I sit down with Mr. Red Power Ranger and Carnivore Shredder himself, William Shewfelt. When you visit him on the Internet and see his shredded physique of 3.8% body fat, or striking a pose in his tight red Power Ranger outfit, you might form a superficial first impression that here’s another Hollywood poser but this show quickly proves that notion is wrong.
Alas, you are in for a wonderful treat on this show, as I became educated and inspired from an extremely poised, thoughtful, driven, focused, yet fun-loving young guy, and his charming girlfriend Chelsea who accompanied him. Only 23 years old, William offers profound insights about the importance of dreaming big and then executing with a relentless passion for living life to the fullest and breaking past your personal limits of what you believe is possible.
This is a guy who can quote Tony Robbins and the other motivators but then actually back up the aphorisms with a distinct plan of action. William believes there should be a balance of risk taken in life and how holding on to past traumas prevent you from achieving your goals. He firmly believes it’s not where you’ve been but where you’re going.
I talk about the origin of the Get Over Yourself theme and the importance of cultivating a pure motivation for peak performance, and these were lessons I had to learn the hard way over years of struggling and self-reflection as an athlete and with career pursuits. This dude has a lot of stuff figured out already – no kidding!
How can he go from disinterested economics student at UC San Diego to dabbling in local theater acting, to a starring role in a major television program in one year? By formulating an entirely evolved and bulletproof mindset that was all about focus, dedication, and “protecting your mindset” against the trials and tribulations and heartbreak that is endemic to the acting game.
I was truly inspired and motivated by absorbing his energy and positive attitude. We were supposed to talk about the carnivore diet, his body fat reduction programming, and other such boilerplate stuff, but I was too captivated to leave the thread of how a young person overcame an unhealthy youth to dream big and then execute according to plan every day.
Eventually, we transition our focus into diet and exercise, making for a great stand-alone show coming soon.
TIMESTAMPS:
William talks about setting his goal to become an actor and how it paid off. [09:39]
His advice to actors is just focus on what you are doing. [15:05]
What was the first step on his attaining his goal? [20:12]
If your goal is to become an actor, that needs to be your focus. [23:56]
Create a personal mission statement for yourself. [28:20]
William talks about how he tackled his insecurities and lack of confidence. [32:46]
The harder you work, the luckier you get. [34:59]
William went from vegan diet to Ketogenic diet to carnivore diet. [39:03]
There is great hope for the younger generation. They are smart and can get things done. [47:32]
There’s a statute of limitations on childhood trauma! [53:35]
LINKS:
- William Shewfelt
- The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.
- Compound Effect
- Chris Bell podcast
- Bigger Stronger Faster
LISTEN:
Get Over Yourself Podcast
Brad: 00:00 Welcome to the get over yourself podcast. This is author, an athlete, Brad Kearns, discovering ways to be healthy, fit and happy in hectic, high-stress, modern life. So let’s slow down and take a deep breath. Take a cold plunge and expertly balanced that competitive intensity with an appreciation of the journey. That’s the theme of the show. Here we go.
Brad: 03:54 This show is going to blow your mind. It’s with William Shewfelt, who is indeed a real life Power Rangers is the red suited one. He’s also a carnivore shredder dude with 3.8% body fat and an online program to get you shredded with the interesting and a little bit controversial carnivore diet. So he sent me a nice respectful pitch to get on the show. I’m like, sure, yeah, let’s hear about this carnivore thing. Let’s see how you got so shredded, very impressive website and I expected to sit down and talk about food choices and how grass fed beef and eggs make you feel good and lose body fat and all that great topic, and we did a whole show covering diet and strategies to reduce excess body fat. What’s this carnivore eating pattern all about? Very interesting research that some people are healing from autoimmune and inflammatory conditions.
Brad: 04:55 Shewfelt is pushing the aspect of dropping excess body fat through carnivore eating, but first we’re going to blow your minds here because I sat down with this young man, it’s only 23 years old and he blew my mind because he has such a poise and a focus and a competitive intensity about him that is directed in such a healthy and productive manner. I sat there with my mouth open and we talked for nearly an hour before we got into the diet stuff. Just about setting goals and executing them and having a vision for your life and putting these plans together and actually playing them out and carrying them out instead of just talking a good game and throwing out all these platitudes that we hear too much about on social media, on podcasts, in books, magazines, everywhere we look, people are crushing it and making us feel inferior because we’re not quite at that high level that they’re so to be at.
Brad: 05:58 That’s why my show is called get over yourself, man. Anyway, this guy is the real deal and his goal setting process and his rapid ascension into the extremely competitive world of acting will blow you away and get you so inspired. I left the show scribbling down a bunch of ways that my goals are falling short and my behavior patterns are compromising my great intentions and I got everything focused. Now this guy pumped me up. Listen to William Shewfelt on part one, an evolved perspective on dreaming big, staying focused and executing the plan to be healthy and productive. Here we go as fasten your seatbelt,
Brad: 06:41 William Shewfelt. Here we are man. It’s been a while. Some back and forth on the emails. We’ve made it happen. Chelsea came along for the ride. We’re so honored to have her. Your, your support crew here.
William: 06:52 Absolutely.
William: 06:53 So I guess are you, are you known as the, as the Red Power Rangers, is that your, is that your claim to fame here at this point besides all the other cool stuff?
William: 07:03 Yeah, that’s, I mean that’s kind of what I’m known for at this point. Um, playing the Red Power Rangers, so putting on some skin tight spandex and fighting rubber monsters. Um, it, it was a really, really fun experience. We spent nine months in New Zealand filming, we did 45 episodes. Um, and this is like, you know, this is a really great show on Nickelodeon and now we’re on Netflix. Um, and we got lucky enough to get nominated for two kids’ choice awards, which was fun. Um, so the show did well, it was the 25th anniversary of Power Rangerss, which crazy enough has been around since ’93 before I was born. Um, so I definitely remember growing up with it. One of the funnest experiences on that was we had a reunion episode where they brought back like the original Power Rangerss and we went on this mission with them and
Brad: 07:49 These old sorry ass fat guys. Like, hey, back when I was a ranger, they’re all cripple with walking with a cane because they did the cliff jumping scene on, on season seven. Oh my God. I mean,
William: 08:01 Luckily they were all in pretty good shape, which, which was great. I’m glad a lot of them. This is something that I didn’t know going into it, but after you do the show, you can literally make a living from going to conventions and doing these like autograph signings and pictures and things like that. So they were like, Yo, you gotta you gotta work that after you’re done. Oh son, you’ve got to work on your signature. That’s a little sloppy. Yeah. So that,
William: 08:25 that was a pretty fun experience doing an episode with them. Cause these are like people that you grew up with. Um, but yeah, so that was, that’s done now. And we finished airing our last couple episodes at the end of last year in like September or something like that. So yes, I’ve hung up the SPANDEX and I’m kind of moving onto more health and fitness goals at the moment.
Brad: 08:45 Well before we leave the Power Rangerss aside, what’s, what’s to come of them. Are they going to have a relaunching in a period of time or how’s that franchise gone for 25 years? Yeah. So they recently sold to Hasbro, which I think is going to be a great move for the company. Hasbro has done really well with a number of brands, so they have a new, uh, two seasons coming out and these are the beast mophers.. So as, as soon as we get old and washed up and you know, backaches, they kick us out and now they have these young kids coming in the beast morphers.
William: 09:16 Um, so these are going to be the next two seasons of Power Rangerss. So the show continues and I’ve heard that they want to reboot the movie. Um, they did this huge studio movie recently and I don’t think it went the way they wanted it to go. So I think they’re rebooting the movie and they’re going to do like another franchise with that. So we’ll see. But I know that they’re continuing with it and it’s a very enduring brand.
Brad: 09:39 So when you first, uh, you probably went to your first casting call and showed up and was there 87 other dudes that look just like you’re trying to become a Power Rangers? How did that, how did that work?
William: 09:49 That’s, that’s always the funniest experience. So I went to that and I remember like, I usually, I usually think like, oh, you know, like I’ll have to play some sort of a Latin pretty boy role or something like that. So I went there and it was just like 50 Latin pretty boys. I was like, damn, I’m just swimming among a huge pool here. Um, and all of these guys were wearing red. And I was like, oh, I had it. They were like doing their vision, their vision board. They had to show up in red. They were putting it out on keeping universe, all that affirmations in the bathroom. So I was like, okay, I decided to wear blue because blue is my favorite color and I think I look better in blue. Um, so I put blue on and I went through that and then we did, you know, screen tests and you do like the callbacks and stuff like that. And I always wore blue the whole time, but I wanted that red ranger role. Um, so luckily it worked out and I dunno, they, they got what I was putting off and I got the role of the Red Ranger. But yeah,
Brad: 10:47 Those casting calls or cattle calls. Right. I remember when I was training in triathlon, uh, Andrew McNaughton to my sidekick and we were competing on the circuit and training really hard and we were, you know, skinny little, little twerps because that’s what you look like when you’re, when you’re racing as an elite level professional. And we’d go to these calls in LA cause Andrew was in the acting scene and they needed a triathlete for a national commercial, which means you’re going to make a bunch of money. It could be awesome. You know, you could be drinking a coke and everyone watching you. And we’d go to the call and there were the biggest buffest rip city dudes sitting in there with their, you know, bike shorts that weren’t really bike shorts. They’re like spinning indoor gym shorts and popping out at these tank tops that you’d never wear if you were real cyclist.
Brad: 11:29 And we’d be sitting these two skinny guys in the corner. We had no chance because the casting is looking for some guy who’s all muscled out and then they’re going to call him a triathlete in the, in the commercial. So we’re like, what are we wasting our time on this for?
William: 11:41 Yeah. I think that cattle calls, so a lot of these castings, it’s like very open and pretty much anybody can go to them. Those are the ones they call cattle calls. Those are like, it’s, that’s a very discouraging experience if you have no plan with like you’re acting like if you’re going to these, I think a lot of actors fall into the trap of trying to get lucky or trying to get discovered. And that’s, I think that’s like, um, it, it just ruins your mentality. Like it’s very discouraging. I know so many people that have given up acting, you know, and they have these big dreams about it. And it was basically because of that experience. You go to a casting, you see all these people that look like you, and then you fail a number of castings. You don’t get called back. And then they’re like, oh, to hell with this. You know, like this isn’t worth it. Um, but I think you, you have to not take it personally. And the other thing is you have to have a very clear plan about like what you’re doing when you want to get it done by. Like, what’s your, what’s your mentality around the whole acting thing? If you don’t have a game plan, like it’s just, you’re taking blows every day and it’s not worth it, you know? Um, so I always tell people that are like in acting, protect your mentality, you know, protect your positive mindset, have goals, like have a game plan set and just execute on that.
William: 12:54 Don’t worry about the casting, you know, you don’t have to worry about whether you got the audition or not. Just focus on what you’re doing and do the best at that. It’s kind of like competing with yourself. And if you do that over time, you know, the results snowball and then things start to happen for you. And that was, that was kind of what happened with me. Like when I went into acting, I was an economics major at UC San Diego for, um, it’s about three years and I was going to be graduating soon, but I was so dissatisfied. I was doing internships. I know about your story with the KPMG internship. That was, no offense, KPMG, thank you for listening. If you’re one of the members of that fine firm, we just lost that sponsor option. Um, no, but I had had a similar experience where I would do these different internships and I was very, very dissatisfied, had never acted a day in my life, had no experience with it.
William: 13:43 But I, it was something I always wanted to do. I, I figured like, Oh man, you know, if like things never worked out, I’d probably go for that someday. But I finally realized like, look, you know, at some point you’re going to be on your death bed, you’re going to look back, you’re going to think anything was possible. So why didn’t, why didn’t I just do it? And that was pretty much my thought process. I was like, okay, I’m going for this thing. And I was like 20, 20 or 21 years old and I’m 23 right now. This wasn’t a long time ago. And I set a goal by the end of this year, I want to book the starring role on a major TV show, which is like ridiculous. And, and if had I told anyone, they would’ve laughed. But, um, I set that goal and I, I plan backwards from it.
William: 14:23 So it’s like, okay, what do I have to get done to make this happen? What are the key results? You have to get a great agent and you have to get, you know, good at acting. You have to get a great resume. You have to be,
Brad: 14:33 that’s a funny checklist dude. I love, yeah, I love it. I’m yet good at acting, working backward.
William: 14:41 Yes. So it was working backward and I just tried to extract whatever I thought the necessary qualities were. Um, and then I just set up a game plan for that. What do I do in six months, whatever I do in three months in one month this week, tomorrow. And then I just did that every day. And it was, it was a period of time where I had no social life. I had no, you know, it was only Chelsea and we see
Brad: 15:03 he was keeping busy.
William: 15:05 No, she loves that. She loves that I was at hermit for that whole year. Um, but yeah, so it was just a very, very focused year and I had to make certain sacrifices with like not hanging out, not having too much fun, but it was worth it. By the end of that year I booked the role in Power Rangerss and I had, you know, kind of started that snowball. So yeah, that’s long story short, that’s my advice to actors. Just focus on what you’re doing, you know.
Brad: 15:29 Well, acting especially seems like there’s so many people who are trying quote end quote to make it instead of having this commitment. And I, I’ve talked to Andrew about this too, where he says Mo, most of the people who are trying or not, not talented or not working hard enough, and it’s sort of a dismissive comment, but if you’re waiting tables and partying a little bit and hitting the, hitting the waves in San Diego or, or you know, trying to integrate this lifestyle where you, you wish and hope for success, especially in acting is when you’re going to get your ass kicked. Just like you described. That’s a fantastic insight that you plan backwards from. And it sounds dreamy to say it now and you may be, people are dismissing what you just said because you got so lucky out of that casting call, but how many of those 87 people that tried out for Red Power Rangers went about it in that manner rather than crossing their fingers and getting an expensive haircut and then heading to the casting call?
Brad: 16:24 Yeah. It’s not that your haircut’s not expensive.
William: 16:27 No, it’s not expensive. I cut my own hair. It’s funny that you say that. Um, but yeah, it’s, I always think like everybody has 24 hours in a day. You know, Bill Gates does, Oprah does, you know, all whatever successful person you want to look at. So if you can productively spend those 24 hours in your day, um, and being productive, I mean, being productive can even be relaxing when you need to relax, you know, like taking care of your yourself. You know, if you burn yourself out, that’s not productive when you spend an entire week then laying around cause you’re so exhausted. So if you take care of yourself and you’re spending those hours very quality, um, I think that that’s the best thing to worry about, you know, or not to worry about, but to focus on, um, with, with the Power Rangerss thing, it was like, you know, people, they think too competitively and they’re looking at everybody. We had 10,000 people audition for this show around the world. It’s, it’s a huge casting and they search for, you know, who’s the next young person we can get and they can do the martial arts and they can do this and that. And all these things, but I never focused on that. I actually have a picture for when I got the first email about the audition and I immediately had this picture of the Red Ranger with like William Shewfelt as the Red Ranger, which is like most people would tell you like, don’t set your hopes up like that cause you might get really disappointed, but it’s okay to be disappointed, you know, and it’s okay to fail, but at least give it everything you have, I think.
Brad: 17:52 Yeah. Christopher Smith, my speed golf guru, champion world world champion Speed Golfer and a top teacher in in golf. He says most golfers go out there and their, their goal on that day is to shoot a good score or or play really well and these goals that are nonspecific, the brain doesn’t lock in as well. Then you just put an example of Tiger Woods last weekend in San Diego. He was out of contention, right? But he’s known for being one of the great grinders on tour when even when he’s not going to win, he’s trying super hard on every shot. And you can see the intensity when you follow him on the course. And they said, what, what’s your goal today? On Sunday? He’s not going to win. He’s too far behind. He goes, I want to get into double digits in terms of under par he was five under, at the start of the day.
Brad: 18:35 What did he shoot on Sunday five under? So he ended up at double digits exactly as he verbalized to the, the media beforehand. And I think we have to sort of make a transformation in our mindset to even understand what you’re talking about there. That this, this, this dorky economic student wrote on a, on a card that he’s going to play that role. How stupid, how lame, uh, how, uh, unrealistic. But it’s, I want everyone to pause and reflect on this deeper insight that your, your act of doing that was backed up by intense, uh, focus and intention that you were actually gonna make that happen. It didn’t say wishing to play Red Power Rangers, you just put it out there. Then you had, then you had to go get it. And I know people struggle with that execution part. So we should actually probably ask you like, you know, what was that first step that you took when you were frustrated doing economic internship and then awakened to this dream of acting? How did you, how did you execute the plan?
William: 19:34 I want to say one quick thing about what you just said about setting a vague goal. The brain does not lock onto that. So if it’s vague and if it’s small, none of those two things excite you. But if it’s very specific and if you set a big goal that actually lights you up, that passion can drive you through so much and you don’t, you no longer see the hard work is like you get up in the morning and you’re like, God damn, I have so much to do today. You get up and you’re excited because you know every step you’re taking, it’s getting you one step closer to your goal. So every action is meaningful and it’s all worth it, and you want this goal, it’s something that really lights you up and it can’t just be any specific and big goal.
William: 20:12 I think that you really need to focus on what’s in your heart and what you truly desire. Um, and I, I mean, just, you know, that goal really got me going. So in terms of the first step, the first step for me, there were a couple of different things that I did. For one, I was like, okay, if I’m going to get into acting, I have to look as good as I possibly can. Um, and I used to deal with severe acne. I was out of shape, I had all kinds of issues, but I said, okay, so I have to be on a diet and I’m going to have to do a workout program. So I set up that sort of habit. I needed to ensure that I was, um, effective and efficient daily. So I set up a daily routine of getting up at 4:00 AM and I would be listening to these like motivational, you know, Tony Robbins, Darren Hardy, whoever. I could get my hands on, Jim Roan. I’d be just pumping my mind full of this stuff and I would go to the gym. I’d work out, um, I would make this absolutely disgusting Vegan Green smoothie. I was Vegan for like four years. Um, so I would make this smoothie, I would drink it, choke that down. Um, and then I would go about my work for the day. And the first real step I think was getting into a production. So I looked at what I had around me and there was a great theater program at UC San Diego. We have an MFA program there. So, uh, we have a playhouse and there are plays going on all the time. So I said, okay, I can get into a play.
William: 21:34 That’s a good first step. So I went to audition first play audition for, it was like, no,
Brad: 21:38 the actors are going, God damn. What is this guy? A playhouse that you see San Diego. I’ve been in Hollywood for 12 years, busting my butt and getting into the most prestigious things. Keep going on your story.
William: 21:51 Um, so we had this playhouse and I decided to audition for a play and at the same time I’m trying to do everything else that I possibly can. So they’re short films at SDSU down the road. So I’m trying to get into short films there. Um, to get into anything an audition you need headshots. So I got some head shots done and then I started, um, you can actually self submit yourself for a lot of casting calls and things like that on actors access on La Casting, on casting frontier.
William: 22:19 There’s all these websites. So I put all my headshots up. I was self submitting myself for everything every single day. Um, and I would skip a bunch of classes and drive to La and audition for these. And then I would barely come back in time for rehearsals at night. And then somehow I was supposed to do homework and that didn’t happen sometimes. Um, so I would, I would be doing all of these different things, but you just, you start with where you are and with what’s around you and you just kind of brainstorm like, okay, I could submit myself for that stuff. Um, there’s plays going on, I’m going to do short films, I’m going to do these nonunion commercials, I’m going to do, um, just everything around me. And you build that up and then you create yourself a resume. You create yourself, um, an acting reel and then you create yourself a website and you sort of promote yourself in that way.
William: 23:04 And then once you have that package, you go reach out to agents. He pitch agents. I got signed up with a Shaman Frietas agency in San Diego, which is like the preeminent San Diego Agency. And I started working with them. They’re the ones that got me that Power Rangerss audition. Um, so it was just a snowball and I like, I started with nothing enacting. Um, so this, this shows people that I think anything you want to do, you know, there, there are different prices that you have to pay. You might have to work longer, you might have to work harder, this might take a lot longer. Um, but for me, uh, I mean it took a year so it took some time. But, um, I was putting in as much time as I could possibly put in every single day and I would end, you know, each day exhausted had I worked half as hard, it might’ve taken, I don’t think it would’ve taken double the time.
William: 23:52 I think it might’ve taken five years or 10 years, you know? Yeah.
Brad: 23:54 Or never or never.
William: 23:56 Right. That’s the other thing that never thing I decided when I got into it that if I pursued acting for the rest of my life and I, and I never achieved it, I was okay with that. So that sort of a crazy mentality about like, I have to do this thing, like I have to give this a shot, you know, like you don’t know if you don’t know, like just give it a shot. You never know what could happen. And it was that sort of crazy mentality, probably fueled by a bunch of, um, you know, personal development and self help literature that I was just like, all right, let’s do this.
Brad: 24:30 That’s heavy man for it. It was pretty 23 year old, 46 year olds listening right now going to shit. I, Hey, I ain’t figured that out yet. But that’s, you know, that’s actualizing all this, all this, all this talk that was going into your brain because we’ve all heard the talk, we’ve all heard the, you know, the secrets to success and the aphorisms and all that. But then then backing that up with commuting up and down the five to go to tryouts and then go back to theater rehearsal. Um, you, you were locked in with, with all, you know, all cylinders including the mindset as well as the physical execution of it every day.
William: 25:09 That’s what it has to be. Um, so you have all these variables in front of you. You know, you have your personal work ethic, you have your mindset, you have your health and your energy. You have the opportunities around you all the time. And if you take advantage of every single opportunity around you every single day and you’re, you’re laser focused on what you need to get done and what your goals are, I think it’s a matter of time, you know, it might not happen soon or it might happen soon, but like you can’t leave any stone unturned when you’re doing that sort of thing, especially if it’s as risky as acting. I used to, when I first moved to LA, I would see so many friends that were enacting and they were hanging out. They would smoke weed are at, you know, oh, let’s go out to dinner or let’s go have some drinks.
William: 25:49 Let’s, let’s go do this and that. And it’s like, you’re in like the riskiest, most difficult profession. And meanwhile, doctors are working for 10 years, you know, to try to make that career happen. And you’re working, you know, a quarter of the amount of work they’re putting in. Um, and you’re hardly working at this thing and it’s so much more difficult. You know, like it’s, it’s so based on luck and whether things work out and stuff. So it’s like how could you not really devote yourself to this? Um, so yeah, I think just a lot of people aren’t that serious about it and I’m not telling everybody that like, I don’t think this lifestyle, that sort of mentality is for everybody. I really don’t. I think that there are a lot of people that you need to look for fulfillment and if you’re fulfilled with the job that you’re working in and you love your family and you have a great home and you have a great lifestyle, you don’t need to suddenly say, I need to be the CEO of this company and let me just forget about everything.
William: 26:47 And now my marriage is going to suffer. Now my energy is going to suffer. I’m not going to spend as much time with my kids and stuff like that. I’m very aware that there are trade offs with this stuff. So for me at the time, I was a single young man with a lot of energy and I was driven by passion and purpose to do this thing. And I did it. So I don’t think that everybody at every stage in their life has to think this way. I’m just saying that to achieve that in the time I did in the stage of life that I was in, that’s what I had to do. Um, yeah,
Brad: 27:15 right. And you better, you better find out very clearly who you are and, and, and be true to your basic nature because I think we have a lot of dreaming going on and a lot of, uh, social media programming that’s trying to convince you that you’re not enough where you are right now and you should dream bigger and do all these great things. But if that’s not what you’re all about and you’re more, uh, less risk tolerant and things of that nature. My cousin Babby’s a therapist and she says like, you know, maybe the people in the creative arts are willing to tolerate higher highs and lower lows than someone who wants to work in a, uh, a stable longterm career where they, they know they can count on. They’re working in it as a public servant and looking at a, a pension and, and a career track that’s very linear and reliable. Uh, and then what you said earlier that you were willing to act for the rest of your life and not make it that that’s the kind of guy that’s going to be picked one out of a thousand that has a chance. But I think the people that are dreaming and hoping for that break, that’s a, that’s a tough way to go, like you said.
William: 28:20 Yeah. And I think that’s where a lot of the disappointment and like the, the heartbreak sets in with those sort of things. Um, but it’s, it’s just, I think one good way to look at it in terms of like, what, where am I in life and what am I willing to sacrifice? And this was something that, uh, this was pretty influential in my life as well. But it’s in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. There’s a personal mission statement that you create for yourself and you just, you really just still like who you are at that point in time. What are your values, you know, what are your talents? What do you enjoy doing? What is sort of an ideal day look like for you? If your, I think it was like your hundredth birthday or 85th birthday and um, you know, like who’s there, you know, who do you want to be surrounded by?
William: 29:04 What do you want to have done at that point in your life? And when you answer those questions, suddenly a whole lot becomes clear to you. Like, oh, okay, the direction I’m going in right now is not going to get me to that 85 year old that I would like to be. Or, you know, it’s not in alignment with my current values in the kind of things that I would like to do or it’s not using any of my talents. That would be terrible. If you’re in a profession that doesn’t make use of any of your talents, and I think that you’ll be a lot more successful in a profession that does make use of your talents and especially one that you like to do. So taking the time out to do those things. And like we, we talk about that and I know so many people are to listen to this and they may, you know, maybe I’ll go check out seven habits.
William: 29:45 So that can be kind of cool personal mission statement, but it’s one of a hundred things I have to do and I’ll just go get groceries and then I’ll probably, you know, watch that new show I’m trying to finish tonight. But it’s like if you do that thing, you might change the next 20 or 25 years of your life forever. It’s that impactful. So those little decisions when that voice in your head says, Hey, you should check that book out. Hey, you should probably write down what are your goals? Or what are your passions? What are your values? Listen to that voice and do that because that’s, man, it’s, it’s so critical. I tell people so many times like you got to do those things. You need to self invest, you need to learn something new everyday. You need to be reading every day. You need to protect your mindset and you can’t really let any of those things down.
William: 30:29 It’s all these balls that we’re trying to juggle, but I think they’re equally important.
Brad: 30:33 I think I’m going to title the show. Protect your mindset. Yeah, that’s, that’s, that’s a huge success factor. And then when you’re talking about doing these little things everyday, I’m thinking of Art DeVany, the Oh time Paleo fourth father and also made his career as a master of Hollywood economics was the first person to try to analyze what could make a movie successful or not. And one of the great insights he shared on a podcast long ago, it’s one of the best podcasts I’ve ever heard on ancestral living and weaving in these economic principles. And he said that, um, I forget what the official title was, but it was this like this chaotic theory of economics where, um, success doesn’t usually happen in a steady drip by drip manner. But it happens with an explosive break. In your case where you got, you got the Gig and then you’re off and running, and I referenced that in the athletic world too, where you make these breakthroughs or you click one day and everything works and you’ve been working so hard and frustrated and having setbacks and then you have these, these breakthroughs. And he was referencing this theory as applied to all areas of life. So if you see a girl that you have your eye on and she’s in the elevator three times and you’re too shy to ask her to say hi, you know, you have to, you have to pounce and go for these rare opportunities because they might never happen again and then you, you won’t. You’ll just being living in what if forever.
William: 31:53 Yeah. There’s a book I like called The Compound Effect and it says basically the same thing, but that these little actions compounded over time, don’t, you know, it’s not the sum of the days, but it’s like you have this exponential curve with those sort of things where one day it just suddenly takes off. I remember Napoleon Hill used to say, um, it’s like when, when riches come, they’ll come so fast and so furious that you’ll wonder where they were hiding all the lean years. But like, you have to have faith and obviously if you stop right before you get there, you know that breakthrough might be the next day. So if you stop, you would never achieve that. You would never reach that level. And that’s what you have to have something that you commit to because if you don’t commit to it and you’re just doing it, fair weather, and you know, if it works out, it works out. And I hope this goes well. Um, that’s not going to push you through those tough times when you’re like, damn, you know, I’m, I’m really down on my luck right now.
Brad: 32:46 So we mentioned, uh, the luck in, in the, in the acting game especially, uh, we, we know there’s a talent factor and now I’m not, I’m not asking you to be the ultimate arbiter of how, who makes it in Hollywood and who doesn’t. But you know, in, in reflection on your, your brief and meteoric rise, I’d say, um, where do those elements fall in? I mean, are you making your own luck it sounds like? Or did you, and another question is, did you have some innate talent that you discovered right away whereby your story makes a little more sense than the next economic student at UC San Diego who’s bored in class and wants to go down to the playhouse? Hmm.
William: 33:29 I think if I have any
Brad: 33:30 Being a good looking Latin pretty boy with a six pack, You know, beyond that .
William: 33:37 Well see even that I, I wouldn’t call that a talent and I wouldn’t even say that’s necessarily who I am because I can show you pictures of when I had severe acne. And like when I say severe, it’s probably the worst of anybody I’ve ever seen. Every inch of my face was covered in this and I, I had such low self confidence that I couldn’t look people in the eye or I remember after church I would walk straight to the car and sit in the car and wait for my family to leave just so that I didn’t have to interact with anybody. Like it was that same guy that said, man, I know I have so much more, but I, I like, I need to create this, I’m going to have to get in shape, I’m going to have to take care of whatever this skin issue is. I’m, I’m going to have to do all of these things. So like I, I wasn’t just born in like, I know a lot of people just seem to have certain things come easy to them. That’s why I know so much about diet and that’s why I’m like so passionate about health and fitness because I had to solve my own problems with that. Um, so I think if I have any talent, it would be, um, just the, the foolishness to make myself uncomfortable so often. Um, there are some times when like, I’m going to an audition or on public speaking or something like that, and I’m like, damn, this doesn’t feel good. Why do I always do this to myself? Like I just can’t learn. Um, but if I, if I stay away from that sort of risk taking for too long, I feel like I’m out of the game and then I start to crave it again.
William: 34:59 So I think maybe that’s the only talent, um, that I would say that I was kind of born with is, you know, just the ability to make myself uncomfortable, deal with the butterflies, and like enjoy that. Um, but in terms of like talent and getting lucky, I completely subscribe to the old philosophy of the harder you work, the luckier you get. Um, and yeah, so it’s like, obviously you don’t have control over luck. You don’t have control over what decisions other people are going to make. All you have control over is what’s in your sphere of influence and what you can do. So if you’re concerned about luck, you know, what’s the point? Like, you can’t do anything about it. All you can do is increase your own chances of getting lucky, which that’s great. That’s, that’s stuff you can do. Like perfect. You can get your hands on this.
William: 35:46 Now you can figure out what am I doing every hour of the day, what do I need to do to get closer to this goal? Like what can I take action on? And the more you start to work on this stuff, your mind really starts to work in your favor and it gives you little ideas, oh, try this, try that, contact this person. Why don’t you try this? And all of a sudden it’s like, you know, I don’t know if it’s God or if it’s just like your, your imaginations coming up with things, but you get these little ideas and opportunities and you execute on them. And it’s like, wow, that was the thing that I needed. You know, had I not done that like crap, I wouldn’t have, I wouldn’t have gotten this next opportunity or that one. So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s like you pick up momentum as you’re working.
Brad: 36:25 You think there’s a lot of folks out there that are embodying all these peak performance principles and they’re not, they’re not partying and goofing off. They’re working really hard trying to make it as an actor and still waiting for a break. I mean, uh, what’s it look like out there?
William: 36:42 I think that, Ooh, that’s, that’s tricky. Cause I always like to say, well there’s more you can do. There’s always more you can do. So I think that yes, there are people that are very far into that journey and haven’t gotten their break yet. I wholeheartedly believe that. But on that journey, so you’re on a journey and there is a destination, you can always pick up the pace. So I think that you can always try to do more, um, and doing more. It doesn’t have to be this frenzied, you know, just hair raising, constantly stressing yourself out kind of thing.
William: 37:16 Um, one of the guys I, I love listening to this podcast Mark Bell, but he, he always talks about do more, be more. So the more you do, you eventually become acclimated to doing more and it’s easier for you to do. You develop better management systems, you develop, develop better habits. And then I feel like once you start to do really well on your own, like you start to develop a team and there are people around you that can help out with some of their responsibilities. So I think that, you know, if you’re on that path and you’re working really hard at these things, put a little more on your plate and see if you can handle that. And it’s like progressive overload with weightlifting. Um, over time, you know, you definitely can bench 500 when you start out, but if you don’t add five pounds to the bar every week or every month, or whatever your progression model is, you’ll never get up to 500 pounds.
William: 38:03 You never wake up one day and you’re like, this is the day 500 pounds. But there has to be, you know, a slow, incremental increase. Um, and you’re slowly doing more over time and then you can do that. So that’s, that’s what I would say to people that are on that journey and that feel like, damn, why hasn’t it happened yet? Don’t focus on like, it hasn’t happened yet. Focus on what more can I do. And if you’re always thinking like, what more can I do? I think you’ll speed up your trajectory.
Brad: 38:29 Yeah. Jason Bateman talked to him on the, see the sag awards recently. He didn’t, he got his award and he, if you’re out there working hard, keep going man. Cause you know, um, he, he was referencing, I think he had a 10 year dry spell in his career where he was just, you know, on the sidelines after being a teen actor. Um, and I also maybe would put in a plug for you, you mentioned in one of your comments that adaptability and trying new things and being flexible. Cause I think some people are working really hard. They’re pounding their head against the wall and they might need to change course.
William: 39:03 Yeah, I agree with that. That’s, that’s something that, uh, I think I’m a testament to like having done Power Rangerss. I was so passionate and I was so interested in health and fitness and the whole health and fitness space and the difference that it had in my life. Like what it did for me was just unbelievable. And I thought this is something that other people need to know about because going from like four years of whole foods plant based Vegan to a ketogenic style diet and then, uh, now for the past a year and a half, a carnivore ketogenic style diet, um, my health, it’s like I can’t tell people how good it is and when I tell people about how I feel and what it does for you, it sounds like a magic pill or like I’m overselling something, but it’s like, no, really. Like I can stay lean and strong and ripped and I’m not hungry all day and I have tons of energy and like it tastes great, the food tastes great.
William: 39:52 Um, so I was really passionate about that and I think that sometimes you do have to set new goals that something that Arnold Schwarzenegger was great at there. There’s some things he was amazing at and there’s some things he wasn’t great at. But one thing he’s amazing at is this guy knows how to point and set a direction and go in that direction and he doesn’t stay in the same direction all the time. Once he achieved something, he says, okay, where do I want to go now? I don’t have to just keep peddling in the same direction or you don’t always have to one up your last performance. You could say, okay, now instead of, you know, just going bigger and better with this, is that what I want to do? Or is that just for the gratification of my ego? Or is that just to impress society or my parents or whoever I’m doing this for?
William: 40:33 Whatever the chip on my shoulder is. If you just recenter and say, no, no, no, what do I wanna do? What do I really want to get done? Um, that can lead you to, I think, a lot more fulfillment. The craziest thing is the happiest year of my life was this past year. Um, and this past year it was completely spent building an online fitness business, um, going on podcasts, you know, working on this new podcast that I have with Chris, um, spent writing. It was spent working on, you know, health and fitness and all of these different goals and it wasn’t acting. And I was thinking, this is crazy. Why is that? And the first reason was Chelsea actually removed a lot of limitations around what I thought I could do. So, you know, she would, she would say stuff like, she likes to challenge me a lot.
William: 41:21 And she would be like, oh, why don’t you start a youtube? And I’d be like, no, no, no. I’m an actor. Like, like, I’m not doing youtube. I act so man, that’s so like hottie and like snotty. But so I’d be like, no, no, no. I’m not going to start a podcast. She’d be like, why don’t you start a podcast? Nah, I’m, I’m an act. I need to focus on what I’m doing. And I’d realize like, wait a minute, I’m limiting myself. Like I would love to do youtube. I would love to start a podcast, like I love podcasts. Um, you know, and she’s like, why don’t you, why don’t you do this? Why don’t you do that? And I realized like, I’m stopping myself from doing all of these things because I’m trying to present a certain image for a number of people and I want to remain consistent with that image.
William: 41:59 I don’t want people to think, oh, he was an actor and now what’s he doing? You know? And Oh no, what are they thinking of me? Um, after a while it was like, well, to hell what they think about me. Like I’m the one living my life. I have to live with the results of, you know, my own choices. So it really like removed a lot of the limitations around my mentality and I just started going for these different things and I had so much fun. This past year was amazing. It was the best year of my life. So yeah, it’s like the pinnacles aren’t always as amazing as you think they would be. When I was doing the Power Rangers show, I wasn’t that happy every day. It’s a damn lot of work, you know, like you’re onset 6:00 AM and you get offsets a 6:00 PM and you know, you’re learning your lines every day and it’s a continuous grind in the hustle.
William: 42:46 Um, it was still an amazing experience, but you know, those pinnacles aren’t always what you expect, but they do teach you something important when you get to them. So I, I don’t think abandon them, but learn the lesson once you get there.
Brad: 42:59 So I wonder, you can do, uh, what do you envision are you going to be melding the acting passion with your health passion in some way? What’s your future look like?
William: 43:11 My current goals are to continue with some,
Brad: 43:14 you have some goals going.
William: 43:16 Oh, surprisingly I have a couple of goals. Um, so my current goals are to, uh, complete this book that I’m working on. I’m currently working with doctor Ted Naiman and we’re trying to put together a book on optimal health and what approach we think that the average person can take. You know, the average person that works a full time job and you know, has a family and has kids and doesn’t have a whole lot of time to put into having the perfect diet and you know, like spending an hour or two at the gym every day.
William: 43:45 So how can we really democratize this for everyone? So you don’t need a gym membership, you don’t have to spend a bunch of money on this and it’s not really time consuming. So working on that book, I’m building this online fitness business, really building up this podcast that I’m working on with Chris. Um, that’s, that’s been really, really fun so far.
Brad: 44:03 This is Chris Bell. Yes. Documentarian. Tell us a little bit about the podcast.
William: 44:07 So the podcast is better, stronger, faster, which is like an evolution from bigger, stronger, faster. So we call it the performance enhancing podcast, a make of that what you will. But, um, we’re essentially looking at performance enhancement in terms of your business, uh, your lifestyle, your fitness, your diet, um, your mindset. Just holistically. I’m really trying to enhance the quality of your life. And Chris and I like we have a lot of similar interests. A lot of people would think that, you know, he’s, he’s twice my age and this guy’s a very successful documentary filmmaker, but we have so much in common. Um, we’ll nerd off talking about, you know, old school wrestling for hours. Um, so
Brad: 44:50 if you haven’t heard of him, this is the, he was, he was noted for his, uh, documentary about steroid use.
William: 44:56 Yes. TThat was bigger, stronger, faster. They can go and look that up. And he was deep into that world with his brothers and all into the power and lifting and pretty heavy show and it’s, it’s still being talked about is, um, kind of a kind of a breakthrough and just exposing what that scene was all about.
William: 45:12 Yeah, bigger, stronger, faster was huge. He did trophy kids. He did. Um, what was the other one? Prescription Thugs. He recently came out with the leaf of faith, so he does a lot of these, it’s almost like fringe topics that a lot of people don’t talk about. And then he brings it to the limelight and you’re like, whoa. You know, that’s, it’s really powerful the way he tells a story. Bigger, stronger, faster. I actually, our biology teacher showed us that in high school, so I watched that in high school and I was so inspired by seeing that, that I wrote an article for the school newspaper about how the steroid danger is overly demonized by the media. And a friend sent me that article just the other day and he’s like, Shewfelt It hasn’t changed. And I sh I sent it to Chris and I was like, dude, this is what you made me do. Um, so it’s, it’s really crazy and like full circle to now be doing a podcast with him and, and a lot of, um, a lot of the guys we’re going to be talking to on this podcast, we’re bringing on our favorite wrestlers, our favorite people in the Diet Space, um, entertainers we’re bringing on, you know, just a lot of different perspectives. So we’re trying not to get stuck in maybe the Keto space, maybe the self-help space, maybe the, you know, entertainment space, but just to try to bring everything full circle.
Brad: 46:29 So we have this, uh, incredible sense that, um, you’re, you’re on a different path than maybe the average 23 year old with these peak performance attributes and your whole story of, uh, you know, taken on these goals and I’m wondering what you see out there in your peer group. I’m in a different peer group than you and I can, I can talk about dudes in their fifties who want to stay in shape a little bit but also accelerate their career because they’re seeing a sunset, but they are dealing with this and dealing with that and evolving roles as parents and empty nesters and all that. But uh, and looking at the, uh, right, the parent. Are you a millennial or what’s your, what’s your status? And then tell me what you see, uh, around you in terms of the cultural trends. I’m, I’m been concerned about the helicopter parent trend because I’ve, I’m a parent of kids who are now adults and um, boy, there was some momentum and some, some energy out there that was disturbing and something that I strove to kind of guard against or to fight back against. But what’s, what’s your opinion of what your peers are up to and all that?
William: 47:32 Hmm. So I, I think I’m a millennial 23 so that’s 1995. I think that, yeah, I think that’s a millennial. Um, what I see in terms of my peer group and our generation, to be honest, I’m actually very encouraged by the direction that they’re heading in. A lot of the peer group that, that I have and like the people I know, um, they’re very well educated. Like it’s, it’s shocking how smart young kids are nowadays. And I mean obviously there are huge detractors to being on your iPad all day and the way that kids are raised, I do think they need to get outside and they need to get off devices and they need to actually have a childhood. But when I talk to my little siblings, like I feel stupid. They, they are so astonishingly smart.
William: 48:16 And the same goes for Chelsea’s little siblings. She, she has, you know, little siblings the same age as mine. Um, they’re crazy smart. So you realize like, wow, they’re, they’re like, these kids are like cyborgs. They grew up with these devices pretty much as a part of their brain. They know how to access information so well and they’re exposed to so much information. So that part of things I am encouraged by, and I think that maybe one of the things that my generation is lacking is perhaps the fortitude and the execution that the older generation had. Um, like my dad’s generation, my mom’s generation, um, there was a grittiness and a resolve that I think when you have everything at your fingertips, especially in, you know, America, especially in a first world country where, you know, you have so much convenience and it’s almost like a life of luxury.
William: 49:06 We really do live in very, very good conditions compared to, you know, hundreds of years ago. So when you have those kinds of things, it doesn’t necessarily callus your mind. It doesn’t necessarily toughen you up for certain things. So I think that that’s why execution might be suffering a little bit in this generation. And if they could simply combine, um, you know, the ability to dream and to want great things and to be so knowledgeable, they’re so damn smart, uh, with that execution and working hard, I think that it’s a really, really bright future.
Brad: 49:38 I wonder what the, the parent can do to facilitate that. Cause I’m, you know, reflecting on some of these occasions I had through my, my kids, uh, and you know, formative years, like, you know, I get a text, dad, uh, I need a ride. Gee, pick me up now. Or you know, uh, I forgot my shoes. Can you bring them over to the high school and meet me in, in five minutes? Oh, sure. You know, and I remember like days in my youth where we didn’t have a ride, you know, our friend bailed and we were nine miles away from home and it was late at night. Our parents were asleep. They didn’t care. They weren’t like monitoring us with GPS. And we had to like navigate the, the cruel world out there to, to figure out a way home or whatever example you want to put where things were a little bit rougher around the edges and it, it honed some of these skills that are completely, uh, you know, atrophy today.
William: 50:30 It, I obviously have no experience being a parent, but I think it probably has something to do with instilling or allowing your kid to fail and allowing your kid to fall down every now and then, but be able to get back up and to simply, if you trust them and if you think like, Hey, this kid is great and they’re going to be able to handle themselves, I think they can feel that and they will, they’ll begin to create that self confidence within themselves. But if it’s constantly babying them, if it’s constantly like doing everything for them and you basically incapacitate them, it’s like putting a cast on your arm or on your foot and over time it’s just going to atrophy like you said. So you know, obviously you have to manage these risks. Don’t throw your kid out into the ghetto and say like, come back home, you know, let’s see how you do or do, I don’t know.
William: 51:18 Um, but you know, like you have to manage how you want to expose them to these risks, but exposing them to no risks I think is really, really dangerous. So yeah, the, there has to be a balance of that. And my mom was the biggest in terms of, so she, she parented actually kind of differently than the way I said, but it worked out. Like we all did fine, but she protected us a lot. She was very much like this strong, like General Patton kind of mom. Um, she, she protected us so much and she didn’t want to expose us to a lot of, you know, kind of the bad things in the world, this strict Catholic catechist. Um, but the one thing that she did that I really, really liked was she instilled in us like almost unrealistic self confidence. Anything, anything that we would say that we wanted to do or we could do, she’d be like, Oh, you can do bigger than that.
William: 52:08 Like, you can definitely do that, you know? So she instilled this confidence that I still have when I go into things like just thinking like, oh, I got this. Um, and that, that comes from her telling us that all the time. And then you start to think, oh, I think I am pretty capable. Like I probably can do this. So that’s, that’s something that I would encourage parents to do. But I’m a, I’m a couple, you know, a couple years away from that. So Chelsea is grinning at me. Why are you going to get me? Do you know something? I don’t. Um, so I’m, I’m still a ways away from being a parent and I guess I’ll, there’s probably a ton of lessons to be learned once I get there. So.
Brad: 52:42 Wow, an interesting insight. I know you can obviously go overboard and pat your kid on the back every five seconds and say that they’re the most wonderful, talented, uh, Eh, naturally gifted athlete. Why aren’t, why didn’t they get selected for the a team instead of the C team on 10 year old soccer league? And you see that happening where the kid is the center of the universe. But the difference between just that continuing to expand your perspective as a kid and make that that back, that comment back saying, oh, why don’t you try think of something bigger than that that has, that has a huge impact. And you know, in contrast we have everyone carrying their stories around where you know, even the slightest bit of discouragement from the parent or that, you know, type of a parenting treatment can have lifelong scars because the, the, the impact is so profound of everything that your parent does and says,
William: 53:35 yeah, there was a, a documentary I was watching recently from Quincy Jones and I loved his philosophy on this cause I was thinking, you know, unconditional love and having great parents is one of the biggest gifts you can ever receive in your entire life. It sets you up so well and it just starts you off so far ahead that I’m like, man, how do some people come back from behind? Like how is that done? Cause that’s pretty damn tough. You know, we’re not all starting from the same spot, but Quincy Jones said that there is a statute of limitations on all childhood trauma. And he says at some point you have to solve your problems and get over it. And I thought, damn, cause he, so his mother had, um, she had some severe mental issues and she was very violent. And I think his father, his father did a pretty good job raising them, but he grew up in like the ghettos and you know, he got beat up and he had an icepick stuck through his hand when he was only like five years old cause he was in the wrong part of town.
William: 54:31 Like those kinds of things. But he was able to get over this very, very tough Chicago upbringing and you know, obviously make good and, and he’s lived an amazing life and the guy is still going and the guy works like a workhorse man. He’s, he’s almost like 90, I think. But I thought about that saying like there’s a statute of limitations on that and it’s like, okay, so at some point you don’t have to keep blaming these, you know, you don’t have to constantly be refilling an an empty hole in your heart that was created from your youth. You can actually, like you can say, okay, I realized that that was my past, but what do I want to do moving forward and how do I solve these problems because it’s nobody else’s responsibility at the end of the day.
Brad: 55:08 Who I love it man, man. we’re going to transition to part two and talk about the six pack and the Vegan Taquito to carnivore. But what a great, great setup. Uh, I think there’s a lot of possibilities for you when you’re, when you’re blending all these talents and attributes and experience you’ve had. So, uh, good luck with the, with the podcast and uh, other things of that nature.
William: 55:34 Awesome. Well thank you. I’m really glad we could get into the weeds and hopefully it’s been valuable for some people.
Brad: 55:40 Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback @ getoveryourselfpodcast@gmail.com and we would also love if you could leave a rating and a review on iTunes or wherever you listen to podcasts. I know it’s a hassle. You have to go to desktop iTunes, click on the tab that says ratings and reviews and then click to rate the show anywhere from five to five stars and it really helps spread the word so more people can find the show and get over themselves because they need to. Thanks for doing it.
