and you get your conditioning together. And then that second week is when you actually put on the pads, right? So I'm waiting to put on the pads, we all get padded up, and I remember all the seniors and the juniors - I'm a sophomore now - are just talking crazy to me. "Man when we get out on that field, your little sophomore butt, we're going to smash you, stomp you. We're going to kick you in the groin," and I'm literally- like my hands are shaking. And so we lined up, and I was on scout team D, and we were playing against the first string offense, and I just remember getting in my three point stance, and putting my hand on the ground, and I was playing against a guy named Biggie, and he earned his name. He probably benched 400 pounds, probably 6'1" and I mean he was a large human being. And he was talking crazy to me the whole way, they're like yelling in the huddle, and I got down, I put my hand on the ground, and I remember saying, "Alright Lord, it's either him or me." And they said, "Hut," the quarterback had the ball, and I charged in there, and I hit him harder - probably even the rest of my career - harder than I had ever hit anybody in my life. He flew back, kind of did a double backflip on the ground, and he had to sit out the rest of practice. And I tell people that because there are two types of people. There's the type of people like myself, Shawn, and yourself, who take that fear and we use it as adrenaline, and we use it to wake up in the morning, and we use it to do excellent podcasts, and we use it to be excellent husbands, and we use it to be excellent fathers, and we just go after it. We're scared of the fear of failure, we're scared of what happens if I'm not a great husband? What happens if I'm not a great entrepreneur? What happens if I don't land any more contracts? Are they going to take my house? We all have those things that we think about. Everybody has those fears. The difference is I get up and use that as a rocket booster to put on my back to go for, whereas some people go, "Oh my God," and they clam up, and they don't want to ever do anything. And guess what? When you don't do anything, and you go that clam up route, and you go into your shell, and you don't try anything, or you don't try to be great, or you don't try to pursue excellence, that very thing you're scared of becomes real. So I think having a fear - a healthy fear - is absolutely a great thing. And that's the thing. I want to tell every single person out there who hasn't achieved what they want to achieve, Eric Thomas has fear. Shawn Stevenson has fear. The only difference between you and them is they use that fear to push them. They wake up and that's what gets Eric Thomas up at 3:00 in the morning, the fear of having to tell his wife, "Hey you've got to go back to work even though you've been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. I'm going to need you to go back to work for eight hours a day because we can't afford to have you home." You don't think E has a healthy fear of that? He absolutely does, but if you can use that fear to push you, right? You're not crazy for having fears. If somebody's told you that, "You're soft, and you're a scaredy-cat." No, no we all have them. Allow it to push you, and not bury you. Shawn Stevenson: Man, listen- man, man, man. I'm just already- man, this is- I've never heard fear talked about in that context before. CJ Quinney: Well here's the thing, Shawn. You know what I mean. Like we hear fear, and it's almost like you look at Eric Thomas and you go, "Man, if I had his level of [Inaudible 00:34:10] man, I would be on fire. And if I had Shawn's don't care attitude, I'm going for it." Listen, man, people are going to judge you, people are going to say your podcast stinks. We actually have a segment on our podcast called The Negative Feedback where I read all the reviews of people telling me they can't stand my guts, they wish I would stop talking about my kids, your whole family is ugly. Guess what? I just embrace it. I'm no longer going to live my life based on what people think, or the fear of, "What if I put it out and people don't like it? What if I go after this contract and I don't get it? What if I go after that promotion and they say no?" Guess what? The de facto answer is already no. I had a friend, Shawn, who we were at the bar one time, and I told him to go talk to this young lady, because you know they were kind of catching eyes. And he said, "Oh man, I don't want to go up to her. What if she says no?" And I said, "Man, you've got to go after it. She's there, I don't see a ring on her finger, go for it." And he said to me, "I get it, it's like high risk, high reward." And I said, "No, no, no, no, no. Not at all." I said, "It's only high reward." And I said, "There is no risk. You already don't have her phone number, so if you walk away and she throws a drink at you, you walk away without her number, you still don't have it. There's absolutely no risk." But in our mind, we create this fake monster under the bed. My son is four years old so we've been dealing with this monster thing. I have to get up and show him that it's not under the bed. And sometimes as grown people and as adults, we have this fear or this monster under our bed that doesn't exist. I told my friend, "You already don't have the young lady's number. If we leave right now, you'll never have it. The only thing that could come out of it better than where you are right now is her saying yes and giving her your phone number. You literally have nothing to lose." And so when you operate with that healthy fear, and you just go after it and say, "Hey I've got nothing to lose." I would rather go out there and give my full effort and lose than sit back and wonder what would have happened if I gave it my all. And so I think fear kind of gets talked about in this negative light, and people are like, "Don't let the fear, don't have any fear, be fearless." No, no, no have fear, use the fear though. Alright? So I just like to break it down like that because I think, Shawn, we do people a disservice when we act like, "Oh I don't have any fear. Are you kidding me? Yeah, I started a company off a YouTube channel, no fear. I knew it was going to work. Guaranteed we were going to build a multi-million dollar company." Absolutely not. I was scared out of my mind. I woke up every day, but guess what? That's what allowed me to work fourteen, fifteen hour days. That's what allowed me to make that phone call when the person already told me know, that's what allowed me to call them back a week later and go, "Are you sure?" And a week later and go, "Are you sure?" Because I had that fear of if I don't make this happen, ultimately I'll have to go back and maybe live in my mom's basement. I'm scared of that, and so I use that fear to push me every day, Shawn. Shawn Stevenson: Man, awesome. Man, awesome. Thank you so much for sharing that, man. Wow, so despite fear, despite overcoming our fear, despite experiencing it, feeling it, and still doing it anyways, accomplishing our goals and being successful is still relative, alright? So I want to talk about this because I was listening to the show that you guys put out a little while ago, and you shared this example of a $3 million house, which was just- like it knocked my socks off personally. So let's talk about that, because there's a big underlying issue that I want to get to with this, but let's share that story. CJ Quinney: Yeah, no it's all relative, and now you're in different spaces, right? So we had a property that we were looking at, and we have a business opportunity that we're working on, and we were going to zone this property for commercial use. But the guy had it, it was a beautiful house, it was a $3 million house here in Georgia. And we got to the house, and the guy's giving us a tour of the house, and he's showing us all around and I'm like, "Man, this is an incredible house." $3 million, Shawn, goes a long way in north Georgia, right? And so we're about an hour outside of Atlanta, and we're looking at this house, and I mean it's incredible. It's got pools, jacuzzies, movie theatres in it, it's got a very rustic old feeling. I mean this is- I think it was on 150 acres and had to be about maybe 15,000 square foot home, just an incredibly beautifully built home. And I remember standing in there going, "Wow, one of these days I'm going to be in a position to maybe have a house like this," or whatever. And so as we're talking to the guy, the guy loved the house, and so he's actually showing us the house. Right? He's actually in charge of- we don't have a realtor there, he's showing us the house himself. And he's showing it to us, and he wasn't even- I don't think the guy was trying to brag or anything, but he said, "Yeah, I actually don't live here. I use this house for like game nights and brainstorming weekends with my buddies. Anytime we want to get together and discuss some business plans, we go to this $3 million mansion and we just discuss business plans for the weekend, and we fly out, and it sits vacant for five days a week." About twenty minutes later in the tour, we go downstairs, and he's actually storing the boat for an owner of one of the Atlanta sports teams. And he says to us, "Man these guys right here, the guy whose boat I'm storing, man that guy is rich." He said, "I'm not one of those wealthy guys, like don't think of me- I'm nowhere near these guys. I'm not even wealthy." And so Shawn, here's a guy who has a $3 million playhouse who does not consider himself wealthy. And what I was explaining to people at the Masters of the Game - at the Mastermind - was success, and happiness, and all of those things are relative. They really are. There's somebody who would walk in my house right now, it's 3,000 square feet, it's a fairly decent brick home and think, "Oh my God, do you need help? Like this must be a tragedy. Do your kids have to live here?" Right? And I say that to say you have to embrace where you are. You have to embrace where you are in life, you have to embrace what your successes look like. I judge my success, Shawn, and this is the honest to God truth, and I think this is how I stay sane, because I have a lot of very wealthy friends now who do much better than I do financially. I judge myself off of where I was yesterday. I want to get better every single day, and the only person I compare myself with is myself. I try to see, "Where were you last year in terms of your spiritual development? In terms of your health?" Meeting you, Shawn, has been a blessing. You've helped me so much with my health because I lost the weight but I wasn't toning up. I wasn't getting back on the weights like I needed to. I wasn't eating the way I needed to. I wasn't drinking my Organifi like I needed to. And so I got that information, and now I'm looking at myself last year and I go, "Well done, CJ. You know? Well done, you're doing better than you were." And I think, Shawn, we live in this era where with Facebook, and Instagram, and all these social media platforms, you're looking at everybody's highlight reel, and you're looking at everybody's best life going, "Man, I'm not on that level. Or that level of success is not for me." Stop worrying about that and just try to get better every day. The things you actually care about, just worry about getting better at those every day. Because guess what? I was almost depressed for two seconds when my man told me he had a $3 million house that was a playhouse, and he didn't consider himself wealthy. I said, "Well I might as well go jump in the soup line if you don't consider yourself wealthy." So it is all relative, Shawn. Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, no doubt, man. And thank you. You actually just tied in exactly the point that I wanted to make of if you're going to compare- I love this statement of when you compare yourself, you negate yourself, right? There's another one that says when you compare yourself, you silence God. And I remember hearing Wayne Dyer say that, and it really struck me because especially in our culture today, that's what we're constantly doing. We're looking at everybody's highlight reels, right? And actually it's not necessarily the real reels, you know? And so we're constantly comparing ourselves. And so how do we straddle that line of actually seeing something that's inspirational for us, but then staying in our lane and understanding like the best comparison and the only comparison I'm going to have is comparing me to me. CJ Quinney: Yeah, and so Shawn, I'll teach for a minute, and forgive me. When people come out to our conferences, what I tell them is, "You have to find your unique gift," right? I call it your unique selling proposition, you have to find your USP. And people always say, "Well how do I find my gift?" Alright? For everybody in podcast listening land, write this down. Your gift is what comes easy to you that's hard for most. Alright? I'm going to say it slow. Your gift is what comes easy to you that's hard for most. So I found my gift in the fifth grade, Shawn. I remember Ms. Freeman was the class, right? My teacher was Ms. Freeman. Shout-out to Ms. Freeman if she's listening. We were in fifth grade and we had a group project, everybody knows group projects. So I got this group project, right? And we're in the group project and I get paired up with these four young ladies and it's just me, I'm the only guy. And we get in the group project, and all the girls said, "Listen, CJ, we'll do all the work, we just don't want to talk in front of the class." And I said, "You know what? I don't want to do any work, and I love to talk. So this sound like a match made in heaven." And so right then I figured out, "Oh I have the gift to be able to speak publicly," right? So what happens, Shawn, is we look at other people's gifts, and then we start to become envious because we don't have that. Real quick story, I hope you don't mind sharing, I wrote a book called 'My Secret Superpower' for my son. Alright? My son is four years old, and I wrote it because obviously my son is a young black male, and everybody would always come up to him and say, "Oh are you a football player? Are you a basketball player?" And I know they didn't mean any harm, right? I'm not saying they meant any harm by it, but I always used to look at them and go, "Whoa, what if he wanted to be an artist or play the piano, or what if he wanted to like go be a Wall Street investor?" I don't know. What if he just has these other gifts and everybody would say, "Are you going to be a football player or a basketball player?" And so I wrote this book, Shawn, and I'm not plugging the book, I promise you I'm not. But I wrote this book- Shawn Stevenson: You've got to plug it. I'm going to jump in here, I love the book, my son loves the book. CJ Quinney: Yeah, thank you man, that means a lot. So I wrote this book called 'My Secret Superpower,' and I wrote it for my son, right? I dedicated it to my son. And so in the book my son basically comes home and he says, "Dad, Dad, Dad, you're never going to believe what happened. I got lost in the jungle today." And I say, "Oh really?" He's like, "You want to hear the story?" I say, "Yeah, tell me the story." So he's like, "Man, I was walking through the jungle, and I'm lost, and all of a sudden out of nowhere a rabbit pops up, Riley the Rabbit." He says, "Riley, can you help me get home?" And Riley the Rabbit says, "Hey man, I'm sorry I'm too small, too short, I could never help you get home. I'm sorry." And Trey goes, "Hey, you're small and you're short, but you can jump really high, right? Can you jump over these bushes and see if you see my house?" So Riley goes, "You're right, I can jump high." So boom, Riley jumps high in the sky, and he looks over the bushes. He says, "Hey Trey, I didn't see your house, but I did see Gary the Gorilla." So Trey goes to Gary the Gorilla, he says, "Hey Gary, can you help me find my house?" And Gary goes, "Whoa buddy, no way. I'm way too big, I'm way too slow, I could never help you find your house." And Trey goes, "You're big, but you're strong, right?" He goes, "Yeah, I'm strong." He goes, "Do you think you could knock down these bushes, help us get to the other side?" Shawn, long story short, he comes up against Cody the Crocodile who says that his eyes don't work very well and he's got these really short arms. Trey says, "You're a great swimmer." He comes up against Ginny the Giraffe who's too tall and she's insecure about her neck, but Trey says, "You can see high in the sky." They find Bella the Bluebird who's too little, but she can fly, and so she looks and finds the house. And so they use teamwork to get back to the house. And so when I was writing this book, I was writing it for my son to show him that whatever your secret superpower is, embrace it. Here the rabbit is worried that she can't do anything because she's took small, and here's the very next character the gorilla who's worried about he can't do anything because he's too big. And so I was trying to show my son that whatever your secret superpower is that God gave you, whatever that gift is for you, whatever comes easy to you that's hard to most. It wasn't hard for the gorilla to be strong, it wasn't hard for the bunny to jump really high, those were God-given things that they were given. And after I got done writing it, I wanted to write it for my son, I really said, "Man, this is for adults too." Because I'm bringing this back full circle, Shawn, to your point. We get to looking at other people and go, "Man if I could only speak like ET. If only I was a wealth of knowledge about health like Shawn is. If only I could do branding the way CJ does. If only I could jump like Lebron James." Instead of saying, "Whoa, look at me. Look at all of these gifts I have." I see people do stuff that- like literally Shawn, if you told me to draw a picture of a house, it would look like my four year old son drew it. I just can't draw, but you have people who sit down and can create amazing portraits. But it seems like as humans, and even as adults, on Instagram or all these other things, we see other people's gifts, right? We see somebody in network marketing, and we get in network marketing, and we don't make $0.50 in network marketing. We don't get one person in our dial line and we go, "I'm a failure. I can't do it." No, that's not where you're supposed to be. You're supposed to be doing something totally different, and so that's why I tell people embrace your own gifts, embrace your own secret superpowers, and the rest of the things will come natural for you because once you fall in your gift, you'll start performing in excellence, and again excellence attracts excellence. So I think we just need to stop comparing, and to add another quote to your recipe, I heard a quote that said comparison is the thief of joy, and I absolutely believe that. So embrace who you are and what you are. Shawn Stevenson: Man, that's incredible, man. So we've got some huge insights about comparison here, and really tapping in and identifying your own secret superpower. We'll put the link to the book in the show notes. CJ Quinney: I appreciate that. Shawn Stevenson: If you've got kids, you definitely have got to get this book. You know, my son Braden who's six, I'm just going to say it, he's very choosey about his books. CJ Quinney: There you go. Shawn Stevenson: You know, like he's really into superheroes, really into Ninjago, like that's his jam. He's all about the Lego world. And so me sliding this book in he was like, "I don't know," man he loved it. Like after he was done, he even talked about it the next day, you know? Like it really made an impact, man. So awesome. And by the way, so you mentioned your health transformation, which I want to talk about. Before I do, I also want to give a quick shout-out because segue alert, Organifi. You mentioned Organifi as well, and this can be one of those power players, as I was talking to the kids at the high school that I mentioned in the opening, one of the big keys that I wanted them to walk away with and use today and moving forward into college is just make sure you're getting your micronutrient bases covered. Don't worry so much about the macros, like so many people are caught up in the fats, proteins, carbohydrates, calorie paradigm. Which those things matter, but they can't do their jobs without micronutrients. And so this is one of the ways that we really make sure that we're getting those micronutrient bases covered. Because here, let me give you an example. Micronutrients are essentially like little keys that unlock processes, that enable proteins to do their job. So if we look at something like selenium being a micronutrient. Your thyroid literally can't operate correctly, which thyroid is kind of like the metabolic governor of your entire body. Like it's controlling your ability to burn fat or store fat, it's controlled by your thyroid gland. Selenium deficiency can be just absolute havoc on your system. Magnesium. This is the number one mineral deficiency that I'm seeing in the world today, and also the experts see as well. At least 80% of the population is deficient in this particular mineral. There's 325 processes that depend on magnesium being present. One of them being just your ability to just experience having energy, alright? We don't just operate on energy like we have this energy currency called ATP. It has to bond with magnesium in order for it to be active form. So if you're deficient and wonder why you're not recovering, wonder why your sleep is off, wonder why you have aches and pains, this one simple deficiency. And so it can be difficult today to get the food in necessary because we just don't live in the same environment that our ancestors lived in where they got a wide variety of things depending on seasons and all this good stuff. So getting Organifi in there because it's cold-processed using the most potent superfoods available, so you actually get the stuff you think you're getting, alright? So when we talk about magnesium, anything green, because it's the center of the chlorophyll molecule. Anything green is really going to provide you a great source of magnesium, alright? You're going to see the magnesium, you're going to see zinc, and copper, and all that good stuff. Get those micronutrients in, in a way that your body can actually use it, by using Organifi, alright guys? So head over to www.Organifi.com/model. That's www.Organifi.com/model, guess what? Twenty- sitting on twenties. 20% off, it's crazy, alright? I've got it in my bag right now, never leave home without it, alright? Especially when I travel, this gives me an extra insurance, alright? So check them out, www.Organifi.com/model. 20% forever. Now let's talk about this transformation, man. You mentioned you were a big guy back in the day, you know? And being a lineman and that whole thing, and also experiencing a bunch of injuries. Recently man, and I don't know if you've talked about this in this way before, but you've lost close to 100 pounds, man. So let's talk about this. First of all, how did you get in that position where you were that far off from your ideal state of health? Let's talk about that first. CJ Quinney: Well I think being an athlete, being a lineman, being that big is not necessarily frowned upon. Right? And so being 320 pounds, 330 pounds is not a bad thing if you're attempting to be an NFL player. Obviously those guys are massive, right? And so I never really saw a problem with it. And so kind of when school was over, and I wasn't playing anymore, I didn't have that same drive to then lose the weight because I was already a big guy, people knew me as a big guy. And to be honest with you, Shawn, I was 320 pounds. You saw the picture I think when I was at my heaviest, I wasn't one of those guys who had like a huge gut, I was just a massive human being. Like I wasn't necessarily like super belly heavy, and those kinds of things, and so I never really had the motivation to lose it, I guess you could say. And it didn't bother me, I was still very active, I still felt fine, I still woke up, I still went to the gym, I ate what I wanted to eat, and life was good. I was married, I didn't really- my wife didn't seem to mind. And so the day my son was born, and I'll never forget it, it was January 4, 2014, my son was born, and I looked at him and I just said, "Man I will do anything in my power to make sure I'm around for him as long as I can possibly be." And so it hit me that day, I was thirty years old, and I said, "If you're 320-some odd pounds at thirty, how much are you going to weigh at forty? And then how much are you going to weigh at fifty just by sheer osmosis if you don't change anything? If you don't change something, it may not be a huge deal to you at this second at thirty, because you're still playing ball, and you're still running around, and you're still at the gym, and you can still move around good, but do you think you're going to lose this weight at forty? Or maybe fifty? Or maybe sixty?" And I'm not saying you can't do that, but just in my own mind I'm thirty years old, I have to do this for my son. And so I got serious that day. I mean literally that day, Shawn, I probably went up to the cafeteria and had a salad, and since that day I have made the commitment to always honor and value my health at the highest of levels. I'm not a vegan, I'm not in these crazy diets that people are super disciplined, but I am pretty strict on my diet. I don't do the pizza and cheeseburgers and stop at Wendy's, McDonald's, and Burger King like I used to. I cut all of that stuff out. I try to cook at home as much as I can, I try to use whole foods as much as I can, and I'm down 100 pounds, man, and I feel better. I got more energy. Thank God I lost the weight because my son is four years old, and Shawn, you're right there, those kids got a lot of energy, and it can be tough if you don't have the energy to keep up with them. And so it's been an absolute blessing to lose that weight, to get the weight off for- it probably took me about a year and a half to lose it, and I've kept it off to this day within a few pounds, and now me and you are making some changes based on your recommendations, and I honestly feel fantastic, man. I feel strong, I feel full of life, I feel vibrant. You were plugging the Organifi, I've been drinking Organifi - and this is not a plug - I've been drinking Organifi since Shawn told me about it maybe a year and a half, two years ago about it. I literally have drank this stuff every single day, and I just feel great, man. I feel awesome, I feel full of life, I feel more energetic about my business endeavors, and hopping on and off planes, and all of those things, man. I don't get sick as much. I told somebody I don't even get common colds. And I'm not Superman, but I just keep my body pretty healthy, man, and I feel awesome, and it's been- now I've got a daughter added to the mix, so she's one, so I want to be around for her as long as possible. But it really was- it started with a decision, Shawn. Shawn Stevenson: Yeah, and it always does, man. And man, that's such a powerful story, and I'm just really- if I could be in a position to say this man, I'm just proud of you because so often we go through these trials and we work so hard to achieve something, and there's not a big like sense of applause and acknowledgement for something. Like you're literally in the one percentile of people being able to accomplish a goal like that, and it's not an accident. And we can get more people into that percentile and grow it, but it's just tapping into some of the things that you've been talking about. And he did this despite the injuries, like he just found a way, so I want you to keep that in mind too because this is one of the things we often talk about is, "I can't do it because," fill in the blank. Despite whatever circumstances, there is a way, you know? And it's just keep moving forward. If he can't get in here and do these box squats, you do something else, you know? There are so many different paths to the goal, and I just want people to keep that in mind, man. So thank you for sharing that. CJ Quinney: Yeah, and I'll just share one thing, and I don't even know if I told you, but man, you said it to me awhile ago, and it just stuck with me. You said- you know, when I first kind of got on the journey, and I was going with it, and I would always be asking you about cheat days, and stuff like that. You looked dead at me and you said, "Yo, you can not out-exercise a bad diet." And that one sentence alone, it literally changed my life because I used to think like, "Oh man, if I could just- I could pig out and I'll just go super hard at the gym." And you said, "Man, you can't out-exercise a bad diet," and that stuck with me, man. And I take my diet very seriously. And you know, the crazy thing is, man, people think- it's not that I don't like burgers anymore, it's not that I don't love a deep dish pizza. Shawn, I'd eat a deep dish pizza every single night for the rest of my life if I could, but I have priorities now. That deep dish does not taste as good as it's going to feel seeing my daughter get married. That burger does not taste as good as it is going to feel to see my son get his college degree, alright? And so we all have those temptations. You have to make the decision what's the most important for you. Shawn Stevenson: Wow. Alright man, so you know what's crazy is that I wrote down for you to talk about folks who are saying, "I don't know what my gift is," and you just came- we got this vibe, man. We've got a vibe, this connection. CJ Quinney: I apologize. Shawn Stevenson: No, no, no this is good man, because you didn't know what in the world I was going to talk to you about, and I've never heard you talk about that before. But here's the thing, this is one of the reasons that we all got together, and we collaborated in talking about- even in this health space, man. There is information out there- there's infinite information, but what's transformative, you know? And so this is what you guys do, this is what I do, we make sure that the information is something that people that's really tangible, and that they can actually use it to change their lives. And so we've all gotten together and we're working together with Breathe University, and this is just an incredible outlet and resource, the community is amazing, and let's- I'm just going to pass it to you. Talk about Breathe University, and why people want to be involved with it. CJ Quinney: So of all the things that we've ever done, and we've traveled the world, and we've been in some pretty high profile places, and all of these things. Breathe University is the most special thing on the planet to me as it relates to the work we've done, because it was really birthed out of a very organic space. We would have people all the time who say, "ET, man I'm listening to your videos, I'm waking up early, and I'm doing this, but nobody in my family wants to do it, and everybody in my family thinks I'm crazy, and all my friends think I'm crazy. And I try to make them listen to the videos, and they don't want to listen, and so I get stuck because I'm in this space where I'm on fire and everybody else is cool around me, right? They're cooled off and so it's hard for me to keep that fire lit." And so we looked at each other and we said, "Man, we have got to build a community of like-minded individuals who want to get serious about their health, their finances, their families, their marriages. We've got to create a place where these like-minded people can come, for those people who don't have that support system that we need." And so we created Breathe University, and we didn't know what we were doing. We literally just kind of like put out a flat form and were like, "Hey come join us." And now, man, it has turned into a thriving community of individuals from all over the world, and I mean that, all over the world. There are countries from all over the world who participate in Breathe University, people from every country you can imagine, and it really is just a place of safety, it's a place of comfort, it's a place where people will push you. We have fitness challenges on there, we have- Shawn, you're obviously delivering quality content on there. We have financial workshops, we have marital workshops, we have everything you can imagine, and it's all this positivity in one space. Now we have people doing meetups in New York, and California, and Texas where they're coming together, and when we come into a city, we do dinner with them. It's just been incredible, man, to watch this community grow, and watch people who used to not have a network of positive people. You're not crazy because you're trying to be in shape. You're not crazy because you want to wake up and work out. You're not crazy because you want to have positive relationships. And now man, we've built this community that's just been incredible. People are getting jobs through Breathe University, people are- I think we're close to having our first marriage through Breathe University. It's just a positive thing, man. And it's just been incredible to watch the community grow. Obviously man, you're a huge part of that, and I want to say this really quick because I don't know if I'll have a chance to say it later. For you guys listening, a lot of times when you're listening to your favorite podcast, or you're listening to your favorite show, or you see your favorite - in Shawn's case - health expert, it's different when you meet them in person, alright? I can't explain it, but you know, they're a little standoffish, or maybe a little Hollywood. And we've met people from all over, and I remember thinking, "Man, I'm a big fan of this guy or this lady," and then you meet them and you're like, "Wow," it just breaks your heart because they're not who they said they are. I know you guys listening to Shawn, you love him and you probably don't need me to say this, but you guys are following the right guy. He literally is who he says he is. I've had a chance to go out to dinner with him and his family, I've had the chance to spend time with his wife and his sons. He is exactly who he says he is, and Shawn, I just want to appreciate the information and the authenticity and the amount that you actually care about your listeners is incredible. The time you put in, and I don't know if they all understand the level of commitment, but it has been inspiring for me to watch, and I'm just grateful to have you a part of our family as well, man. Kudos to you on everything that you do. Shawn Stevenson: Man, wow, I got the chills, man. Thank you so much. Man, that means the world to me, man. Thank you so much for taking a second to share that, man. Wow, so listen guys, this has been powerful beyond words, and this is just scratching the surface. There are so many other things I want to talk to you about, we'll have you back on, man. And by the way guys, so we're doing with Breathe U calls every week. ET is on the calls, I do about one call a month, I'm on there as well. Regularly on the Secret To Success Podcast as well. That's the only podcast that I'm like that. This is The Model Health Show, but then that's my family as well, so make sure to subscribe to Secrets to Success Podcast, but more so you need to be a part of Breathe U, man. I mean I've personally done courses in there for you. We've got a sleep course, we've got some nutrition 101 stuff, we've got courses on like speaking from E, finances, like so many incredible resources from the very best people on the planet. So let them know the URL to get connected. CJ Quinney: Yeah, www.BreatheUniversity.com. We are up and running as Shawn said. We have meetups, there's discounted tickets to live events, there's modules from Shawn, from ET, from myself, the branding workshops, there's marital calls that we're doing. There's just all kinds of positivity, man. So go to www.BreatheUniversity.com and we would love for you to rock with us. And this is again, not one of these things where Shawn and CJ and ET are talking about it, and then you get there and there's Mike, Greg, and Derrick, and you're like, "Where the heck are Shawn, CJ, and ET?" We are literally on the calls every single week, we're answering your questions directly. You can talk to Shawn. He does a question and answer segment. He could probably come on and do question and answer the whole time because everybody just loves to ask him questions. But you're actually on there building with us, man, and we would love to have you as a part of the community if you're serious about your health, if you're serious about just your faith, and just your family, and whatever it is, man. We would love to have more positive people, people looking to go to that next level. So www.BreatheUniversity.com, absolutely we'd love to see you there. Shawn Stevenson: Perfect, CJ, final question. What is the model that you're here to create with the way that you live your life personally? CJ Quinney: Yeah, I'm here to create the model of character. I just feel like in this world, man, I want to be a genuine person. I just want to have genuine relationships. There's so much posturing that goes on now, there's so much, "Hey who's got this? And who's got that?" And I just don't like it, man. And that's the reason I don't do a whole lot of podcasts, and shows, and stuff like that, because it's a lot of posturing and there's not a lot of authentic relationships. And so I'm here to leave a model for my kids that, "Hey, Dad did it the right way. I may not have been some billionaire, and living in a $500 million mansion, but he did things with integrity, he was a great honest man, and he never snaked anybody out of a dime." I want to leave that model behind, man, because I feel like unfortunately while it should be the norm, it's not. And you run into a lot of people who just aren't good people, man. So I just want to be a good human being, I want to have fun, I want to laugh, I want to live a great life, I want to enjoy time with my family, my wife, I want to help other people, and that's really what we're about. And so if I could leave that model behind, man, for my son, like I said whatever his superpower is, embrace that and just be a champion, man. So that's what I think I want to model. Shawn Stevenson: Perfect, CJ, you're the man. I appreciate you immensely. Thank you so much for coming on today, man. CJ Quinney: Thank you, brother. Shawn Stevenson: Awesome. CJ Quinney: Okay. Shawn Stevenson: Everybody, thank you so much for tuning into the show today. I hope you got a lot of value out of this. Man, I'm telling you, guys get connected with Breathe University ASAP because CJ does not play games. Like we're delivering the very best information on the planet, but in a way that has a lot of heart, you know? He just talked about character, and through and through, like I'm not kidding and I haven't shared this with him before, but every day he's part of my gratitude practice, you know? I give thanks for CJ being in my life. He's just such a great person, he's a stand-up guy, he goes to bat for everybody, and you know, he shows up. And they're really about excellence and execution. It was just really a kindred spirit connection for all of us to link up because you know, I don't cut corners, I really want to make sure that I'm serving at the highest level, and I know what's on the line, you know? And we're talking about being able to truly be the best version of you, you know? Whether that's in your health, whether that's in your career, whether that's in your relationship. I'm very committed to helping to introduce people to the fact that you can have it all, you know? We don't have to have a great sense of fitness and then struggle in our finances. We don't have to be in a situation where we've got a great relationship but we're struggling with our health and fitness, or we're struggling with a spiritual connection. Right? We're usually sacrificing one thing for the other because we're not connected to the right community, you know? And we're a direct reflection of that, the people that we're around, and so get yourself around CJ, get yourself around ET and the team. I promise you it's really going to up level your life. It's going to change the way that you think and you're going to start seeing some incredible results. And I've seen it firsthand personally, but also I've seen it in the community. It's crazy what people- I mean, amazing the stories that are coming out of the community with Breathe University. So huge fan of ET and the team, and I'm very grateful to have CJ on the show as well, and so we'll put links to everything, links to episodes we did with ET, to CJ's awesome book, the children's book, and we'll just cover all the bases. But remember most importantly, one of my big takeaways was seeing CJ make this physical transformation despite his circumstances, despite the injuries, despite traveling all over the place. He just made a decision to get well, he made a decision to take care of his body and his health to really show up and be there for his kids. His kids was the why that makes you cry, alright? We need to get tapped into that, you know? You need a bigger reason than, "I'm trying to impress Suzie Q." Alright? I don't know why I said Suzie Q. That's terrible, terrible reference. Isn't that like some kind of a Hostess snack? Suzie Q? Is that the one with the chocolate with the cream in the middle? So it's like a chocolate sandwich, right? Hostess. Hostess. I was straight addicted to the Hostess, alright? You get two Honeybuns for $0.99. Alright so right now we're the opposite Hostess, alright? It's The Model Health Show, baby. If you got a lot of value out of this episode, make sure to share it out with your friends and family, and of course you can tag me on social media as well. We've got some incredible shows coming up, so make sure to stay tuned. Take care, have an amazing day, and I'll talk with you soon. And for more after the show, make sure to head over to www.TheModelHealthShow.com. That's where you can find all of the show notes, you can find transcriptions, videos for each episode, and if you've got a comment you can leave me a comment there as well. And please make sure to head over to iTunes and leave us a rating to let everybody know that the show is awesome, and I appreciate that so much. And take care, I promise to keep giving you more powerful, empowering, great content to help you transform your life. Thanks for tuning in.