Craig Casaletto, Men's Coach, Podcaster, Former Detective

00:00
Yeah, that happened one day I came home and she told me that she dropped that bomb on me. And I always look back and I'm like, yeah, that's the day. Like life kicked me square in the nuts and I became a man.

00:18
Welcome to another episode of Chewing The Fat. I am your host, Big Robb. Thank you so much for tuning in, downloading the episode. I really appreciate that. Also wanna say a big shout out to Atlanta2012 for the review on Apple Podcasts. Thank you so much for the kind words. That means so much to me. And I know it means a lot to a lot of podcasters when you get that email notification that you've got a new rating on your podcast. That means a lot. And also, of course,

00:46
to all the folks that have bought me a coffee and helped to support the podcast as well. Thank you, Scott. I appreciate that. I'm excited about our episode today. It's a guy I've known for less than a year, but I feel like we've just got this amazing bond. Please welcome to the show, Craig Casaletto. What's up, Rob? What is happening? Thanks for having me here. Thank you so much for agreeing to be here. We, I'm gonna say became friends.

01:15
I mean, we were kind of classmates really to begin with, with our friend Travis Brown. He had a master class that he was kind of getting people rolling with podcasting. And my story of course was that I had all this equipment and all this desire to do it, but I just wasn't hitting the big red button. I just wasn't doing it. And thanks to Travis, his kind of kicking the ass was the inspiration I needed to go ahead and just do it.

01:44
And you were part of that class too. And it was such an amazing, like again, brotherhood family feeling of encouragement and being able to just help lift each other up and help us to get over that hump and do what we were wanting to do with podcasting. So, Craig having you in there, you actually had a different podcast going on.

02:12
at the time and then you were transitioning in the name to a different style and now you've got something completely else going on right now and we're going to get into that. But where are you calling in on Zoom from today? From sunny Southern California, Rob. Oh, I hear it never rains in Southern California. Is that true? You know what? It's not necessarily true. It rains, but it's like...

02:37
It doesn't happen that often. And when it does rain, it's like the worst, I mean, it's the worst thing possible. It's like, oh, it's like the cats and dogs are flying from the roof and it's like, oh my God, what are we gonna do? And like cars are off on the side of the road. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's kind of like when it snows in Georgia. It's like, we don't know what to do. Yeah, we don't know what to do. It's crazy. It's like, and I'm originally an East Coaster, Rob, so I've dealt with the elements with snow and stuff. So it's kind of laughable in a way. That's funny. That's funny. So Craig, you're.

03:04
Your background, and again, we'll get into the podcast and everything, your background, you were a former police detective, correct? That's correct. And how long were you in that industry? I was in that industry for 15 wonderful years, Rob. Wow.

03:22
Wow. All in the Southern California area or? No, no, it's all in the East Coast. So I was a detective in Northern New Jersey, probably like if someone's familiar with the Northeast, it's a probably about like 40 minutes west of New York City. So give you some like geography there. But, yeah, spent my most of my early adult life as a police detective. Wow. No. So were you from that area? So you so you say you're natively from from the East Coast, where is it around that Jersey area? Or? Yeah.

03:51
Born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to New Jersey when I was in high school, and then, yeah, was in Jersey and decided to become a law enforcement officer, and there I was. So again, as a layman, I don't know how the whole ranking thing goes with police. You just became an officer first, right? You were like walking a beat or driving a patrol car or whatever, correct? And then you kind of worked up to detective? Or was detective always the goal?

04:21
Well, you know what? It's interesting you say that because originally I did not want to become a police officer. I didn't want to become like a regular, any uniformed police officer. I wanted to be an investigator, like from the beginning. And I was like taking tests to be, I wanted to work for the FBI. I wanted to work for a government agency. I just felt like, I was fell in love with the idea of wearing a suit and having a gun and investigating crimes. I thought I was like a movie star. Like I wanted to be like this like typical movie star.

04:48
It just doesn't really pan out that way because it's just the reality of movies, obviously, are two different, completely two different things. Right, right. But so what happened was I was taking a bunch of tests. I was actually had just almost got hired, Rob, for the Secret Service. I had applied. I went through all these different testing, took a polygraph examination, flew to Washington DC, all these different things. And literally, I was waiting. And at the time, I was just in a situation where I had to find a job. My mom moved.

05:16
She had gone through a divorce. She literally came up to me. She's like, Craig, listen, I got some news for you. She goes, I just sold the house. I'm getting remarried. I'm leaving. So you have to find a job and you're gonna have to find a place to live. Yeah, that happened one day. I came home and she told me that she dropped that bomb on me. And that's the day I became a man. I always look back and I'm like, yeah, that's the day. Like life kicked me square in the nuts and I became a man.

05:41
So at that point, like I was really pressured. I knew what field I wanted to get into. And I was like, all right, I just started taking a bunch of different tests, which in order to be a police officer, there's a testing process. And while I was applying for the Secret Service, the department that was a local department in the area I lived called me and said, listen, we all want to offer you the job. And at that time I'm like, yes, I'll take it. And spent my first eight years of my career in uniform. And during that process, probably the latter part of that process I became a training officer. So I was training officers that came out of the academy.

06:11
But I always had that investigative mind. And then shortly thereafter, they said, listen, you got some skills as a detective, as an officer doing investigative work. We'd love to have you and get an opportunity to come into the detective bureau and worked like major crimes and all sorts of stuff for the rest of my career. Wow. That's crazy. That's awesome though. That's awesome. And in sidebar, you did get to live a little bit of that movie star life as a detective because you were on

06:40
a TV show as a detective, right? I mean, as an actual, you doing your job, but you were like, you were on like one of the true crime TV shows, here's the unsolved mystery kind of thing, correct? Yeah, that's correct. So I was actually asked to be on a show called The Dead Files on the Travel Channel. And part of my role was part detective, part like it was in like more of an acting detective role, more

07:04
on the detective side. And yeah, part of the role was I had to investigate a paranormal, which is the essence of the show, a paranormal thing that took place in Northern California. And it was awesome, man. It was just an awesome experience to be asked and then to participate. It was cool. I got a chance to live out my dream of being a detective on TV. Yeah, yeah, that is so cool. That is so cool. So after being a detective,

07:31
being in being law enforcement for 15 years what happened? Did law enforcement bring you to to California? You know it so a lot had happened in which was kind of like Throughout that 15 years, you know, I was kind of dealing with a lot of different things. I was not feeling professionally fulfilled I loved my job and I loved the service aspect and giving back and serving a community and

07:56
and giving back to people. But one of the hardest things was, I think most of the stress and anxiety that I was feeling was through the actual internal workings of the department. And I just had a hard time with people putting...

08:12
bumpers on my bumper lane and my bowling lane. Like they were just telling me, I had to stay within the lanes all the time. I had to, you know, follow a certain structure and you're not gonna get, like there's gonna be one or two people that are gonna tell you if you're gonna move forward ahead. And I had a hard time with that. So it came to a time where my wife, she was doing, she's an executive coach and she has a growing business and she was doing a lot of workout in California and we had young kids and she's like, listen, she goes, I know you're not exactly happy. You're not exactly sure, you know, what's gonna do with this longterm.

08:41
with your position, what do you wanna do? And I'm like, you know what? She goes, I'm thinking about moving out West with the kids. You wanna, she's like, what do you think about this? You think it's good for our family? I'm like, you know what? I got one life to live, let's do it. And at the time I was like, there were, I had just got promoted, I was made a sergeant. And then they wanted me to go back out and do like roadwork, like supervise like seven or eight.

09:06
to 10 officers on a shift and I just didn't have it in me. And like, I had young kids and I'm like, I don't wanna miss that time with my kids. Yeah, yeah. And I had missed enough of that when I was, cause getting called out in the middle of the night, all that's for crazy stuff. Like I missed that time with my young kids. So I just made a decision. And you know what Rob, here's the crazy part about it. I am not typically a risk taker, never was. I like certainty, I like.

09:29
being in my comfort zone. And that was the first time I think like my heart spoke more than my head and my heart told me that I had to do something. Aside from the move, like the move was the excuse, the main excuse or the main reason, but my heart was like, you need to do something different. And that's how I wound up in California. That's awesome. That's awesome that you trusted that. That's one of the hardest things for people to do is to trust something that kind of goes against what they've always done to take that risk. So that's.

09:58
That's amazing that you, and it sounds like you had a great support system too, you know, with your wife and your kids. There was other, there were other reasons, you know, that helped to, to propel you into that decision. Um, and it seems like it's been a pretty good one for you, right? Yeah, it's been, it's been awesome. It doesn't, I mean, listen, it has its moments and at all the places I can move, I'm super lucky. I mean, it's unbelievably beautiful. But what I will say though, is that that support system is huge. Like if it wasn't for

10:25
Because I could see it the opposite way like you can't you can't do this or we can't do this We don't have the means to do this or whatever we could find every excuse not to And it would you know, I can only think life would have been really really miserable But i'm definitely blessed to have an amazing support system here. My family. So what did you uh, What did you end up doing once you guys got to uh, california? You know Very a great question rob because I I didn't know like I literally all I knew

10:54
for all of my life was how to be a law enforcement officer, an investigator, a detective to solve crimes, to figure out who the bad guys were, to do those things. And that's what I did and that's what I was good at. So transitioning out of that into what I would call the real world was really hard. Mentally, most importantly mentally, it just crushed me because I was like, I don't know what I'm gonna do. Like, first of all, I don't know what skills.

11:21
I have that are going to apply, at least that's the story I was telling myself. And two, I was like, I don't know what to do. Like I'm a little bit older. I just like, I'm starting from scratch. I'm like, it's like me coming out of college again. Like I don't know what to do. And I think that kind of played games with me, but I knew I wanted to serve. And I knew that one of the things I really love was the service aspect of my job. And that's really kind of what got me, you know, to.

11:48
wanna express myself over a microphone. And I said, hey, what's a better idea than to start a podcast. And it's gonna be super successful and it's gonna be great and it's gonna pay the bills and it's gonna be, life's gonna be awesome because I'm gonna have this unbelievable podcast and millions of people are gonna listen to. And you know what? I started this podcast called the White Tiger podcast and it started off more so of just sharing my experiences, law enforcement officer through like self-development.

12:14
And it kind of transitioned into more of speaking with professional athletes and entrepreneurs. And literally did that for like 3 and 1 half years. Drove my wife nuts because she's like, oh my god, you're just recording a podcast. And get to work, you bum. You know, like one of those things. It's like, what are you doing? It's like, get out of that office. I know that you have dreams and aspirations, but let's go. Right. And

12:39
Yeah, and I did that for three and a half years, had a co-host, an unbelievable co-host on this podcast for probably the last two and a half, three years of it. And it was an awesome journey. Yeah, yeah. And so I think that's around the point where we kind of got introduced to each other right there because you were looking to change the name of the podcast, maybe change the direction. And that's when we both were kind of hanging out with Travis Brown and doing the,

13:09
podcast builder club and all that type of stuff, which again is great. And that group of, I think it was maybe about a dozen of us or so that were in that mastermind, that group, some of the most encouraging people I've ever met in my life, and people I wouldn't have been exposed to outside of that.

13:34
You know, you in California, you know, we got folks in Arizona, Canada, you know, I mean, just people all over the country that have a similar type of passion and want to, want to speak our message, you know, want to connect with people, want to serve people with, um, you know, our different styles and different things that we have in our podcast. And now you've kind of gone into a, uh, a different direction of a podcast for right now.

14:02
You're very active on social media on TikTok and Instagram. I still consider it like a podcast. It's a little 15, 30, three-minute podcast on that platform with Oddman Up. Right? Now, what is the premise of Oddman Up?

14:30
a spin on the term odd man out. And basically what odd man up is, is that it really birthed from an idea about self-development for men. Like for me, I'm always trying to figure something out or trying to find some good information that's gonna help me, whether it be physically, whether it be mentally, something that's going to help, whether it be a good book, a good podcast or something. And I found through that journey that I was coming across a lot of what we would call gurus or influencers

14:59
that had a certain like alpha male type of perspective on what it means to be a man and what it means for self-development and what you need to do to be successful. And it's a narrative that I just didn't identify with. And it was one of those things like every place I looked and a lot of it was on social media and the internet. It was the same thing. It was guys in front of a plane drinking whiskey with a long beard, throwing axes, telling you, listen, if you're not making.

15:25
quadrillion amount of dollars and have a charter plane to go to your next speaking event, you're not a man. It's just simple as that, you're not. And I just did not like that because I felt like there's more to being a man than someone else telling you what success is. So that's really kind of what birthed the odd man up. It's just more so the fact, hey, I wanna start sharing my experience as a law enforcement officer, sharing my personal experience going through a variety of different things personally.

15:54
to help men just get better, just simply get better and give them an alternate approach to that alpha male, like let's throw an ax and let's do whatever, do that type of thing. And it's been awesome. I've been loving the journey so far. Yeah, and I gotta say, as someone I personally, I would not,

16:19
consider myself like the alpha male type or whatever. I mean, I was not on a sports team in high school. I was in the theater. I was in band. I was those things that would been looked down upon as masculine, you know what I mean? When they're like, what do you do? I mean, I worked in radio and television, so I got really soft hands. I never had to like build something and get calluses.

16:50
and all of that type of stuff, those manly things. So I love the perspective that you have that it doesn't take those things for you to be a man. And sometimes those things can cause detrimental problems in development of a man, especially if you're a young man. It's like, oh, well, you have to do this to be a man. And it's like, no, you...

17:16
you can be better than that. And I love that that's what you bring to the world. It's such an amazing message. And I'm so glad that you found that within yourself to spread that message, to be able to say, hey, it's not, like you say, it's not, if you're not making a million dollars, what are you doing with your life? If you're not, I mean, I'm gonna say, I've thrown an ax before, it's kind of fun. They've got like, you can rent a lane and throw it. That's kind of fun. But like- Yes, yes.

17:44
But you know, I'm not entering the, what is it, the lumberjack Olympics or whatever. I'm not, that's not gonna be me. I totally agree. And you know, no offense to Axe throwers out there, because I love, I would do that in a heartbeat, but I think it's more so like the overall mentality as opposed to the actual activities, you know? It's like...

18:08
The mentality is just one of those that is just, it's just one thing I just couldn't identify with. And I'm like, listen, I can't be the only guy out there, Rob, that doesn't agree with this or doesn't like, and I'm like, all right, well, just like I tapped my inner Gandhi and I just, you know, I saw the change I wanted to see or I was the change or I wanted to be the change I wanted to see in the world. So I'm like, let me start this, let me do this. And here we are. Yeah. And I think it's great. And if there are any guys out there, I don't know if you're a young guy, an older guy.

18:37
I definitely encourage you to check out at odd man up on Instagram and on TikTok. Fine. Fine. Craig connect. He's an amazing person. Um, so let's go back a little bit and because I think it's fascinating. Um, and I'm so like said, I'm so glad that you are where you at right now, but let's turn the clock back, uh, and talk about some of your detective work because you gotta have great stories there.

19:07
Is there something that you learned from a specific case or something that really changed your mindset about life, about people, about second chances or reading red flags, you know what I mean? I mean, there's a whole gamut there. I asked you like five questions in one, but.

19:35
but something that really changed your mindset from working at Cakes? Yeah, so there was one specific case that I would say changed my life and it changed my mindset. It showed me the power of my mind, the power of visualization. So when I first came into the Detect Bureau, Rob, there was a big stack of folders on my new desk that I was inheriting. We had someone leave and then I came in and kind of took that person's place.

20:04
and they left this whole old cold case on this desk. So I go in, I'm dusting everything off, I come in with my shirt and tie, I hadn't worn a shirt and tie since I, probably never. And then I come in and I see this big thing, I tell my supervisor, tell my coworker, I'm like, hey, what's this? Because, oh, this is a bank robbery case that we had, it goes unsolved. I mean, we had literally the guy on video going in and robbing this bank, it just went unsolved.

20:28
And it was just a big thorn in our side. Like when you kind of like, we took the Detective Bureau took a loss, like we're like, we know who this guy is, we just couldn't prove it. And this case went cold and they still haven't been able to identify the person. But pretty much it was told to me like, listen, if we get another case like this again, we got to solve it. Like this is like, this is, it's not gonna happen to us again. So probably like five or six years went by and all of a sudden I was off.

20:52
And I got an email, I was going through some work emails and I saw that there was some guys out on a case. We got, there's a bank robbery in our town. And not only was it in our town, but it was in also five or six other towns in the area. So I came in the following day and I started getting a briefing on the information about this bank robbery. And I started to find out that they had a guy that was on surveillance, he was wearing a suit and he had a hat, a different hat every time. Anyway,

21:21
He was a serial bank robber. He was going all over the area in Northern Jersey robbing banks. And one of those banks happened to be in our jurisdiction. And we were able to get some information about what kind of car he was driving and some of the specifics about the car. It was a black Mitsubishi Galant. And the interesting part about it was is that one of the hubcaps was missing on the back, which made it stand out. Anyway, I came in that following day. And I remember, I'll never forget it, Rob. I told my coworker, I said, listen, I am going to catch this bank robber.

21:50
I said, I don't know how, I don't know. It's a complete, I had no information really just yet, but I'm going to do this. And Rob, I'm telling you, I visualized this. I want, I just like, I focused on it. I said, I want this so bad that I would have to catch this guy. And I visualized me making the arrest. I visualized myself getting an award for catching this guy. And I pictured what the event would look like.

22:17
And I pictured how the presentation would go. And I pictured out everything in my mind. So I went out to my coworker, I'm like, listen, I'm gonna go out and start talking to people. And I'll never forget the words that she told to me. She said, yeah, good luck. You're not gonna have any luck with that. I'm like, okay. So for the following couple of weeks, I was pounding the pavement, interviewing a bunch of different people. While I was doing this, he was still robbing banks. He was robbing banks all over the, I must have like six or seven banks in the area while I was, and we couldn't find him.

22:48
We had a couple of good leads, never turned out to be the person. And you know what's interesting, Rob, is like, when you get some information, we were looking for this Mitsubishi Galant, you'd be surprised when you're not, when you actually start looking for something and paying attention to something, you'd be surprised how many of those things you find. We must have stopped like 50 Mitsubishi Galants that were colored black that had a missing hubcap. Like you'd never, you would think it's so rare. When you're looking for something, you find them all over the place. Yeah, yeah. Anyway, it got to the point where he stopped robbing banks.

23:17
And I had gone on vacation. I'm just like, you know what? I've tried my best. This guy stopped. We couldn't identify him. We were working with a bunch of different agencies, including government. Couldn't find a guy. And I'm like, you know what? We're going on vacation. My wife's like, I got a business trip out in California. Want to take a, let's go out there and let's clear our head and just enjoy it. So we flew out to California, spent a week and a half out in California.

23:45
And I come back to New Jersey, flying to Newark Airport. My father-in-law picks us up and he's driving. I'm sitting in the passenger seat. My wife's in the back and he's taking us back to his house in Southern New Jersey. So I'm driving, I'm in the passenger seat. We're driving down route 78 in New Jersey. And at the corner of my eye, I see a black Mitsubishi Golan. And I said, hey, to my father-in-law, like, can you do me a favor? Can you just speed up?

24:14
And I just want to see if I can see this car. So he speeds up, we get up to the car, and I know it's missing a hubcap. So I jot down the license plate and the road splits. It's like a movie, it's like a fork in the road. He goes left, I go right, and we disappear and we separate from each other. So all I have this Mitsubishi Galant's license plate. Two days later, I go back to work. I go back to work, I go up, I run the license plate.

24:42
and it comes back to this 75, 80 year old guy. And I'm like, all right, well, hold on a minute. Let me see. It's not the type of car a 75 or 80 year old guy would drive. Let's look into this a little bit. I looked into it and turns out that there was another person with the same name in his twenties that was part of that household. We looked it up and the guy looked very similar to the person in the video of all these bank robberies.

25:09
Anyway, we started doing surveillance on the guy, make a long story short, we found him, it was him, and we wound up making an arrest, and we arrested the guy after some surveillance and whatnot, and we got all his attire, his suits, his hats, and all that jazz, and probably about two months later, I received award for detector of the year for that case, and I got an award, and I was presented the award just the way I visualized it. That is so cool.

25:39
That is so cool. And you know, I mean that's like you say, you know the the the power positive thinking You know that they say thoughts become things. I mean that's that's amazing That you didn't let that you didn't let the months and the stack and the you know, the cold case or anything like that Deter you from reaching your goal You know and and Kali and that determination you have now from that

26:09
is the type of stuff that you, that you, for lack of a better word, preach on Odd Man Up 2. You know, because you've been there. You know that it can happen. You know that it can happen for other folks. I think it's amazing. I think it's amazing. Golly. Although I was, before you finish, I will say, when you're talking about being in Your Father in Lost Cars, I thought you were gonna be like, and he was driving a black Mitsubishi Galant.

26:39
It was my father-in-law. It's a twist. That's it, like major plug-twist. Huge plug-twist, no. That would have been something. I don't know if I'd put it past my father-in-law either to do something like that, but I would have had him way early. Way early. He wouldn't even have got to that point. Yeah, but you know what the kind of the moral of the story was for me is just like for a long time, like I wasn't the most positive thinker, but I got into this frame of mind where I'm like, you know, when you believe in something so much and you have these things that you can go through, you're trying to be more confident,

27:09
feel better about what's going on in your life and you could visualize the things that you want. And it's not hokey in the respect, like some people think, oh, you visualize it, it's gonna happen. It's not that. Basically what it does, at least it did for me was, when I started visualizing these things, specifically that is what changed my life because I'm like, wow, if I could do this, I could do it in any aspect of my life. But one of the things I've learned is like, when you start visualizing things and believing them, like you start to act differently.

27:36
you start to think differently. And it's those thoughts and those actions that create the results, right? It's not that you're visualizing something and then poof, it comes true. It just changes the pattern of what you do mentally and the actions you take, and it gets you closer to that thing that you're visualizing. And for me, that's what it did. And I realized like certain things have happened to me all my life, and I've worked a bunch of crazy different cases, and that probably wasn't the most like intent, but it was a case that...

28:03
I'll always carry with me because it's something that changed my life personally.

28:11
All right, Craig. So this is our second segment of the show. This is where we like to dive a little bit deeper into you, talking about mental health. You've done a lot, you've done a lot of stuff. I can't imagine the mental strain that goes into being a police officer, a detective, the things that you see that can affect you. And then, you know, moving with no, you know, across the country with no real like direction of what you're gonna do.

28:41
It's a lot, but how do you keep the darkness at bay?

28:50
You know, Rob, for many years I had no idea. And I struggled a lot trying to figure out how. But I think, you know, my priorities kind of changed. I think once I had a family and I had kids and I started to figure out like, I really got to kind of get this under wraps like these, this, I got to put the stress and the anxiety and all this other stuff. I got to manage it, right? And one of the things I think that helps me keep the darkness at bay is just,

29:19
is to be to move mentally and physically. I think that has increases my, it allows me to release stress. It allows me to clear my head. I find a lot of things come when I get, some good things come to me when I get the blood moving in some capacity. And also to just be active, to take action and to be proactive. Because

29:46
we're constantly gonna get bombarded with negative information. And in today's society, it's just almost inevitable. And you really have to, like you're working out, you have to work that hard to build your mind, just like you would build your muscles or build cardiovascular health or anything like that. It's repetitive working out of your mind of reading good books, listening to good podcasts, finding good people that are part of your tribe and getting rid of the people that.

30:12
maybe not be doing that, you know, the positive stuff for you or helping you in your life move forward. So I think those are the really the components, I guess, of what I do to keep the darkness at bay. Yeah. And do you find that, like, especially the moving thing, obviously there are other health benefits to moving, you know, and, but I find that once you can get to a certain point where you get past your, and again, this is as of

30:42
you know, a big guy talking about going for a 30 minute walk. You can get past your feet hurting because you don't walk that much all at one time. Um, especially if it's somewhere where you can either, like I said, listen to music while you're doing it. And you can really start to concentrate on other things and for, and really forget and lose track of the time of what it is that you're doing physically with your body. Um, when you get in, I guess, what do they call it? The, you know, getting in the zone, getting in that, you know,

31:12
And there's such a great clarity, I think, that comes mentally when you can get in that zone and stop thinking about the what your body is doing. Let it do what it's doing, but then take that time to yourself to become more mindful even. Oh yeah, 100%. And I always like to like, have like the compound effect too, if like go out for a walk and while you're walking, listen to an audio book. Like, you know, strengthening yourself physically and strengthening yourself mentally.

31:42
Right? You use that time to, you know, we can always say we don't have the time, but if that's really for me, I mean, just an excuse. If you, you can find the time, like if you find the time to listen to that book, to do some, you know, self-development work, to go out for a walk, to do those different things. And those are investments in you. And they should be more needs to. So many people, you know what? I wanna get out there and work out, or I wanna read this book, or I wanna do that. They got, life changes when you start saying that I need to.

32:11
Like when I need to, I really need to work out, because I know it's gonna be good for my family, it's gonna be good for my mental and physical health. I need to start focusing on self development, because I know it's gonna help me personally and professionally. Like I think when you start focusing on that need instead of wants, because wants are easy to kind of push aside, like yeah I want it, I'll get to it some other time. But if I need to, I mean there's like a sense of urgency behind that, so I'd say go after that need aspect of some of the stuff. Yeah, it's interesting, I was just reading a post.

32:41
earlier today about, it was from an author, is writing about writer's block. And that you, as a writer, you get to a point and you can't figure out what you want to write, or what, and how to get those words to form and come out. And that's what he said, he's like, he needs to be in the mindset that he needs to write. He's under a contract, he needs to get this done, he needs to, and also, there's the...

33:11
what they were drawing a point on is there's also what's called a reader's block. There are people who just collect books and never crack the covers because they think it's like, Oh, well that's a cool book to have. Yeah. I'd like to read that eventually someday. And it's like, no, you, you need to read the book. The time is there. You got it. You can still do it. There's, there's somewhere where you can find to read that book. You just have to be mindful and make the decision to do it.

33:42
Yeah, I think even more so to that Rob, I will add to that. It's not just read the book, but do something with the knowledge that comes out of the book. Because so many people read books, but they don't do anything with the information that they learn. And I think that's kind of like, it's like, okay, I usually ask questions like, hey, I read this great book, what book did you read? I read, you know, ABC one, two, three. Okay, great. What have you learned from it? Like, what are you doing with some of the information that you took away from it? Oh, well, you know, cause I think sometimes nowadays like,

34:12
I'm giving out self-development advice. I'm doing all this stuff. I read all these books. I'm like, all right, but what are you doing with it? And especially if you don't do anything with it, it's gone. You have to keep that wheel turning. Yeah, yeah. It says if you don't use it, you lose it kind of thing. That's something that I learned in theater as a singer. If you don't sing, you start losing the control over your voice. You can't lose the power of that instrument. So if you don't use the knowledge,

34:41
that you've acquired from whatever books you're reading, especially if it's like, you know, inspirational self-help, that type of books. I'm not talking about if you're reading, you know, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I mean, although there's social cues, you can learn from that book as well, but you know what I mean? It's, you've got to use that knowledge and to be able to do it in a way that's gonna benefit not only you, but others as well. You know, that's one thing that got me started with the podcast, you know? It was the realization, it's like, well,

35:11
who am I robbing from the conversation if I don't record the conversation and start it and have it? There's somebody that might need to hear it. So who are you robbing by not using the information and the knowledge that you've got? Yeah, the interesting thing, Rob, is literally when I joined that mastermind group, I would have think that you were podcasting for years. Like even now I'm like,

35:38
I would have thought like, wait a minute, like you want to press record. I thought you'd like sound like you've been doing this forever. And it's still right now. It feels like you've been doing this podcast for decades. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? No, it's a good thing. It's like I'm saying more so along the lines of like you're like a seasoned vet. Like you have the you have it when it comes to this. And to be honest with you, Rodman, I couldn't be any more proud of you and what you've accomplished. Like.

36:04
just getting beyond just pressing the button and what you're doing and the information that you're giving out and the interesting people that you're interviewing on this podcast is amazing. So I'm glad that you pressed record, Rob. Oh, I appreciate that. And I'm glad that you are doing what you're doing and you're hitting record on a daily pretty much and putting out the content that you have with Odd Man Up. And it's something I...

36:34
I will say it time and time again, it's stuff that people need to see, especially men that they need to see, but everybody can benefit from it because it's not, you present it in a way of, it's fun, but it's so valuable and so creative. And I just, I am so proud of you for turning the switch, finding your passion because you look, I mean, you look.

37:02
like you are having a great time and I know you are because it comes from the heart. I know it comes from the heart. Yeah, I'm having a, first of all, I'm having a blast. You know, before I kind of felt like when I was creating content, it was more work than fun and I'm just like, listen, if I'm gonna do this again, this is gonna be fun. And here's the funny part. Self-development, especially when it comes to men, is real serious.

37:27
Like when you're talking about money and careers and mental health and only so, like it's all a serious topic. So if you typically all the stuff that you see out there is super serious, it's super rigid, it's super like intense and I don't come at it from that approach. I have this whole laugh and learn type of kind of philosophy. Like I'm gonna have some fun. Hopefully I get some people to laugh and take away a tidbit of good information that could help themselves out. Do you still have

37:55
I know you do because you're human. You're a very human, a very beautiful human, but you still have those days of doubt and anxiety that kind of come at you that maybe your own advice helps you through? Oh yeah, 100% all the time. I don't think I'd be human if I didn't have those feelings and those emotions. I do find it, I feel like I'm really good because I've been trained to.

38:22
and both personally and more so professionally, trained to help people in crisis. Sometimes it's hard to follow your own advice sometimes. And it's even too, it's like my wife's a coach and she tries to coach me through stuff and it's really, really hard because she has an emotional attachment to the situation. So it's hard when you have an emotional attachment to give advice to people that you love and you care about. But yeah, I need to spend more time looking to my own videos and getting some advice from myself.

38:51
But yeah, it's been great. That's awesome. That's awesome. Any one nugget of advice that if it could be the only one message that you would share with the world right now, you'd want to share? Yeah, I think one thing I keep coming back to, Rob, is do not let anyone else dictate or define what success means to you.

39:21
Success is not something extraordinary that you're being fed or being told by someone that you need to be A or B to be successful. Or you need to do A or B or live somewhere or drive a certain car, have a certain job or do a certain thing to be successful. Successful for some people could be just getting out of bed in the morning. Successful could be just being able to support your family and put food on the table.

39:50
means different things to different people. And I think there's a lot of people out there trying to define success for people. And that's why we're so stressed out of our minds and so feel like we're behind and so feel like we need to do things. And success doesn't mean looking a certain way or being a certain way. It's like, I think if you realize that you probably have most of the things that you need in life, it's just that our focus is thrown off by all the distractions that are out there. And listen, you're-

40:18
whoever's listening to this, like you've got the tools that you need. Sometimes you just need that person in your corner that's gonna be your sideline or that's gonna help you get to figure those things out or uncover those things and tell you a different story. Sometimes it's all self, you're telling yourself a story that's just not true and sometimes you just need somebody to help you out and tell you a different one.

40:44
Hey Craig, this is segment three. It is time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five, it's time now for the Fast Five. Fast Five. Fast Five. Fast Five. Fast Five is powered by Poddex. It is an app created by our friend Travis Brown. Created for podcasters, interview questions, things like that that you can use to continue a conversation, but they're also great icebreakers if you ever have to speak in front of a group or you know, you've got one of those work retreats.

41:14
find out some interesting things about your coworkers. He's got an app available on your app stores, whichever type of Android or iPhone you use, and also physical decks that you can get. As a matter of fact, if you go to chewingthefatbr.com slash pod decks and use the promo code chew, you can get 10% off your decks. But here we go, we're gonna hit this up, you got Fast Five, no wrong answers. First thing comes to the top of your head, I'm gonna hit a randomizer, here we go.

41:41
What makes you lose track of time? My kids, my kids completely make me lose track of time. One of the things I can, biggest weakness, total transparency here on chewing the fat. One thing is my kryptonite. I hate, and I hate is such a strong word, but it's true, it applies here. I hate being rushed. I just hate being rushed. When I'm trying to get stuff done, it's like, especially when you have young kids, it's really, really hard. So I'm working on it. So.

42:11
There you go. Sorry. It was a very short but impactful answer. No, no, that's, that's great. That's great. Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I, I lose track of time. Now my, my kids are grown and pretty much out of the house. So, uh, I lose track playing with my pets. You know, that's my, that's my little, you know, soft fuzzy, you know, moment of distraction. And the next thing I know it's like, well, a half hour has gone by cause I'm just throwing the ball and you know, and being in the moment, you know, I think being present.

42:41
is one of those things that helps time fly by when you are enjoying You know the the company of someone that you really love, you know, whether we you know a person You know a character in a book or a little little fuzzy dog, you know our cat, you know It's it's being present. It just makes the time move so much faster Oh Rob, you know what you nailed it on the head because if there's one if there's one reason why

43:08
you lose track of time is to be present. Like I think there's so many of us out there that aren't present, you know, personally and for our families, it's like we, especially when you got, talking about mental health, like, but just when you have a lot of stuff going on in your head, it's hard to be present. But if you're gonna get lost in something, you're gonna lose track of time. Being present's a good thing to do. Yeah, for sure. All right, number two.

43:31
What embarrasses you instantly? Oh, what embarrasses me instantly?

43:43
Probably when someone like passes gas in my presence. Like if someone farts really loud and this kind of like goes into it. Have you ever gone into a bathroom where someone has used the bathroom and it stinks, right? Oh yeah. And then you walk out of that bathroom and then the person coming in thinks you're the one that left that stink.

44:05
Like that embarrasses me the most because I feel like, wait a minute, this wasn't me. I walked into this. So it's like, it's a dual thing, Rob. It's like you go in there and first of all, you have to deal with the stench of what's going on in the bathroom. And then you have to deal with the embarrassment of coming out because there's someone coming in thinking that you did that. Right. And you're like apologizing. It was like that when I found it, it was not me. Well, exactly. Who's gonna believe that, Rob? No one believes that. That's the typical excuse that everyone's gonna get. No, it wasn't me. It was some guy who came in before me. Yeah, exactly.

44:35
That's hilarious. Yeah. And for me, then this is something that embarrasses me personally. And it's things that I have to work through just from, from being a big guy. If I go out to eat and I spill food on my shirt, you know, I get so embarrassed, even if it's just the smallest little drop. And I, even if I can like pick it up, I, because I've, I don't want someone else's perception of me, cause I'm already a big guy and already understand that people perceive

45:06
you know, fat people as a certain thing. I don't want to be perceived as a slob. You know what I mean? And you know, oh, there's the fat guy with food on his chest. So that embarrasses me instantly. So I am super like cognizant of like eating, leaning forward. I'll tuck napkins in my shirt. I don't care. That does not embarrass me. I will put like a whole like tablecloth in, in my shirt, as long as food does not actually get on my clothes.

45:32
You know what, Rob, we should, we should work on that. We should, I should come to Augusta. We should just hire a couple of people and just have a massive food fight. And then just, you know, then you don't have to worry about it. That'd be true. That'd be awesome. Have you ever been in a food fight before? I have actually. In high school, I was at a staged food fight. I can't say I've, I'm really kind of like sworn to secrecy about who organized that. But yes, I was in a full-fledged food fight in our cafeteria. It was awesome.

46:00
Oh, wow. Okay. That was a bonus one. That was not actually one of the Fast Five. That was just a tangitive Fast Five. All right. Here we go. Number three.

46:12
Where do you go when you need to blow off some steam? Oh, I go for a walk. That's an easy one for me. I just get outdoors. I take advantage of just being outside. And I go for a walk. I've been so mad sometimes. I've walked for like eight, nine miles. Like I disappear. Like my wife knows. She's like, OK, he just needs his time. I go for a walk. I look at it this way. For me, it's just a good.

46:40
prescription for me to clear my head and to get away from any type of like, just be by myself and I think that's important. It's just a cool cooler heads. I can tell you from law enforcement, like I think if most people would have the wherewithal to take a walk and to walk away, I think there'd be a lot of less issues, especially domestic issues. I saw that a lot amongst people like being able to know like.

47:07
Okay, I need to separate myself from the situation and do something to get my to avoid further conflict or something worse happening. Yeah, like there's always that pivot point to where like things get even like really heated and knowing that you need to separate yourself from the situation is the most important thing. And I would tell it to people all time, like, listen, you guys got to separate yourself. And that all. Yeah, that definitely worked for me. That's awesome. All right, number four.

47:37
Would you rather have your toilet overflow every time you flush it, or your refrigerator smell like rotting fish every time you open it? A, first one, toilet overflow every time I flush it. Because literally that's what's happening now. Oh no. Yeah, I mean, well I have kids, so it's like, you're always surprised of what could fit down a toilet. Like, I mean.

48:03
It's like, I almost have this diploma on speed dials. Like, yeah, Bob, come on over. Yeah, there's something else here. He's like, listen, I'll just set you up with the stuff and you could just take care of it yourself. But yeah, the overflowing toilet, hands down. I opened the fridge, like as a whole, like as a family, we opened the fridge way too much. And it's just like, I'm always in there looking for something. And yeah, I don't know if I could deal with that on a daily basis. I don't go to the bathroom that often, but yeah. Overflowing toilet.

48:31
Overflowing time. That's a good, I'll have to agree with you on that one. All right, and number five.

48:40
Hmm. What famous celebrity chef would you want to cater a dinner party? Oh man. Um, wow. I'm really into celebrity chefs, but.

48:57
Probably Guy Fieri. I like Guy Fieri. I like Guy. I've actually met Guy once. So he's a really cool guy. He was, I met him in New York City once. We were, we just happened to cross each other's paths on the street. We're downtown New York City. And he was out like, hey Guy, he's a friendly guy. Super nice, super nice. So probably Guy, just because of the fact I met him. There you go. That sounds really cool. See, I would be more like, you know.

49:27
I think he's passed away, and I don't know how big of a celebrity chef he was, but I used to watch The Cajun Chef on PBS. That's before the Food Network, and they had people cook on it, and they had this Cajun chef on there. Justin Wilson was his name, and he just would tell stories, and it was like having your grandpa making food. Of course, I love spicy Cajun-style food, so I thought he would be a...

49:56
That'd be a cool person to have cater a meal for you. Did you ever hear of a guy called Biker Billy? No. There was a guy, maybe not on PBS, or maybe he's local. I have no idea. But there was a guy similar. He's a cooking guy, looked like a biker. He was straight out of a bike gang. And he literally was cooking up all sorts of stuff. And he was just like, you'd have this really cheesy, but cool intro, like these flames and the skull comes out. And it's like, Biker Billy cooks. And it was just awesome. It's crazy.

50:25
before cooking was cool. Yeah, it was just like, it reminds me of something like that. Yeah, yeah, that's cool. That's cool. Well, Craig, that's it. That's our Fast Five and that is the show. Thank you so much for spending some time with me today. Rob, does it have to end? I mean, really, does it have to? I mean, you know, our friendship doesn't end. You can text me, call any time. So I really appreciate you being here and

50:55
being open about what you've got going on and everything like that. If people wanna keep up with you, what's the best way? The best way to get in touch with me, to keep up with me, see what's going on is on Instagram, primarily at the odd man up. I'm also on TikTok at odd man up. I'm sorry, Instagram at odd man up, TikTok's name at odd man up. And you can see all my videos, you can DM me if you have any questions or anything like that. I'd be more than happy to help.

51:20
That's awesome. That's awesome. Yes. And of course, you can find all of Craig's information at the website as well. ChewingTheFatBR.com. Of course, you can find out all of our past guests information too. Craig, thank you so much again for being here, for your friendship, for your encouragement. I love you like a brother. And if there's ever anything I can do for you, you know, I'm here for you. Same here. And Rob, I do want to say one thing as we close this thing out. You hands down have the biggest heart in any human being I've ever met.

51:50
And I got to be honest, it's the truth. I see what you do not on this podcast, but as a part of that mastermind and like having a spirit to want to help people and to want to fulfill people's lives and to just put people in a better place from where you found them. You knock it out of the park, my friend. And thank you for you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And if you would like to support this podcast, you can buy me a coffee at chewingthefatbr.com.

52:20
Front that's on there. We got some journals and t-shirts and stuff like that So if you'd like to be a part of the chew crew, you can grab your gear there But again, thank you so much for listening and I look forward to the next time We have a moment to sit a spell and chew the fat