William Shewfelt returns to the show for a historic fourth time to discuss the hot topic of losing excess body fat quickly and efficiently.
William has locked into a highly effective strategy that is working for his clients at 21daycarnivoreshred.com. It revolves around prioritizing protein intake (since of course, that is the bodyโs most critical dietary objective) by consuming foods that have a favorable protein-to-energy ratio. Protein also happens to be highly satiating, so you are enjoying delicious meals without deprivation and suffering from calorie restriction diets. Protein also has a high thermic effect, meaning if a significant portion of the protein calories you consume (some studies say up to 20%) are allocated toward metabolizing the protein. As Mark Sisson says often, there is a legitimate argument that you donโt even need to count protein calories, because they are used for building block purposes instead of calorie energy.
William is a high energy guy who follows his passions at all times. As you learned from his first Get Over Yourself podcast show, he has an extremely disciplined, methodical, and quantified approach to pursuing goals that he has applied in numerous disparate areas, from writing, online coaching, acting, and also his latest passion for music. Listen to his Disfruta single on YouTube! You will love his enthusiasm and youthful energy. Who knows, maybe the protein-to-energy ratio concept will give you the breakthrough you are looking for in fat loss! Read more in his book with Dr. Ted Naiman called The P/E Diet.
TIMESTAMPS:
How do you drop excess body fat once and for all? [01:44]
Catching up with Shewfelt leaves you breathless with diet, coaching, acting, singing, writing. [05:59]
The carnivore focus of Willโs diet includes two steaks and 6 eggs yolks in a shake daily. [08:34]
What is the protein to energy ratio? [09:26]
Protein is a building block, not calorie-burning energy. Focus on your protein requirement. [14:55]
It is a huge task to sift through all the diet information to which we are exposed. [23:17]
Protein is number one, exercise is number two. Fasting and an 8-hour sleep are there on the list. [24:34]
When your mindset has been firmly implanted with the colorful vegetables on your plate, it is hard to absorb the carnivore diet information. [25:33]
How is Shewfelt dealing with helping people lose excess body fat as a group? [30:59]
It is common when one achieves a goal to celebrate the success and then fall back. How can we deal with that? [34:57]
What is the role of carbohydrates in a healthy athletic personโs diet? [37:23]
No one diet is appropriate for everyone. [43:45]
When you are able to develop your inner intuition, you are able to prevent yourself from doing too much. [45:34]
Reggaeton is a Latin genre of music that William is into. The same mentality that you use in training, you use in everything else you try. [47:12]
How does one turn potential into a viable economic opportunity? [53:15]
Will describes how he manages to have so many different directions in his life and stay healthy. [01:00:52]
LINKS:
- Bradโs Shopping Page
- William Shewfelt
- P/E Diet
- Dr. Ted Naiman
- Fatty Popcorn Boy Podcast
- Will Shewfelt Disfruta
- Will Shewfelt Buena Cosa
- Carnivore Cooking for Cool Dudes
- Bradโs podcast with Will on Goal-Setting
- IGF1 and mTOR
- 21 Day Carnivore shred
- Stan Efferdingย ย ย
- Will to Win podcast
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Get Over Yourself Podcast
Brad (00:01:44):
Hey, listeners, it’s time for the historic fourth show from the same guest Will Shewfelt. I believe that puts him in rarefied air. That’s more than John Gray, who’s been on three times, but of course we’re going to get him back on, But it is so nice to catch up with Will again, I hope you heard his first few shows. He talked about goal setting for 52 minutes. I was absolutely blown away by this young man. This was back a couple of years ago now, and that was show number one. And then we got into the details of healthy eating the carnivore diet. So we checked in here in 2020, uh, just to see how things have been going on, uh, that front and his 21 day carnivore shred challenge that he runs online for a group experience that’s been really, really successful. So a lot of this show is about solving that frustrating puzzle of dropping excess body fat once and for all.
Will (00:02:42):
And it’s appearing that a carnivore style pattern could be the simplest and most effective strategy because the incredibly high satiety value when you’re eating a nutrient dense animal foods that truly nourish the body at the cellular level. You just feel satisfied when you have a meal of eggs or a big steak, or even the organ meats I’m been slicing my frozen grassfed liver. And just a few slices. You just feel so nourished that you walk away and you don’t think about food for a long time. So if you can find a diet that’s truly healthy and nourishing and satisfying, and especially meeting that primary biological need for the diet is to get enough protein. So we’ll present this concept called the protein to energy ratio of your diet, your food choices. He has a book with Dr. Ted Naiman called the P E Diet P slash E Diet.
Will (00:03:38):
You can find that on Amazon, and I think you’re going to get some great value out of this show, especially if you’ve been frustrated, trying to get excess body fat off with other approaches. Listen to my show, titled the Fatty Popcorn Boy Saga, where I detailed my experiment with the carnivores strategy and fasting until 12 noon to quickly, right he ship, when I discovered some excess body fat had somehow, uh, glommed onto my body. And of course, with Will, the focused, disciplined, motivated goal setting machine. We’re going to get into, uh, the end of the show, him talking about applying his methodical and quantifiable approach to disparate peak performance goals, including his latest, greatest stuff, which is singing and back into acting after a respite for a couple of years when he got deep into his, uh, health, uh, business and coaching. So yeah, fun stuff. And if you go on YouTube and type in Will Shewfelt Disfruta, you can listen to his single, which is pretty darn good, actually. All right, here we go with Will the Power Ranger, the carnivores shredding machine, and my co-author on the fabulous book, Carnivore Cooking for Cool Dudes Will Shewfelt.
Will (00:04:53):
Will Shewfelt the Will to win is back. And I could feel the energy through the, the Zoom airwaves. Um, I appreciate connecting with you in person, but here we are for an important update call. And I went back and listened to, uh, some of our fabulous podcasts that we did, uh, back when, and now this is what a year and a half or two years ago. Um, we talked about goal setting for 52 minutes on the first podcast, which was supposed to be a talk about the interesting new carnivore diet. So I think we just should, um, should check back in and see how things are going on on both of those fronts. I mean, the carnivore diet now is got more momentum since the time we first talked about it and were first exposed to it. And then secondly, um, there’s so many interesting developments in your life. So I think those relate to that first show about goal-setting and broadening your horizons and all that. So, um, we gotta, we gotta, we gotta find out what, what is new In the life of will?
Will (00:05:59):
Oh man. Well, first of all, thank you for having me on Brad. Um, I’m always excited when I get to chat with you. So this is going to be fun for sure. And I always have my Get Over Yourself podcast, uh, my refrigerator magnet on there. So I see you every single day jumping over that bar. When I, when I go get my food. Life has been very, very good lately. So yes, we talked about goal orientation the first time that we ever podcasted. Um, where are things at with the goals where things that with carnivore,? So goals at the time that we talked, I my focus was really around building, you know, this carnivore shredding business and being able to spread the word about this, um, the books that we worked on and that I worked on with Dr. Ted Naiman.
Will (00:06:50):
That was really where my focus was. And this year the focus for me has been all around acting. Um, that’s, that’s been the main objective this year. Uh, obviously there there’ve been some hurdles in that respect, but I’ve still continued to push forward with it. And this year, luckily I’ve been able to work on three different, um, serieses serieses, is that a word? I don’t know, series, um, I’ve been able to work on three different things. So I’ve been pushing forward on that and the new path that opened for me that I wasn’t really expecting was music. That was something that I kind of started to dabble in at the end of last year on the strand. Yeah, exactly. I was, yeah, I was doing a little bit of rap at the end of last year. And, um, my passion has always been, you know, I, I love Latin music.
Will (00:07:49):
I love Reggataeton, which is a really popular genre. So at the beginning of this year, I started to dip my toe in the water and just see, you know, if I had even an inkling of potential in this. Cause that’s, that’s all I needed. If, if there’s even the tiniest possibility that this could be a thing. Um, then I know that, you know, I could take the same mentality that I applied to working out or to anything else. And you just put that towards that craft. So I did that and. It didn’t turn out too bad. So as soon as I did the first song, I said, I’m going to be, I’m going to be pushing harder on this. So that’s been a big focus of mine this year. In the diet realm of things carnivores is still the basis of my overall diet.
Will (00:08:34):
So every single day, you know, the way that I approach it, I’m, I’m always hitting a protein goal. So I’m always having my two steaks. Um, my, my whey shake with the six egg yolks, I’m having a little bit of Greek yogurt. So it’s a very animal-based diet for me. And then if the focus for me is bulking, then I do bring in potatoes and sweet potatoes and things like that. Um, if I’m just maintaining or if I want to lean out, then I just stick to my carnivore foods. And I don’t really add anything on top of that. So the diet hasn’t really changed, I would say with the combination of carnivore and then, you know, protein to energy ratio and focusing on leveraging protein, I’ve kind of found what’s worked for me and I’ve been thrilled to not to sort of end this endless quest for the perfect diet and the perfect this and that. It’s, it’s been really satisfying to just be able to stick to it.
Will (00:09:26):
So the title of your book with Dr. Ted Naiman is the P E P slash E ratio and.
Will (00:09:35):
the PE diet,
Brad (00:09:37):
and discussing in particular, this protein to energy ratio. Um, can you detail that a little further? Cause I’m still sitting here, um, remembering your Epic quote from maybe the first show when you said, Hey, you know, everybody says, I want to feel better. I want to be healthy, but what they really want is they want to look good, man. They want to have that six pack. It’s still, I get, I get so many emails from people that are seemingly doing a lot of things, right? They’re super enthusiastic about working out, making healthy food choices, uh, you know, getting enough, sleep, all those things and still carrying five, 10 extra pounds of body fat. And it seems like a lot of the experimentation you’ve done on our behalf and, and, um, you know, reported about, it seems like you have this, this formula dialed now and it’s, it’s pretty interesting. So, uh, the PE the PE ratio is what?
Will (00:10:30):
So the whole foundation of this book, the PE diet is around protein to energy ratio and approaching this. We kind of came in with the mentality of what are the two to three simplest and most effective things that people can do? You know, that your average person can do that will dramatically alter their body composition, increase their energy, allow them to basically live a healthy life and to increase that health span that we talked about. And Dr. Ted Naiman has done so much incredible work in explaining and publicizing and talking about protein to energy ratio. The basic idea behind this is that, okay, so everyone is seeking to hit this protein target for the day protein and minerals. Uh, the body has that requirement, and it’s looking for that input. Depending on the protein to energy ratio of your food, you might end up consuming a massive amount of calories to hit that protein requirement and that mineral and nutrient requirement, or if you pick really high nutrient density foods, which we kind of determined as foods high in protein and minerals, um, especially high protein to energy ratio foods, which means energy is simply carbs plus fats.
Will (00:11:49):
So when you pick foods that are high in protein and minerals, and then they’re, they’re moderate to low, sometimes in carbs and fats, you’re able to satiate that protein and mineral requirements that the body has at a lower caloric intake. Then, you know, we have a, we have a graphic in the book where it says, um, everyone’s hitting their protein goal. The question is how many calories did you have to eat to hit that goal? So our idea is push the protein forward. And then, you know, you’re able to sort of naturally satiate yourself on fewer calories, which I think is ultimately what a lot of us want, because you can hit caloric deficit and try to try to force that on your body artificially by setting a limit. But as many of us have experienced, you will binge or rebound, or, you know, the thyroid might slow down. You might start to feel low energy if you force that over time, but if you allow your body to eat the right amount, but you’re giving it the right foods, these high protein to energy ratio foods, um, it’s sort of able to happen automatically, which I think that’s, that’s the amazing thing about this.
Brad (00:13:00):
So I guess behind this, uh, explanation is that we desperately need to hit our daily protein requirements. And just about every diet, maybe a strict vegan is going to struggle over six months or 12 months or 18 month period with getting enough protein. But even, even then with a little bit of sensibility, almost any diet can, can hit that protein target to basically support the daily function of the body and the repair of the cells and, and, you know, basic maintenance. Um, Chris Kresser gave a great quote about this, where he said, uh, if we somehow go on a protein restriction diet, we are A gonna feel like really fast. We’re going to become emaciated and we’re going to have intense cravings for high protein foods. And I think the takeaway was that no matter who you are, you’re going to hit your protein requirements because of that deep craving that the body has.
Brad (00:13:53):
And then you’re discussing, how are you going to do that with, uh, you know, seven orders of fast food delivered by Door Dash. You’re going to hit those protein requirements and you’re going to have 3000 extra calories and either carbs or fat. Um, and I guess the other part, uh, just, uh, extracting your explanation there is that generally speaking, we’re not really burning protein calories for energy, unless if you don’t, we’re starving at the, at the end of the, uh, of the rope there on the, uh, on the show, what’s the show, or they dumped the people off and they, they see who can last the longest out in the wilderness, uh, Alone. It’s called. it’s on my list.
Will (00:14:31):
I just fantastic.
Brad (00:14:33):
Yeah, I haven’t, I haven’t watched it yet, but, uh, anyway, generally speaking, the protein we consume is going toward, uh, you know, a building block and not burning a caloric energy. And so when you mentioned fat and carbs are our two sources of energy, uh, now I think we’re drilling down into what this, uh, what this strategy is all about.
Will (00:14:55):
I completely agree. I think that it is twofold for one, yes, you’re going to get satiated much sooner. But the other thing is that it’s, it is a little bit tougher for the body to store protein as fat. It’s not necessarily an energy calorie. It can burn it in certain amounts, but the body doesn’t ever really preferentially use protein as fuel. Otherwise, you know, we, a lot of us would be wasting away and not be able to maintain our muscle mass. So, and then you also have this whole world of protein, overfeeding studies, which show people that are fed high amounts of protein, and sometimes they even get leaner after doing that. So when you combine all of those different factors, it just shows you that focusing on protein, kind of mentally putting that first in your diet and saying, okay, before I eat anything else today, I’m going to hit this protein goal.
Will (00:15:46):
I’m going to have my, my minerals, my nutrients, my protein. So maybe for you that might look like having some red meat, some pasture-raised eggs, you might have some seafood, some salmon. Um, and then in the book, we also talk about incorporating, um, you know, non starchy vegetables and low sugar fruit, things like that, fulfill some of those mineral requirements. And you push that to the forefront by the time night hits. You’re not going to have nearly the cravings for that Door Dash order of seven, you know, uh, fast food orders that you might have had had you not hit that protein requirement earlier. So, um, this is something that I talk a lot to our challenge participants about is okay, if you are dealing with strong cravings, you can play a mental game with yourself and you can say, Hey, look at the end of the night, if I need to have something. And if I’m just going crazy for it, I’ll have that. But first I’m going to hit this protein goal. You know, I’m going to, I’m going to eat a steak, I’m going to have six eggs. I’m going to have, you know, four ounces of salmon. And then let’s see if I still need that bowl of cereal. Or if I still am going to go through the box of Wheat Thins. I would say, good luck. That’s going to be hard after eating that much protein,
Brad (00:17:03):
Right. Protein is highly satiating, even more so than fat. Is that a valid statement I’ve heard? I think recently?
Will (00:17:12):
Um, I’m not exactly sure where it stands on that, but if, if you simply think about the fact that protein’s not necessarily an energy calorie from that standpoint, if you’re talking satiety per energy calorie, I would definitely say yes, it’s higher satiety.
Brad (00:17:27):
Um, we’ve also been told for years about the dangers of excess protein, and we’ve even put some commentary in our books about, Hey, watch out. Because when you start over consuming protein, you’re going to overstimulate these growth factors in the bloodstream, I IGF 1 and mTOR , and this can lead to increased cancer risk, but it seems like a lot of are backpedaling from those dire warnings that have been floated out there for a while and possibly the research or the, um, the argument that eating excess protein is dangerous, could come from, uh, a population of, uh, you know, unfit people who are eating too much food in general, all of these other factors. And you know, now, as you, as you explain a, um, you’re, when you have six eggs, some salmon and some steak, you’re going to be so full, you’re not going to be inclined to over consume protein, uh, habitually. And unless, I guess you’re an extreme freak bodybuilder that’s stuffing down, uh, the, the powder five times a day, uh, like the golfer from, from your hood, uh, uh, Bryson DeChambeau. Have you read about him? He’s, he’s put on like 30 or 40 pounds, and now he’s a big, a big giant guy who is hitting the ball farther and playing great. But, um, you know, I we’ll we’ll check on him in five years cause he looks like he’s put on a lot of extra, extra mass, if you know what I mean. Uh, but you know, outside of those extreme diets where you’re stuffing your face with protein, it seems like the risks have likely been overstated. And there’s a lot of compensatory mechanisms, one of them through appetite. And the other one I’ve heard about is this, um, a thermic effect of food where up to 20% of the calories you consume, especially in protein are used to burn the, uh, used to, to, um, to, to burn the fuel or to metabolize the fuel. So right away, you’re taking a, um, uh, you’re not, you’re not ingesting all these calories and they’re, they’re going into excess they’re, they’re kind of a research collating and building muscle repairing muscle and all those important things.
Will (00:19:34):
I’ve heard that as well. And I’ve also heard it said that because of that high thermic effect, we might even want to look at counting protein as something closer to two calories per gram, rather than I think the usual four calories per gram. So protein is definitely, um, about as close to a magical macronutrient as you can get. Um, and then I think you, you brought up a great point there about the number one concern people have, as soon as you give them. Okay. You know, I really want to lose weight. Well, here, protein is the answer, focus on the protein, as soon as you give them that, then they think, well, what if I overdo it on protein, what’s going to happen? And you have people talking about, you know, the elevated IGF 1 and mTOR and what effects that may have on aging and cancer growth and things like that.
Will (00:20:20):
And I think there’s a few things to consider with that. For one, you know, when those studies are done, um, are those people having chronically elevated IGF 1 and mTOR and things like that. Um, so are they having multiple feedings throughout the day? Is that combined with a high inflammatory state in the body via vegetable oils or sugars or things like that? When you bring high inflammation and then these growth factors together, and then, you know, how much activity are those people doing? Are they, are they exercising? Are they training? Are they getting outside? Are they getting adequate sun? Are they getting adequate rest? When you bring all of those factors together, Um, I think you get a much better picture of what’s really going on there. And then one of the things that we talk about in the book is you don’t necessarily need to constantly be eating protein throughout the day.
Will (00:21:10):
You can have, you know, sort of a yin and yang. You can have a bit of fasting earlier in the day, you get into a little bit of the catabolic side, you’re in a deeper state of ketosis, maybe your body, downregulates some of those growth factors. Maybe you exercise in that state and then boom, you have, you have that protein and then your body is able to compensate and it’s able to build out the muscle and you do have that growth factor. So maybe not having it super elevated all the time in a caloric surplus with, you know, a bunch of bad foods. Maybe that’s not a good idea, but if you are doing it in a smart way and you’re choosing quality foods, you’re exercising. Um, I think that might be closer to ideal.
Brad (00:21:51):
Yeah, I’m really receptive to this idea of feast or famine, where you get all these benefits of recovering rebuilding. If you’re an athlete, especially trying to, uh, you know, build lean muscle repair and then also banking a lot of hours in a fasted state and getting the benefits of ketosis. Um, I think Art Devany and Sisson both of them have been talking about this feast or famine concept and how it’s so common, uh, in, in the ancestral example, as well as in the, in the, in the wild with animals. Um, you know, when it’s time to eat, you celebrate life, you enjoy yourself, you eat to your heart’s content. Ben Greenfield talks about his family dinners in the evening where, you know, he’s fasting for long periods of time. He’s eating these kenogenic meals. And then when it comes time to bust out, uh, he’s having fun with the family and maybe even consuming a ton of carbs, but ensuring that he recovers from the stress of exercise and a busy day, and same with our upcoming book, uh, Mark and I it’s called Two Meals a Day.
Brad (00:22:49):
And it’s talking about just eating less frequently as a main goal, rather than nitpicking all the macros and all the things we’ve been doing for years, trying to find the magic diet like you referenced, but instead just giving your digestive system a break, especially after dark or especially during a busy day when you’re in high stress mode and then go ahead and enjoy yourself and not worrying about these things like excess protein and giving you cancer.
Will (00:23:17):
I am all for that. I think that’s going to be a fantastic book cause I’m, I’m all about how can we make this as simple and effective for people as possible that, that Perino principle and just making things efficient. Because I think one of the things that are that the US, but also I think the world as a whole is dealing with in terms of this whole health crisis that we have going on. And I’m not talking about COVID, I’m talking about more of the obesity epidemic and things like not that they’re
Brad (00:23:46):
Unrelated, man,
Will (00:23:49):
And that’s actually true. Yeah. That’s, that’s completely true. I think one of the disservices that maybe experts have done is to overcomplicate matters. Um, and now if, if somebody wants to lose fat and they’re, they’re working and they have six kids and they’re trying to figure out things with the, with the babysitter and, and they have so many responsibilities in their life and then they have to plan out, okay, is it, should I go organic or non-GMO? Should I, should I go plant-based or I heard this carnivore thing is good. Let me look that up. Okay. Five articles just said, it’ll kill you. Um, what about keto? I had a friend that did keto, so I have to prick my prick myself, or I have to do these tests and it becomes this like huge task of just sifting through all of the information.
Will (00:24:34):
And I think when you have something that is simple daily, just guidelines or rules that you could put on yourself, um, Maybe not rules, but it’s just, it’s just guiding principles for your diet. And that’s, that’s, that’s where I’m at these days where I’m having gone through a lot of the very strict, very meticulous, the tracking and, and you know, a lot of the different superfoods. And let me get some adaptogens and let me have the right eating window. I’m at a point now where it’s okay. Protein is number one, uh, you know,. Exercise is,number two. Let’s get fasting in there. Eight hours asleep. If I’m hitting those four, I’m probably at about 80% of where I want to be. And then on top of that, I get into, you know, better water quality and making sure that my sleep is quality and bringing in some of the different superfoods and things like that. But prioritization that’s, that’s what I’m trying to say. Prioritize what’s most important for your health, and then you can worry about the nitpicking type stuff.
Brad (00:25:33):
So I guess if we’re prioritizing protein, a, this kind of segues into talking to him about the recent explosion of the carnivore diet, because the, uh, the nutritious animal foods happen to be high in protein. And, uh, also in some cases higher in fat. Mostly it’s good fat, but we’re we’re um, we’re now what I think, uh, three years into this thing in general, from when it first started making waves, the first person that talked to me about it was Danny Vega. I don’t know if I told you this, but I was down there in Austin hanging with him in 2017. He goes, check this out, man. I’m on the salmon and steak diet and it’s awesome. That’s what he called it, trademarked it, he goes, my body fats down. My strength, my performance is up. My recovery is faster. My blood work is great and I completely dismissed it like, yeah, whatever. All right, that’s interesting. But it was an interesting, uh, anecdote about how I had fixed and rigid beliefs and his, his story didn’t fit with my fixed and rigid beliefs that we should have these giant colorful plates of produce every day in the name of health. And if you didn’t, you were in deep trouble. Uh, so it took me a while and getting, you know, absorbing the information from,
Brad (00:26:44):
From Sean Baker and Paul Saladino and, you know, starting to knock on my, my crazy thick head to the point where, you know, we’re compelled to take a look at, uh, some of these principles that are in place now that have made it so popular. But I think, um, you know, for the, the sufferers of, uh, plant toxin effects that’s one thing, but for those who, uh, don’t report that strange problem, um, the potential to drop excess body fat seems to me to be the best thing we’ve we’ve seen today.
Will (00:27:16):
I completely agree when carnivore was really starting to, uh, rise to prominence, I guess you could say in 2017, um, it was a lot of people transitioning from keto because they weren’t dropping enough body fat on keto because you know, the whole, I don’t want to say that protein chocolate cake thing, cause it’s been said so many times, you know,
Brad (00:27:40):
What protein chocolate cake? I don’t know what that is.
Will (00:27:42):
That whole gluconeogenesis thing. And people always talk about protein is going to turn into cake. And you’re, it’s, it’s been repeated way too many times, but, um, you know, everybody, everybody that was doing keto, we were keeping our, you know, our protein at the right levels for almost therapeutic ketosis and ratcheting the fats up and everything was coconut oil, bacon, uh, whole eggs cooked in the entire block of Kerrygold. And a lot of people started, I was gaining fat doing that. And this was the first time in my life that I was like, man, I’m, I’m actually like getting pretty thick over here. Um, and that’s when I started to look into carnivore and this was right when Dr. Baker had started his one month carnivore challenge on Twitter. He said, I’m just going to eat meat for a month. And every month he would report back.
Will (00:28:29):
Still don’t have scurvy, still don’t have scurvy. And pretty soon he went on to Joe Rogan and that’s kind of what, you know, everything, uh, really rose up after that. But, um, it’s, I think it’s such an effective diet. And if you don’t necessarily follow the entire carnivore diet, which I would say is not necessary for everyone to have that level of strictness. Simply applying the fact that there are these high nutrient density, high, highly bioavailable foods, these animal foods that have, you know, the, all of the B vitamins, we need the iron, the protein, the zinc, all the things necessary for our hormones to function at their best, the protein to help keep us satiated, the healthy fats and the saturated fats and the cholesterol for optimal hormonal functioning. You know, when you bring all of those factors together, it’s a pretty compelling diet.
Will (00:29:23):
And then something else that I always think about is going back to these guys that had incredible physiques in the sixties and seventies, these golden era, and even I think the silver era right before that in the fifties, these bodybuilders of Vince Gironda with his steak and eggs diet. And then I, uh, we had a Chris Bell and I did a podcast with, uh, Rick Treyson who sadly passed away two days ago. He was, uh, one of those golden era bodybuilders trained with Arnold. And I would always ask them about their diet. And he said, it was simple, just high protein, low carb. We would eat meat, eggs, cottage cheese. That was pretty much it. And then he said on top of that, you know, we would do some protein shakes. And he said, anytime you had a contest, we didn’t count calories. We didn’t track anything.
Will (00:30:07):
All you did was you trained a little harder, a little bit of extra volume, and then you cut your carbs out and you, you brought your protein up and you’d make sure that you’re getting enough protein in. And he said, we didn’t worry about getting a pump. We always, we always seem to get a pump. It wasn’t a problem. Um, you know, we didn’t lack energy doing that. And these guys had fantastic physiques. You know, a lot of the bodybuilders nowadays are eating tons of white rice. And, um, obviously there’s, there’s a difference in which, which, uh, performance enhancing drugs they’re taking, but in the sixties and seventies, they weren’t taking anything near the, uh, the, the things that these guys are taking nowadays. So I look at those physiques and I think that’s incredible. And if I can get close to that, uh, naturally I think that would be optimal. And then you have steak and eggs and things like that. So I’ve always gravitated towards that style.
Brad (00:30:59):
Well, it seems like you’ve had a great success with your challenges, and maybe you can talk a little bit about how that community aspect comes into play along with the protocol where you’re following sort of a, a PE strategy and helping people drop excess body fat as a group.
Will (00:31:19):
Yeah. One of the things that I’m a big believer in is when you’re pursuing a goal, getting that early momentum can really help you move forward on the goal. And so we have these monthly 21 day carnivore horse race challenges. We started doing these in March. We’ll, we’ll have a group of maybe 30 or 40 50 people join these. And we are all in this kind of online community together through WhatsApp, through Facebook, uh, through weekly zoom calls where we’re sharing our meals, we’re sharing our workouts, how that’s going. Um, and, and people really are sharing their lives in these groups. Uh, that’s the incredible thing. How, how the diet is affecting their workouts, affecting their energy, how it’s affecting, um, you know, members of their family that start noticing what they’re doing and start doing it as well. And the accountability is also a huge thing.
Will (00:32:10):
Um, it, it’s, it’s been a really, really exciting part of my life because I’ve been able to see not just a one-on-one relationship with these people, but I’ve been able to see them as a community, motivate each other people that wanted to skip a workout, uh, seeing the WhatsApp group and seeing everyone posting their meals and saying, no, I’m going to push through it today. Um, it’s a very, just inspiring and motivating things. So that kind of reminded me of the importance of community when you’re doing something like this, especially it’s a bit of an outlier diet, like the carnivore diet. Having a group of people to do this with. And then the cool thing about this is we all have a common goal in this group. You know, we have all decided that in 21 days for the next 21 days, we’re going to follow this high protein, high protein, energy ratio, carnivore style of diet.
Will (00:32:59):
We’re going to do these high intensity workouts. And then something else that we do is a personal development challenge. So you might pick a, to read five pages each morning. You might pick to get up at 6:00 AM. You might pick to go on three 10 minute walks. You might pick to meditate twice a day for 10 minutes. But everybody kind of picks their own personal development challenge. And then as you go through this for the next 21 days, and you check the boxes off every day at the end of the 21 days, it’s just, it’s the most fun thing to see these people, their faces are…you could see the confidence rating radiating from them. You could see that they have that momentum and that’s the important part. And then after that, uh, we always talk about, okay, now that you’ve achieved this, what do most people do?
Will (00:33:45):
Well, that’s done. And they, they kind of go back to old habits. So I always promote, what’s the next goal? You know, what’s the next, how are you going to push the bar forward? You don’t have to change your diet and you don’t have to do something crazy. You could consolidate that and maybe set a new goal for yourself. You could maybe do something professionally or do something for yourself personally. But, um, it’s that, it’s that mentality that I believe in, which is staying hungry and always moving forward, no matter what you’re doing. So it’s just, uh, it’s, it’s a lot of fun. I light up when I talk about it because, um, we have a really cool family-like community going on with these challenges. And we have people that have, um, done every single challenge since we started these in March because of the community aspect of it. I, I call them generals in the group because as soon as the new group comes in, they’re like, Hey guys, you know, this is, this is this, this is that. And they kind of help people along, especially with common questions about electrolytes and things like that. So, um, yeah, it’s, it’s been a lot of fun.
Brad (00:34:43):
Where do you find out about the challenge or sign up?
Will (00:34:46):
That’s on 21 day carnivore shred.com. Um, our next challenge, I’m not sure when this one’s coming out, but our next challenge is starting on Monday, September 7th. So we’re a couple of days away from that,
Brad (00:34:57):
Right? I like that idea of that people signing up every month to continue the challenge and, and stay strong and nimble. That’s great. And I guess, uh, you mentioned that common, uh, occurrence of someone achieving a big goal and then, uh, kind of reverting back to the old lifestyle patterns. Uh, obviously proving that the, the approach was unsustainable or there was something off in the mindset. And I wonder how we can kind of, um, solve that, that common problem where, uh, you know, we, we celebrate a great success and then six months later, um, it’s vanished from, you know, any, any influence, positive influence on life.
Will (00:35:40):
There’s, there’s like a few things that you always have to think about. One is what is my goal? And then what is the deadline by, when am I trying to achieve this? When, when we’re doing this diet, this is a fat loss oriented diet. You know, we, we have people specifically aiming to lose fat, but what happens to the people that have done six challenges? Are they just, are they almost gone by now? No, what we actually have with a lot of people is they, they dropped the body fat and then they say, you know what? I think I’m looking now to gain strength or to build muscle. So we changed their macros and the workouts change a little bit. And now they’re focused on building muscle. So these challenges really serve as a template for, okay, for 21 days out of this month, three out of the four weeks of this month, we’re really gonna focus on this goal.
Will (00:36:30):
And then that week in between, we sort of let that serve as reflection, setting your next goal. Um, a lot of people will bring their calories up to maintenance or even a little bit higher to sort of reset themselves. And then they pursue the next challenge if they’re going to do that. But the most important thing is as soon as you accomplish a goal, it doesn’t matter what it is in life you always have to ask yourself, what’s next? Do I want to stick with this approach? Okay, how long? Or do I want to try something new? Or do I want to push forward in different aspects? But it is like juggling where different balls will drop sometimes and that’s okay, but there’s certain things in life that you don’t want to drop and that you always want to have those as a high priority. So, um, yeah, I, I just always approach it from the mindset of goal setting. And as soon as you accomplish something, you ask yourself, okay, what’s next? What am I doing from here on out?
Brad (00:37:23):
And ideally leveraging that success. So it doesn’t have to be in the same realm and maybe you’re going to take it to the stuff we’re going to talk about in a minute, the music, the acting, uh, you know, the leverage from having a healthy, strong, energetic body. Uh, but before we go on, uh, on that topic, um, I’m curious. So it, it appears that if you want to drop excess body fat, you’ve got to optimize that protein to energy ratio. So you’ll be satisfied. You’ll get all your nutritional needs met, and you’re not consuming a ton of excess calories in the form of fat, as you mentioned with the Kerrygold on when, or nor in the form of carbohydrates, which is kind of the main, uh, error that the standard American diet represents is that, you know, high carbohydrate load, high insulin production, uh, not very good at burning body fat. But let’s say you get to that point where you’ve, uh, attained a healthy body composition. And, you know, I’m thinking of my own personal example, you know, I’m trying to, uh, perform recover from, uh, difficult workouts. And so there’s this question or this, um, uh, you know, concern about where do the healthy, nutritious dietary carbohydrates come into the fold when you have these disparate goals? If yeah, you want to keep your body composition healthy. Uh, but we know that you mentioned some like the nutritious fruits and, uh, sweet potatoes and things like that, that a lot of athletes are going to, um, what’s your, what’s your thoughts on that, on that challenge of the role of carbohydrates in a healthy athletic person’s diet?
Will (00:39:01):
I think they’re fantastic. Uh, they certainly helped me out when I’m looking to bulk or if I’m really upping my workout intensity. I think carbohydrates, according to the amount of glycogen, you think you’re burning. So depending on what the workout is. Um, you know, if, if you’re doing 30 minutes twice a week, maybe you don’t need white rice every single night, but depending on how much of this glycolytic effort you’re putting forward, I say I’m all for it. I think it’s great. And I also think another good thing to do is to have a mix of glucose and fructose. Um, I’ve heard some, some stuff from Stan Efferding, who’s a great power lifter who talks about, um, how fructose can really help upregulate your thyroid, your metabolism. So he includes that with a lot of his athletes. So for me, if I’m, if I’m focused on a bulking phase, I always do like to do the carb night strategy because for me, it’s one of those simple dietary rules, guidelines I could just place on my day.
Will (00:39:59):
So protein, protein, protein throughout the day during that sympathetic nervous system, you’re focused. And then at night you go into that rest and digest mode, and that’s when I’ll bring in, you know, some sweet potatoes, uh, maybe some fruits, things like that. And then the beauty of that is it’s tough to go, well, it’s not tough, but it’s harder to go off the rails when you’ve had so much protein throughout the day. And you only have this one meal at night where you’re going to have where you’re going to have carbs. So I think there’s nothing wrong with that. And then I also think, you know, a lot of people also have great strategies around timing it around workouts. So maybe an hour or two before you go work out having maybe some fruit, maybe, you know, a sweet potato, things like that. Or if you want to do it immediately after your workout and sort of refill those muscle glycogen stores while they’re, while they’re ready to kind of suck all of that glycogen up. Um, so I think any of those strategies work. For me, the one that’s just simplest mentally is all right. If I’m going to have any carbs, I’m going to have them at night. And I sort of pay attention to if I think my body needs it or not.
Brad (00:41:07):
Yeah. I think that’s a great, um, a great take. And I feel like I’ve, uh, landed upon a revolutionary, incredible dietary breakthrough, which is my appetite is whatever I feel like eating. And it turns out that, uh, high, uh, glycogen burning workouts seem to correspond to, uh, periods of time where I have a greater interest in consuming carbs. And I think a lot of people have tried to ignore, uh, just the, the basic appetite signals in the name of adhering to a certain diet. I mean, keto has become so popular in so many good things about it, but we found people, uh, consuming a lot of fat having difficulty burning excess body fat, and then, you know, swearing off the carbs because they’re evil and they’re going to mess up your, your blood pricking numbers, uh, to the extent that you have a high risk of, you know, thyroid disturbances or slowing your metabolic function overall because you’re performing these high intensity workouts and you’re not quite refueling. Uh, and I know people have kind of transcended that and come to this closed loop system operation where, um, you know, the ultra endurance runners like, um, McKnight and Bitter are setting records with minimal carb in them. Or guys like Lewisville, listen, your or Mark Sisson you know, not that much food at all, and still maintain a fantastic physique and do great workouts, but it seems like there’s also some genetic variation where some people can lock into that mode and then other people might fare better with, um, you know, honoring their appetite in the evening and enjoying their life and not having any restriction deprivation and things that are, um, unhealthy and unnatural.
Will (00:42:53):
I think when you’re doing a ketogenic or a carnivore diet and you’re, you know, close to a deficit. Let’s say you’re doing something to a keto gains approach with your training. You really want to focus on building lean muscle through progressive overload, getting stronger over time, rather than the volume training. Um, you know, if, if I want to build my chest instead of three sets, I’m going to do 10 sets and just stacking stacking sets and volume on there. If you’re going to be eating with that style of eating, I think you need to be even smarter about your training, making sure that, you know, maybe you’re doing about three, uh, heavy compound lifting type workouts a week in the maybe five to 10 rep range, tracking those lifts, making sure each workout you are getting, uh, maybe five pounds stronger or you’re adding one rep to that.
Will (00:43:45):
So the training style, that’s, that’s one of the things that I think our whole community has really come to an understanding with, I hope. Is that you have to match your training and your diet together. Um, sort of forcing a training style on a diet that won’t support it, that might lead to issues and you get the hair loss and you get the thyroid issues and things like that. Or on the other hand, you know, if, if you’re trying to force a certain diet onto a training style, you might experience that with your training, your workout performance goes down. So that’s the, you know, what’s tricky about that is that it’s, um, it’s something that everyone has to figure out for themselves. Which, you know, it’s nice to give people a one size fits all, but everyone does have to figure that out for themselves because in our keto, carnivore, paleo, ancestral community, we have CrossFitters and we have distance runners. We have bodybuilders and we have, you know, people that just want to get as lean as they possibly can.
Will (00:44:39):
So there’s a mix of everyone. So to say that this one diet is perfect for everyone. No, there’s, there’s more variables that you’ll have to kind of figure out as you go along.
Brad (00:44:50):
Same with training. Uh, and yeah, I think we see disparate approaches working, but one thing that, uh, successful athletes have in common is that they’re training sensibly and they’re able to progress without tons of interruptions from breakdown, burnout, illness, and injury. And what I find is so common, especially, you know, you mentioned the endurance scene, the CrossFit scene, the people that are really pushing themselves physically and have distinct and serious goals is there’s a widespread propensity to overdo it And whatever diet you’re following, but especially if you’re following a restrictive diet, you’re throwing all these stress factors into the mix and it makes it difficult to improve as well as sustain your health.
Brad (00:45:34):
And that was, you know, in essence, my, my 10 years as a triathlete was basically destroying my health constantly over and over in pursuit of, uh, you know, peak performance goals and trying to get marginally faster. And even now I know that I make mistakes. Uh, you know, repeatedly where the workout was so much fun. And I felt like such a bad-ass out there. And I kept going, and I did, you know, a few more drills because I’m, I’m warmed up. I’m pumped up, I’m inflamed. I feel fine at the time, but we have to put that element of reason and intuition to realize that, you know, we’re capable of overdoing it due to, um, you know, the power of the mind. And then when you look at times when you’re less consistent, because you overdid it and then you messed up your wrist doing that deadlift that day, or I messed up my knee doing too many jumps, then you have these regressions that could easily be prevented if you just train within yourself all the time.
Will (00:46:31):
Yeah. That’s and that, that comes from developing that inner intuition about, am I going too far? Am I not? Because there are times where you can push yourself a little bit extra. Um, so yeah, that’s, that’s very, very true. I’m thinking about with what you’re saying with training. I think about that with I’m training to sing right now, I’m, I’m like developing my voice and doing all this stuff and I’m doing the exact same thing. It’s the old volume mentality. All right, let me, let me do this for three hours a day. And then the next day, you know, I can’t sing a note to save my life because my voice is sprayed. So it’s very, very true. You do have to pay attention to that stuff. And sometimes you need to chill out a little bit in the short term to help yourself out in the longterm.
Brad (00:47:12):
What’s reggaeton, man?
Will (00:47:14):
Oh, reggaeton is a, it’s a reggaeton. Yeah. It’s um, it’s a Spanish genre of music or actually, I should say Latin genre of music that, uh, became popular in the nineties and it’s, it’s still doing extremely well. Um, Yeah. That’s I never thought I’d be discussing that on your podcast. Yeah. It’s fun.
Brad (00:47:36):
Well, you, uh, you tripped me out cause you told me, I don’t know how long ago that you’ve been dabbling a little bit in music, and then you sent me over to YouTube and your stuff is legit, man. I’m very impressed. Anyone send us a couple of songs that we can find on YouTube. Uh, so people can see for themselves, what are they, what are they called? Or what do you want us to search for on YouTube?
Will (00:47:58):
You can look up if you type in William Shewfelt and then Disfruta that, or if you type, so that’s spelled D I S F R U T A
Brad (00:48:07):
Sing it espanol and entertain yourself. All right.
Will (00:48:14):
And the other one, uh, one Buena Cosa. So when Buena Cosa. I hope that’s, you know, easy to spell. And then that’s, that’s another one of the songs, but I’ll tell you, this is the beginning of that journey for me. I am maybe about six months into this. Um, as with anything I do, there’s, you know, I have a vision, I have a goal with it, but it’s really in the beginning stages. So I’m just kind of building into it. Um, but boy, is it fun? It’s really, really fun. And it’s been exciting to kind of have that mountain to climb and be able to work towards that in the same way, the same stuff, the exact same stuff we do with training that we do with anything else, that same mentality works for everything. Um, you know, with, with this new pursuit that I’m, I’m pushing towards, you know, it’s still, okay, how many songs do I need to release? By when? How do I have to train to get there? What are my daily routines and processes? You know, writing, writing the amount of music that I need to every day training the voice practicing. So, um, yeah, I’m having a lot of fun with it.
Brad (00:49:21):
Uh, so you mentioned that you started dabbling in this, and then you said if you even saw a shred of potential, that was enough to pursue it. And I’m curious, like with singing or cutting a, a rap song, um, how do you know that you really do have potential? Are you relying on people to give you, uh, you know, direct, honest feedback or is there some kind of a channel where you can measure yourself? Cause it seems to me there’s totally free for all. And all of a sudden somebody blows up and they’re recognized as being super talent, but I’m thinking of this, Oh, I just went and toured Elvis’s house Graceland and Memphis earlier this year. And, um, you know, you’re walking around seeing all these exhibits. This was Elvis in high school. Elvis used to play guitar to the girls. The boys laughed at him and teased them.
Brad (00:50:08):
Uh, but you know, one of his friends stuck up for him and he became his bodyguard, his whole life. And then like you turn the corner and you go into the next room and you see the zillion trillion gold records. And you know, the sensation that he became and I’m like, wait a second. I went to the tour guide. I go, how did he get from some goofy guy in high school that wore different clothes and, you know, played his guitar to an international sensation? And it appears that he just launched a couple records and everything went crazy and he got on TV and he became Elvis. But, um, you know, let’s bring this conversation to 20,20 here’s Will Shewfelt dabbling, cutting a few songs. And how does this thing start? And where does head?
Will (00:50:47):
Ah, that’s, that’s such a good question. So when I said, if I even had an inkling of potential, you know, I would, I would really pursue it. That’s that’s always been a desire of mine, but I just didn’t think I had any potential. So when I finally had the opportunity to get in the studio to do a rap song last year, um,
Brad (00:51:08):
Hey, this is where I come from the street. I hope you like my stuff. Cause I think it’s pretty sweet, but I got no freaking idea cause no one ever judged me. And now it’s time for you to Now you got to finish the verse. Hate me alive.
Will (00:51:20):
Okay. I don’t know. Here we go. All right.
Brad (00:51:23):
So you, you, you, you started out, you started that the first baby step forward, man. Turning that mic on. Good for you.
Will (00:51:30):
That’s that’s the thing, little wins build confidence. So when I did that song, I realized, okay, well, uh, everybody in the studio reacted really positively to it. They actually went crazy when I did it. And they’re like, Oh my God, one take Jake and all this kind of stuff. So I said, okay, uh, this is my first time rapping. And I had that sort of reaction. I thought, okay, well, what if, what if I try this again? What if I try this again? And you push it one step forward. And then the singing was where I always wanted to go. And I had seen a YouTube video of a few of my favorite singers in that whole reggaeton genre. And it was them in the studio. And this is actually what motivated me. I heard them in the studio without any filters, without any effects, without any Auto-Tune or anything like that.
Will (00:52:15):
And these guys didn’t sound that good. I thought, man, this is kinda what I sound like when I’m in the car, you know, singing along. And I thought, okay, well that shows me something right there. When you add the whole production value on top of it, it turns into an elevated product. So I thought, okay, what if I had this equation of what if I train my voice? What if I wrote music? What if I released a bunch of songs got better over time? And then you add the production value on top of that. And then you give yourself maybe two, three years to really get good at that and define your voice and your niche and things like that. Where could I be at the end of that period? What would that look like? So as soon as I thought about that, I was like, okay, I got to find out, it sounds too fun to, to not do so. Um, that’s, that’s, that’s how it works for me. I, what I look for is what is my potential in this? If I really apply myself and then I just, you just have to judge like, okay, is that worth me putting my time into, um, and some things are and some things aren’t.
Brad (00:53:15):
And I’m curious today with the advent of digital music, how does one succeed and turn it into, let’s say a viable economic opportunity. Cause I’m familiar from the old days where, um, someone cut a record, you’d go to the record store, you buy it. If they sell a million of them, uh that’s great. And now you can get music for free. So what is the, what does the industry look like?
Will (00:53:38):
Well, a lot of it nowadays is centered around streaming. So, um, it’s a lot less about, you know, people going out and buying the album or the CD or things like that. People just get on Spotify or they get on YouTube and they listen to your music. Um, so it’s a very, very different platform. And the way that you build up your streaming numbers, a lot of it has to do these days with volume and quality. You want to get out as much high quality music as you can. The greatest volume of that, and you want to do it consistently. And that way you’re able to sort of build up your audience. Um, mainly through social media, uh, through all the different sites, you’re able to build up your audience there and you kind of take them along on this journey with you and that’s how you really get those loyal fans.
Will (00:54:23):
So a lot of it has to do with that. And then there’s also a lot of, um, online marketing that they do nowadays through Facebook ads and things like that. And that’s a big part of, uh, I guess just playing the game, so to speak, getting your music out there in front of as many people as possible. Um, I think a lot of artists get very hyper-focused on the talent side of things, which is definitely necessary and it’s hugely important, but I’ll say that there are many, many very talented musicians and actors and people of all different trades that because they didn’t try to master the, the business side of it or because they didn’t try to figure out how to put a product out there. Um, the music doesn’t get heard and that’s, I think that’s a shame. So, um, yeah, these days that whole media landscape is very online.
Will (00:55:15):
It’s very streaming oriented, social media oriented, and it’s also, um, much more of a volume game. I think these days than it used to be before. Back in the day, you know, people I think would probably release an album every couple of years and there’d be a huge marketing push from Sony and you’d see billboards and posters everywhere. And it got crazy radio play and radio was a huge part of it as well. Um, these days radio is not as huge a part of it. You know, people connect their phones to Bluetooth in the car and just play what they want on their Spotify. Um, so there’s definitely been changes in that whole landscape
Brad (00:55:52):
How’s that compared to the acting scene? Cause I know music, you can publish yourself now, but acting, you still need that, uh, to play that game and get, get hired by a production,
Will (00:56:06):
You would think, right? But I would say acting has gone in the exact same direction. Um, the internet has really democratized and social media, I should say. It’s really democratized that whole process. A lot of the old gatekeepers that you had to go through, the big studios, you know, you got to go to a thousand auditions to catch the eye of a casting director who’s going to put you in your part. That may be your big breakout part, you know, pray to God, but it might not be. And you know, a lot of people coming to LA making the pilgrimage to try to succeed. Um, a lot of that has changed these days. I know people from all over the country that have one, two, three, four, 5 million followers on social media, they build their audience from where they’re already at, by putting out short films, by putting out, uh, comedy skits by if they want to do action adventure, they’re putting out action adventure content that they’re able to nowadays film themselves with them, with their friends, do the VFX themselves, or maybe they send it to a buddy of theirs.
Will (00:57:07):
That’s in another state. He does the VFX. Um, and then he sends it back to them. So it’s very, very different these days. Obviously the biggest jobs are still done by these huge studios. But I would say the process of working with them in my opinion has changed. Um, a big part of my current strategy is, you know, creating my own content around that. So Rise of the Ninja. That’s something I’m doing Rise of the Hood is another project I’m doing. And then Solares, uh, this is another project I’m doing. These are all web series that we’re doing that we’re putting out on YouTube. Um, you know, we, we have full production value behind it, but it’s not with, um, a huge studio or with this huge budget. It’s everybody getting together and saying, Hey, we’re going to do this. Um, none of you guys are probably going to get paid, but we’re all gonna put our best into this because it’s going to help launch us into a different platform and you do that and you put it on YouTube and you it’s, if it’s quality, you can get a million, 2 million, 5 million, 10 million views, which now, you know, who’s watching that our casting director is watching that.
Will (00:58:15):
Um, so I, I actually just did a, uh, a short film about five days ago with, um, someone King Vader who is very popular on social media. He has been creating these sort of, uh, short films and funny videos and stuff for the past couple of years. And he just, you know, got a deal with Netflix. So the strategy is really changed. It’s no longer just going to the casting director and here’s my scene. I hope you guys like it. You can really create whatever you want to create these days with the internet and social media and people will see that,
Brad (00:58:50):
Oh, so those clips on your Instagram are one of these, uh, small, small time productions, uh, destined for a YouTube.?
Will (00:58:57):
Exactly.
Brad (00:58:59):
Oh my gosh, I didn’t even know this world existed. That that’s super incredible. Right. And so, I mean, it can be wildly popular in contained in a, um, uh, a YouTube shell. It doesn’t ever have to go on to Netflix, but of course that’s probably going to be happening when, uh, people find what’s popular and, and bring it into, uh, their channels. But yeah, that’s amazing. I guess like, uh, Casey and his YouTube stuff. I remember seeing an article that, uh, his, his average views ranked him higher than 60 minutes, which is the perennial, uh, Nielsen rated top five television program in the country for decades. And now here’s this goofy guy, uh, filming stuff every day for YouTube, it’s phenomenal where the culture is headed.
Will (00:59:45):
That’s the thing like these are the new TVs. You know, people, people watch these things almost more than they sit in front of the television and watch traditional TV programming. And then with these, you know, rather than having to flip through the shows that are available to you, you go on YouTube, you can watch anything you want. You can go to Netflix, watch anything you want whenever you want. Um, so it’s completely changing the entire process around how to get content up. And nowadays anybody can become a content creator, which a lot of people look at pessimistically and they think, wow, well, anybody can host a podcast. Anybody can make music. Anybody can create a series. But I think that’s actually the beauty of it. Now, anybody, if they really want to pursue this, they can. And it’s a little bit more of like a meritocracy where if you’re willing to put the amount of work that you want to put into this, you can achieve success with it, which maybe you don’t have to have your uncle who was a director anymore. Or you don’t have to have, you know, you don’t have to be living in LA to put quality music out.
Will (01:00:48):
So I think that’s a beautiful thing. I think it’s awesome.
Brad (01:00:52):
Oh, sure. There’s the, you know, the, um, the gates are open and it’s, whoever’s going to rise to the top is going to be, uh, as, as fair as you can ever imagine. So that’s really cool. I think I would love to, um, kind of wrap this up with that question that maybe, uh, many listeners are, are brewing in their heads right now. And you’re, you have your fingers in all this different stuff. Uh, we know about you start as the Power Ranger. You kind of put that aside. You get deep into the health scene as a young guy being one of the leading voices is incredible. And now you you’ve gone back and doing some more acting and then throwing in the singing thing and especially, you know, people of your age or impressional people that are looking at their future.
Brad (01:01:35):
And a lot of times we’ve heard, uh, you know, what are you going to do with that major? You’ve got to specialize, you’ve got to get hired by a particular firm and do this career forever. And now it seems like, uh, there’s a book. Uh, David Epstein wrote the book called RTange, uh, arguing for a broader experience rather than focusing. And, you know, these skills can kind of help you. Uh, but in your case with your finger and all these different endeavors, how do they compliment each other? I guess I could ask. And, you know, what’s your, what’s your reflection? I mean, I know you’re, you’re following your heart, which is great. Uh, but we also have to be practical here too. And so I’m wondering about the practicality and what your vision is for that.
Will (01:02:18):
Yeah. That’s, that’s a fun, that’s a fun topic right there. Um, so you, you always need to have a long-term vision with this. What are ultimately the, the major accomplishments that I want to achieve? And when you have an idea of that, then you can backtrack and you can figure out what the steps are that you need to take moving forward. And those steps for me, where I’m at currently probably don’t make sense to the vast majority of people, because I think Steve jobs was the one that said, uh, you can’t connect the dots. Um, looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards. And when you look back, then they all make sense. I didn’t know why I was in karate when I was five years old, but when the powering drivers, she came along, it was perfect. I didn’t know why I did essay contests when I was a kid.
Will (01:03:06):
But when, uh, we started writing this book, it, it made sense. And it was, it was something that I was ready to do. So to me, I never try to explain it to people. I never try to, I guess, justify it or explain to them, here’s why I’m doing this. And, um, or put a label or a category on it. I would say to me, the most important thing is always, um, do I have a goal with what I’m doing? What is the end goal of it? And then what do I need to do to get there? And then for me, with the amount of things that I’m doing, all that matters to me is that I’m able to be successful at the things that I’m doing within the time ranges that I’ve selected. And I, I’m a huge, huge believer in organizing your time, organizing your day, your week, your month, your year.
Will (01:03:55):
And then when you do that, people might think you’re doing a lot of things, but really if you have each hour blocked out and you know, okay, this week for music, I have to devote three hours a day. I also need to get my workouts in. That’s going to be, uh, two hours, three times a week, and then I need to get my eight hours of sleep in and this and that. When you budget all of that time out and you see it on a weekly calendar, it makes sense to you how you’re going to achieve those different targets. Cause it’s all right there in the plan. And you just have to follow that hour by hour, and then you zone in and focus when the time comes to focus on the music or the acting or the online business and the health. Um, so to me, like that’s, that’s kind of how I keep track of all of it, but I don’t think everyone has to live that way.
Will (01:04:39):
I think, um, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with going niche and, you know, specializing in one particular area and really focusing on becoming a master of that, becoming known for that. And I think a lot of people derive great satisfaction from doing that for me, I’m 25 right now. And I am definitely, you know, getting that range. I’m definitely kind of spreading myself out among these different areas because I feel that there will be invaluable experiences that I’ll learn now that will help me with my bigger targets in my thirties and forties and fifties. And it’s all gonna make sense back. But at the moment, it probably doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. Like why don’t you just focus on one thing and do that. And when you’re done with that, then pursue something else. But as long as I organize my time, I think I’m okay.
Brad (01:05:29):
Love it, man. Very nice. I appreciate that. And especially you giving a shout out to someone who’s inclined to do something differently and get tremendously focused on studying the, the lizards and the Galapagos and that’s what they live and breathe and everything works.
Will (01:05:44):
So yeah,
Brad (01:05:45):
it’s always fun to catch up with Will Shewfelt let’s give a plug to your awesome podcast Will to Win. And, uh, how else can we connect with you now?
Will (01:05:55):
It’s always great catching up with you, Brad, you have awesome energy, and this is always fun that we can banter about not only nutrition, but also things in entertainment. And I know that you have, uh, a variety of different interests as well. So it’s always fun. Um, yeah, the Will to Win podcast. That’s where I drop weekly podcasts. Um, most, most of them right now are with guests. And then I also do these sort of solo casts where I’ll talk about maybe something like time management, or I might talk about goal setting or a recent, you know, personal development book that I read that I thought had some great insights. So, um, it’s a very kind of motivational, informational type podcast. And then on Instagram, it’s at William Shewfelt S H E W F E L T on YouTube. I drop, vlogs on there where I take you guys, maybe behind the scenes on a studio day where I’m making music or behind the scenes of filming a project. Um, I’m also dropping my music on YouTube. So that’s youtube.com/ Will Shewfelt. And then, yeah, there’s, there’s a lot more music coming soon. So that’s, that’s where things are headed.
Brad (01:07:02):
Disfruita everybody. Thank you. Well, great show.
Will (01:07:10):
Thank you for listening to the show. We would love your feedback at 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.
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