How the Bodybuilding Community Evolved Over the Years | Dan Solomon | Ep. 19

Introduction to Dan Solomon 0:00

If we shift our focus from trying to be someone who's trying make people understand us to trying making people feel understood, the world opens up. Dan Solomon, The Dynamic President of Mr. Olympia and Muscle and Fitness Magazine. With decades of experience in the fitness industry, Dan has transformed the bodybuilding and health media. Get ready to get inspired by his insights and passion for fitness. You guys are making people, you're making influencers, making very influential people out of participating in the Mr.

Olympia. Who decided to really start bringing those things together? Some people they focus on prize money. Now, of course, the Olympian, we give away more prize, money than every other event. However, prize. Money isn't even the thing. A lot of the bodybuilders are wanting to manage their health data. How do you see that playing a role in bodybuilding? I spent most of my adult life never even thinking about blood work. You only do it if you're sick, right? And somewhere along the way, thanks to the work of people like yourself, bloodwork is the thing now.

Let's just make it happen. We're making people better, so let's do. Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. This is Sam, your host. Today we got a special guest. For those of you guys who are in the world of health and fitness, bodybuilding, this gentleman that's here today, he is number one, a family man. I see him on social media with his son at the baseball fields, giving him much love, but he's also a visionary entrepreneur leading The company. Well, hold on. Not just the company, the companies globally.

And today we have Dan Salomon here at the A Healthy Point of View podcast. It's great to be here. What a privilege it is to talk to you. I always say that sometimes when I think about the people that I know in the world of business, there's people who run companies and then there are people to build movements, right? And I feel like you and I are sort of unified by the fact that we're both In the movement business, right? Like you're trying to crusade a movement for keeping people younger and healthier.

And of course, I'm sort of a part of this movement globally, people who are fanatical about fitness and building their bodies. I guess that's how we stumbled upon each other. We started communicating on Instagram. And what you do has a big part with what I do.

Olympia as a Global Fitness Movement 2:23

And obviously today, the room is set up a little bit differently because I got these trophies here that I earned many, many years ago. I'm not looking to earn anymore. It's definitely a process to go through the competition. But you're the president of Mr. Olympia, right? Everybody knows this. Globally, it's world renowned and also the President of Muscle and Fitness. How is it? How do you feel being the president of Mr. Olympia? Well, it's funny. So I've had this position for about six years and what you realize quickly is the responsibility that comes with overseeing something that means so much.

to so many people, the same way you just referenced these trophies that you earned a number of years back when you were just getting going and you reflect on those lessons and those experiences. So many in all walks of life spent a slice of their journey in the world of fitness and training and building their bodies. And it's so personal to people. I always say that what makes our world a little bit different is if you go to the Super Bowl, And the biggest game of the year in the NFL, there's very few people in that stadium that knows what it's like to throw a touchdown pass or run an interception back for a touch down.

You go to the NBA finals and very people know what's it like dunk a basketball or hit a game winning three. But when you come to the Olympia, which of course is the rarefied air, it's the mountaintop, It is The Super Bowl. It Is the World Series in the world of bodybuilding. When you go to The OlympiA, the people who attend live this life. They've experienced this, they wake up every day and they're dedicated to that transformational spirit of fitness and body building. So that's what makes it very unique and very personal to people.

And I love it. I loved being a part of that energy. sort of tap into that energy that, it's funny, there was a time many years ago, and you'll remember it, where every gym had three or four guys who competed in body exercises. And that was it. But now, because of the advent of all these new divisions, There's actually 11 different divisions from wellness and physique and bikini and all of these other divisions. It's gotten to a place where there's a division for almost every body type, right? So now the chances are pretty good that your lawyer, or your kid's third grade teacher, your neighbor's girlfriend, even your grandfather, might on some level be a participant in the world of competitive fitness and bodybuilding, so that's been really fun to see it grow.

So let's talk about that. And I went to the Mr. Olympia last year. It was in Orlando. And it was massive. I mean, you had people from all walks of life there. Every single company, supplement company. You're right, it's like people that live and breathe this stuff. They're Super Bowl. Everyone, there's so much positive energy. The music's going, the supplements, companies are out there throwing stuff, free stuff to people. But talking about the different divisions, because I remember when I was training early on in my teens, There wasn't all those divisions and then all of a sudden they came out with like men's physique.

And then, you know, so many additional people started actually competing, and I did. I started doing it because I just didn't have those legs like some of these other massive bodybuilders. But a lot of people have this like misconception of what bodybuilding is today. Most people think it's like this guy walking around like a house that's just injecting all kinds of shit into them. But ultimately, there are a lot of other divisions for all these other, why did you guys develop that? Yeah, so it not just the misconception of bodybuilding, but it is the misconceptions of all the things that we do.

And I know you live in a space where you deal with misconceptions all of the time, right? So there is probably few disciplines that deal misconceptions the way that we do. When you people think of the word Olympia, of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger won our event seven times. So when you think the Mr. Olympian, or you hear the world Olympians, you immediately think thickly muscled, striated, sweeping quads, boulders for shoulders, big biceps.

Bodybuilding Divisions and Expo Growth 6:32

You think about that guy walking around the gym with a gallon jug of water in his hand. That's what most people thing of. But when come to the Olympiads you realize it is a total and complete celebrations of all things. that span the physical culture from combat sports to all different body types to devotions to training disciplines and nutrition and all of these things and it all comes together for Olympia weekend. And when people come to Olympian for the first time, They're always blown away and blindsided by the number of different elements that comprise this lifestyle.

You mentioned like the Olympia Expo, which of course is the big trade show that goes on during the Olympics, covers about 800,000 square feet of convention center space, hundreds and hundreds of exhibitors, apparel brands, nutrition brands supplement brands equipment brands and the list goes. And even the military. And even the Marine Corps was there doing some pull ups and all kinds. There's always been a great connection between the military, law enforcement, and of course, what we do in the fitness industry.

But it really is you come to the Olympia, you leave there with enough inspiration to fuel a year's worth of workouts and you learn so much. You connect with like minded people. It's tremendous energy, beautiful people and just lots of education and information. And it is sensory overload. it Really is.It is not bodybuilding as people think about it. Just like what, and I know I always have to bring it back, but just like you guys are doing, say, at Leucovita and some of these other initiatives that you're a part of, it's for everyone.

It's not just for the person trying to pack on muscle, for person who's trying live longer, overcome obesity. For the people who are just trying their most optimized life. And that's what the Olympia's all about. That's this whole lifestyle's about, But it wasn't always that way. We've had to work really hard to get people. How was it before? Well, there was a time, look, This year, we're going to celebrate the 60th Olympia. I love that. Yes. 60. And it's not in Orlando this year. No, it is in Las Vegas.

It's at an incredible resort called Resorts World, which is on the LasVegas Strip. it was built about three and a half years ago for over four billion dollars. Huge! It is a tremendous property and it will be an incredibly experience. That's right across the street from the Buen, I believe. Yeah, it's right near the wind and it is right in the new fountain blue and across from the convention center. And then also that big, I forgot what it was called, like a ball that lights up. The sphere? Yeah.

So that's awesome. It's the 60th year. It used to be, you go to the Mr. Olympia, and you sit in an auditorium, they'd give out a couple thousand dollars to some winners. They would crown the number one bodybuilder in the world. People would sit there and they would applaud and that was the end of it. Now Olympian Weekend is this overreaching, eclectic, very diverse experience that includes, as I mentioned, a big expo, trade show. The stage production feels like you're going to a rock concert. There's nothing like it used be.

you sit in your seat and you are just blown away by visuals and sound and all kinds of things, so we really have tried to work very hard to make the sport entertaining, because there was a time when bodybuilding shows, to be honest, they can be boring. You sit there and watch a couple guys hit some poses on stage, but now we've taken it to a level where it's not boring, you know, we kind of looked at what guys like Dana White have done with the UFC, now granted, mixed martial arts, it is easier to makes that kind fighting entertaining.

What we have, when you break it down, it takes some work, but we've gotten it to a place where there's real rivalries. There's also a global component. The Olympia, the sport of bodybuilding, you travel the world, go down to Brazil, to the Middle East, parts of Europe, and you realize just the overall impact that the sports have. And there are countries where the body building is the second most popular sport in that country. What are some of those countries? We had a champion named Hadi Choupan.

He was Mr. Olympia for two years. There's only been 18 men to ever be Mr Olympian. Hadi was our 17th Mr olympia. he lives in Iran. And when he goes back home and he arrives at the airport in iran, you should see the heroes welcome. that he's met with. And imagine that. He comes to the U.S. from Iran. Now imagine the political complexity of that to begin with, but fortunately he is able to get here, he competes, and he was crowned the number one bodybuilder in the world on a U-S stage competing against athletes from around the World.

Brazil, Brazil is probably the second most popular country in terms of participation. For fitness and stuff, right? In this kind of thing, yeah. So you go down to Brazil and you just go to gyms and see what this means to them and they're training hard. They're at the cutting edge of all the various innovations and technologies. It used to be where you had to in the US to tap into the best training. And now it's different. You can come from all over the world. Many places around the World. That's amazing.

They have very advanced training Going to the Mr. Olympia, being at The Expo, one thing that I'll tell you is that when you're talking about all walks of life and how it is and people that have that certain

Health, Safety, and Modern Training 11:28

mindset for living a healthier, better life, The energy that's in there, it's vibrating at this top frequency, man. It's like everyone's just smiles on their faces, they're excited, and it just, you know how they always say, You gotta put yourself in certain circles that are gonna elevate you. If you're into health and wellness, that is the circle to be in. that is built on the idea of just being your best self. Now, a lot of people in business will talk about that and will use those words, but you can't cheat the process in the fitness and bodybuilding world.

Absolutely not. You wake up every single morning devoted to this almost borderline sacrificial suffrage where you're going through a process that most people can't even relate to. When your friends are going out to the bar or a party on a Saturday, you stay at home, getting your rest. But other people are goofing off or doing whatever they do. You're at the gym, your training, focused on diet, making sure you have all the best nutrition and resources available to you. So it's very, very devoted.

To your point, when you go to an Olympiad and you are surrounded by tens of thousands of people who all subscribe to way of thinking, It is a powerful thing to be near. It really is. Now, one of the things you're talking about is about how people, you know, this is something that you can't cheat yourself with when it comes to health and wellness and bodybuilding and fitness. There's been a huge shift. And the reason I want to bring this up is that we have over 4,000 doctors that purchase our Liquivita products that tap into this podcast.

They're always thinking about what they can do in their business and how they actually tap in to the fitness world more and more. And one thing that I've noticed on Liquid Vita is that we're getting a lot more of these bodybuilders coming in, not just kind of guessing what they're doing, but they really wanting to take a deeper dive, sort of doing everything safely, right? So what have you seen in the bodybuilding world when it comes to actually, you know, a lotta these athletes managing their health?

Well the good news is we're seeing a lot of progress. We're seein' a lotta progress from the standpoint that the education is out there. The average person who participates in this lifestyle, they have a level of understanding that they didn't have before. Even the way companies who manufacture supplements and nutritional products, the where they market their products. You are now marketing to a much more sophisticated customer. That speaks to how far we've come. The downside is there are people who are reckless.

There are People who hire people, who higher coaches and higher trainers and hire so-called experts to monitor what they're doing. And they do it recklessly and they Do it without the proper credentials without The proper experience and you see people getting sick from this. You see People dying from This and They take it to such an extreme. They push their body to a place. That's just words like that normal. or like where it's not normal, or they've also started off at a place where they're just not healthy enough to do it.

It's very much, there's a lot of things that we do in the world. Like don't jump out of an airplane if your heart is not strong, right? That's probably not a good idea. Don't ride the roller coaster if you don' hit certain. health criteria because and unfortunately some people enter into this without really doing the checks and making sure they're healthy enough because there are elements of elite level training as you know that put people's bodies into a place where if they are not healthy they will pay a price and sometimes it's their life.

Listen it is no different than playing high school ball or college ball you got to get a Medically cleared you got to get a physical before you do it So you know what one thing that I'm seeing is a lot of these athletes now are actually physically coming in they're getting a Lot of tests like the vo2 max EKGs Baseline blood work to see really where all the hormones are at and that's the way to do a safely now one Thing you and I were talking about this other day about how like a lot of things were not accepted back then.

A lot the things that people do now that we just classified it as basically like, a different name. But back, then it was always about steroids, steroids steroids. So let's talk about that. It's a great topic. I gotta be honest with you, Sam, I love the topic because I'm a person who appreciates marketing. I do. At our core, we're all marketers in some capacity. And I appreciate marketing, and there's no corner of the marketing landscape that's more fascinating to me than the anti-aging industry.

Because in the Think about it, you almost never hear the word steroid anymore. You don't hear it anymore now. When we were back when a lot of us are growing up in the 80s and 90s, we'd hear that word steroids all the time. And it had a real, obviously, for obvious reasons, it has a dark cloud around the world because it can be very dangerous and so forth. But then over the years, the anti-aging industry came in. And people started to use references to HRT, TRT. Anti-aging protocol. Created a language that you could speak where you can walk out to your neighbor when you're taking out the garbage and say to the guy next door, hey Joe, are you on any anti-ageing protocol?

Are you want any hormone therapy? are working with an anti aging clinic? And now, all of a sudden, it's this conversation we can all have. Who doesn't want to talk about anti-aging? I mean, the word in and of itself is the most beautiful expression there is, anti fucking aging. It doesn t get any better than that. And they love talking about it. They love taking about that because of the results they are getting and they re doing it in a safe and healthy way. But I love how we ve gotten to a place where those same people who used to frown on others because, oh yeah, He's using roids.

I mean, in reality, at the end of the day, obviously, we're using safer, medically prescribed things now. So it's a different conversation. But at its core, We are still manipulating our testosterone levels. We're still doing things to optimize our bodies in ways that were happening back in the data that we would frown upon. And so it all gets back to the conversation and how you frame it. And listen, when I started in the world of bodybuilding, I was taking like underground stuff. And I spoke about it on a different podcast that I had with Carlton from Forever Young.

Before we got into the age management anti-aging business, we were doing that stuff and eventually it was, instead of working with another age-management clinic as a patient, where I said, man, there is science behind this. You don't have to just you know, do whatever you're finding online or whoever the guy in the gym that pulled the shit out of the trunk of his car, you don't have to do that. There's an actual way to this clinically safe, right, with protocols, quality product that's coming from a pharmacy, where now it's not classified as like the whole stairway junkie thing.

Look, Sam, it not a whole lot different, and I hate to draw the comparison, but it when they, the stage that legalized marijuana. So instead of going down a dark alley, buying a Ziploc bag filled of God knows what from some shady operation, now you can go into a place of dispensary. That looks like an Apple store, right? Yeah, exactly. It looks an apple store. And you go to a space like that and you buy something that has been grown properly and is safe. If you're into that, at least there's an outlet for you to get it safely.

I agree man. So one of the things you were just saying earlier, you're talking about marketing, right?

From Steroids to Anti-Aging Protocols 18:38

And I see what you do, man, You're a marketing guru, and you have experts under you that do that. You are also the president of The Muscle and the Fitness Magazine, which is known globally, how do you manage both? It's a lot, but I do have a great team. But you know, it's funny from what I learned a while ago is a lotta times we make the mistake when we're leading people or we try to connect with audiences, we made the mistakes. We always want to scream from the mountaintops and hope that people understand us, right?

We want always to feel like the world understands us. And then I realized a little while that if we shift our focus from trying to be someone who's trying make people understand us and shift the focus to trying making people feel understood the world opens up. And it's such a simple idea when you really think about it. Go from trying to be the one who everybody understands to being the person who makes everybody else feel understood. When people feel understand, suddenly you have advocacy. Suddenly they're disarmed and suddenly they open themselves up to a conversation that can be very productive for everyone.

It's not just salesmanship, it how to connect with people. As a leader we try to, some people lead by wanting to be a control leader, and then some people lead through inspiration. I followed you a little bit, Sam, I know you're very much an inspirational leader. You're not the one who walks up and down the hall telling people what to do and telling somebody to get your coffee. At least I don't think you are. Maybe people around here might disagree, but that's been my observation. Definitely not, man.

And I love you to motivate and lead. Right, inspire people to connect with a good energy and a message, It creates an environment where people want you to succeed and they support your vision because they feel like theirs is being supported, too. Yeah, there's a lot. Muscle and fitness, of course, is the preeminent flagship media outlet in the fitness world. muscle and Fitness was created by the iconic pioneer bodybuilding Joe Weider. way back in the day, and of course we don't print the magazine like we used to, just a couple times a year, but now it's mostly digital.

But Muscle and Fitness is very much an outlet for all things fitness and healthy living and nutrition. So let's talk about that, the difference between publications, how old school, you would see a lot of print, right? And you decided to go more the digital route. Why make that decision? Yeah, I'd love to say we made the decision, but I think the world made a decision for us, right? With how they consume information and receive content. Like I'll always say, nothing will ever replace the feeling that someone gets of seeing themselves on a magazine cover.

That's true. Or I remember years ago I would go to Barnes and Noble, we'd all have our favorite magazines, and you'd go the magazine section at the bookstore and get the magazines and sit there with your coffee and touch the pages and flip through them and it meant something, it was different. You know, now it's all... Those days are gone, man. I missed it. And I remember going to the grocery store with my parents, right? And, I'd go to magazine section. While they're doing all the shopping, they'll be there for like an hour, with a family of four kids.

So, we'd be their for an like hour and I go the magazine sections and just sit there and read magazines, read magazine. Some grocery stores, you can't even find magazines anymore. It's crazy. And it's really a sad reality, but you have to like everything else. You have the board the jet because that's where this world is going. So there was a time when even in advertising sales, because I've done that, we would sell pages in the magazine and then as an add-on you'd throw in some digital or some website or social media.

The entire formula has flipped now. Now you sell digital and social medial and if you happen to also print a magazine, you throw on a page. They don't even care about it. The only reason they want to be in the magazine is for vanity because everybody wants to see themselves written about in a magazine. Words written on printed paper will always mean more than words written a computer screen or on a mobile device. It just will. I agree with that. Yeah, so a lot of doctors, I actually had a conference just this past weekend and I was talking to a couple doctors about having this podcast and one of the doctors asked like, oh man, the Muscle and Fitness magazine, and wonder how I could actually get an article written in there or online.

So because a lotta these doctors that are part of our inner circle, they wanna actually reach out to these health enthusiasts, you know, body builders and stuff. How would they be able to do something like that? Well, that's muscle and fitness's core function is to identify great thought leaders, innovators, smart people, right? People who are credentialed to really deliver value and to provide a platform for their words to be shared. And I would say to anyone out there, always feel free to reach out to me, DM me on Instagram, whatever it is, and get a hold of me and I'll connect you with one of our editors.

You're actually very active on instagram. Like when people DM you, it's you. I try to be, yeah, I was a late arrival to the social media scene. I'm a bit of a snob when it comes to usage of time.

Leadership, Marketing, and Digital Media 23:58

I just really protect time almost to a level that probably has cost me a few good relationships along the way. I'm very protective of time and I thought, man, what worse way to use time than to have something in your pocket that you're sitting there scrolling every day. And I really tried to hold out. Yeah. As I was watching all my friends flip through stuff and waste their time. tagging and liking and posting and doing all those things that everybody does now. I really held out and eventually I just had to succumb to the reality that people want to connect and the world is now connected and I have to join the party.

And I finally did. Yeah, but being in business, especially the president of a company, it's like you have to. It's everyone else is on there, people are marketing on their, they're posting their ads. I was kind of the same way. And I kept on telling myself, I don't want to get hit with that algorithm and then I'm stuck. You know, scrolling on out. Because I used to watch YouTube videos and I'd catch myself late at night saying, dude I gotta go to sleep. That's two, three hours later. Isn't it wild how the time will go by?

There's been times where I've pulled up to a place where driving to, in my car. I'll open my phone and I respond and DM and do all the stuff that we do on our phones. And I blink and an hour and a half has gone by and you're still sitting there with the gas running in your car. It's such an absurd idea, but that's what these things do. They really suck a lot of time out of our days, time that I don't feel like I always have. But I do enjoy it. I enjoy the fact that the things that the Olympia, muscle and fitness, the world of bodybuilding and all the things that we're a part of, it does mean a lot to people.

It's not a casual endeavor for people, people are really connected to it. A lot of people at places in their life where they rely on that energy, they really rely that discipline, that connection to overcome certain things. There are kids who reach out who are being bullied and they utilize fitness and body building. To overcome that, I always say that a lotta people will look at a picture of a bodybuilder. And they'll say, like right now, our reigning Mr. Olympia happens to be a Floridian from Tampa, his name's Derek Lunsford.

Great bodybuilder, he just won the title, became our 18th winner of the Mr Olympian, and he's doing a great job. And a lot of people will look at a picture of a guy like Derek and they will say I don't wanna look like that. That might be true. A lot people don' want to look Mr Olympia, we get it. Certainly some people do, many people dont. But what's undeniable, is the level of inspiration that guys like that can deliver to the world. And that's the biggest part about it. Even like the professional bikini competitors that we have, some of these women have bodies that are jaw-dropping, eye-popping, extraordinary.

They are the top .001% of the planet. And a lot of women will look at something like that and they'll say, good Lord, I can't even relate to that. That's impossible. But what you can do is if you sit down with one of them, if go to one other seminars, look their content, you could learn a hell of a from them. You can learn the psychological approach to it, the discipline, organizational component, nutritional component. I'm not going to be Bill Gates, but I can read his book and I could learn about, or Mark Cuban, I am not gonna have his net worth but we can learn from these folks.

Of course. I guess the difference is I wouldn't mind being, because that's another conversation. So, you know, when we talk about the Mr. Olympia, man, it's you're not just getting people on stage, winning a competition and giving them a trophy or a check, right? One of the things that I noticed is you guys are making people, you're making influencers, making very influential people out of participating in the Mr. Olympia. They're getting sponsorships, they're working with very, very reputable, big supplement companies.

That's a whole process. I want to talk about the business side of that. Who decided to really start bringing those things together? Yeah, so you make a great point. So some people, they focus on prize money. Now, of course, the Olympia, we give away more prize, money than every other event by a lot. Right. However, The prize. Money isn't even the thing, really. A great example. We have a division called Classic Physique. It's champion is a guy that a. Lot of your listeners may have heard of his name's Chris Bumstead.

They call him Sebum. Very popular guy 20 30 million followers around the world incredibly successful makes a ton of money and he handles himself the right way and I have great respect for him. The prize money that he wins is inconsequential to his overall mission and the overall things him being the Olympia champion, the classic physique Olympian champion has cleared the way for a world of opportunity for him that it's almost hard to put into words. It's really almost to reconcile. But yeah, so to your point, The title can open up a lot of doors and one of the things that's cool about the world bodybuilding There's so many success stories.

My phone is filled with the names and numbers of people who started off just like you, with your little trophy here, competing and going through a contest prep and learning about those skills of discipline and sacrifice and all those things that you have to do to be in that place. They learn those lessons. And then they take those fundamental lessons to the next thing in their life. Maybe it's a job. I don't know what your story is, but maybe you got a jobs doing something, then you did the thing.

But you can almost always connect the dots back to that initial experience that you had being a competitive, physique competitor or bodybuilder or whatever it was. My point is there are Dozens and dozens of people in my phone that started off just like that and they're now not rich They're worth hundreds of millions

Building Influence Through Competition 29:38

of dollars, right? They have had exits from companies. They built brands They've done things that are far beyond anyone's imagination and They will all tell you every single one of them whether it's a guy like Ryan DeLuca who bought a domain name for $25,000 called bodybuilding.com and sold his website in his business for a couple hundred million dollars or Whoever it is, the list goes on and on. I could do this for days. But if you talk to all of them, they all connect their success back to their original love and connection for the fitness and bodybuilding lifestyle.

So yeah, you make a great point. It really plants a seed. And I always say to people when you're competing as a bodybuilder, don't worry about what they say about you on the Internet. Don't worried about if your girlfriend tells you you are crazy for doing it. Don't worry about if seven judges that you'll never know decide that should finish eighth and you think you should have finished second. Don' worry what the audience, don't worried about any of it. Just know that by doing this craft, by a bodybuilding competition or taking that on and exposing yourself to that level of vulnerability and that of level raw and I hate to say it but suffering because it's a lot of work.

It is. and you're willing to walk on a stage in a room full of hundreds of strangers in front of a judging panel that's going to tell you what you are worth, right? no matter what you do next in your life, it will be infinitely easier and you will better for it because of having that experience. I agree with you 100%. Going through it myself, and I could say that going through that process has fed to where I'm at today. And the discipline that you put your body through, because you massively change your physique going though that processes.

It's not easy, there's a huge mindset component that goes behind it. But I know when I did it and I started doing it in my early 20s, I told myself, if I can change my physique this way and am in control of it, know I have the discipline that I could do anything. I just have it. But it's people understanding that, how you said, it not the trophy, its not to check, It's that journey that you're going through, that discipline that it can take, and then you can apply it elsewhere. And when you apply elsewhere, you'll see the fruits come, ya know?

That's amazing man. That is amazing. It is fun being a part of something, I know you could relate to this, because I now you go out and you speak at seminars and speak to large groups and connect with people who want to hear your message. It really is the best part of what I think we do is going out there and realizing how many people connect with it. How many have been through it or are going through or have that level of aspiration. The fitness industry is unique. A lot of people want to talk to me about how do you get to the top of the fitness and that sort of thing.

I mean, I guess that's a simple car. I always say just show up. Just show to everything, just be a part of it. Show up, build relationships because at the end of the day, everything we do is based on relationship building. But to me, it's so much bigger than that. There's nothing more gratifying than speaking to a group of whether it is gym owners or uh, businessmen and women or people who are trying to achieve whatever it is and seeing the look in their eyes as they've, you know, sat there and they're looking to just consume any sliver of information that could provide them with some advantage.

And they have this insatiable appetite to grow and evolve. The best part about, um, the Olympia, bodybuilding, fitness, it's that transformational power of people wanting to get better. Yeah. That never gets boring. I agree with that, man. It never gets bored, and it's always, every year, more and more, right? So, you know, in the bodybuilding world, one of the things that I saw at the Mr. Olympia Expo, I see many additional clinics, anti-aging clinics and stuff. And a lot of the bodybuilders are wanting to manage their data, their health data.

How do you see that playing a role in bodybuilding? You know, people getting their blood work done, People utilizing the aura ring or the whoop. Like I see a lotta them wearing, you know to make sure they got good rest, the sleep data So, I think it's important to understand also is you got a lots of personal trainers out there. But one thing that I saw for many years, not that long ago, that the personalized part on the personal trainer was kind of disappearing, where things were kind-of cookie-cutter.

But now you're seeing this integration between what we do at Liquivita, the functional medicine side, and a lot of the bodybuilders, now, you bring in that personalization, again, with all this data, even the apps calculating your macros and all that stuff. Let's talk about that. So the greatest thing that's happened over the last few years, nobody really thinks about this or talks about it. But we spent years, I turned 50, right? So I spent most of my adult life never even thinking about blood work.

Never even came to my mind. I just got up, I had my vitamins, and I'd try to work out. It's like you only do it if you're sick, right? Right. And somewhere along the way, thanks to the work of people like yourself and other leaders in the field, bloodwork is the thing now, as it should be. Can you just imagine the level of lack of self-awareness and ignorance we had with what was going on in our bodies. So I think the greatest breakthrough of the last couple years is the fact that millions and millions of people are getting their blood work done.

And it's such an unbelievable growth in how we view, how, we take care of ourselves, How we improve ourselves is understanding what's happening inside our bodies. And I'm not so sure if the bodybuilding world deserves credit for that. I don't know that it does.

Blood Work and Personalized Performance 35:48

Um, I think what you guys are doing in anti-aging is obviously the catalyst for. But the greatest thing about it is people started by doing an anti-aging protocol and they get their blood work, but then they realize once they do that that they take the bloodwork concept into their life regardless if they're taking peptides or whatever they are using to stay healthy. So I'm just so excited to see what's happening with just a simple idea of blood, because it's really such a basic thing like water.

And for so long people weren't doing it and now they aren't. Now, you know, one guy that I see that he was actually at the Mr. Olympia last year is Dr. Bob Goldman, which I know you, know him very well. And, he's the founder, co-founder of the A4M, the American Academy of Anti-Ageing Medicine, Which I learned a lot from him, The books he wrote, Dr Klatz, his co founder learned A lot as well too. What we're talking about, these guys recognize how important that is, and they're actually, at your show.

It's fun. So this year, Dr. Goldman and his group, I've been very fortunate to have been invited to a number of their events. He had me speak at one of his events a couple of years ago, and it was just such a humbling thing because you're in a room of people. This is the next level now. Yeah, this isn't people who go out and just pitch products. These are the guys who hold the patents. Right. These are the guys who real science, real scientists. So you're in a room. And when I walk into that room, I'm the dumbest guy in the room is that there's not even a close second, right?

I don't even know how they let me in that. I know the feeling, man. Why am I talking? But they want to listen to business guys. No, it's fun. But no, say that, you know, but the truth is Dr. Goldman was there on the forefront. of so many of these innovations and he's continued to stay close to it. He's a very good friend of the fitness industry, of bodybuilding world, he has been a tremendous supporter of Arnold, tremendous supporters of events all around the world but more than that he is very generous with his relationships and with wisdom.

And he's also a pillar in the martial arts world as well, which makes him very unique. I will give Dr. Goldman, since you mentioned him, I'll give him a shout out. He's the chairman and founder of the International Sports Hall of Fame, for which I am on the board of. It's a cool hall of fame because it recognizes and inducts champions and elite athletes in all Sports, um, you know, everyone from, Johnny bench to Mr. Olympia to elite NFL quarterbacks and NBA players and the best of the, best triple H and all these guys.

And it's such a cool hall of fame in this year. The induction ceremony is now a part of our program for Olympia weekend. So if you happen to come out to Vegas and you're at the Olympian, you can attend the International Sports Hall of Fame induction. And this year's Misha Tate from the UFC is going to be inducted. Phil Heath, a seven-time Mr. Olympia, will also be inducted, Jim Plunkett. It's just a great class. But yeah, so Dr. Goldman is very plugged into a lot of things, and I have great respect for him.

Yeah, it does seem more often than not that people who are tied to that anti-aging space seem to have their claws into it a number of times. And I tell you, with Dr Goldman, man, we're on that topic. His love for martial arts. I didn't know what it was until I went to his vip party after the a4m And i'm up there and his all his martial art buddies from around the world They come and support them. So i'M up There and you got all the guys that are looking the ninja movies and all The stunt devil iIm like man.

He's really like into this That's his world, yeah. He's devoted to it and he has a lot of fun to. And he deserves a lotta credit for keeping aotta people's legacies alive. I think he's a very fascinating individual. Isn't that the best part of what we do? There's something about the industries, whether it's anti-aging, the elite level fitness industry, that seems to attract some of the most interesting people from all walks of life. Because let's face it, successful people are in touch with their physicality.

They're in touched with building their bodies. You look now and you see Mark Zuckerberg trains every day and he posts pictures of himself without a shirt. Shaquille O'Neal, a retired NBA Hall of Famer. Everybody knows Shaq. Shack comes to the Olympia almost every year, sits in the front row and has become a great friend. And he is somebody who will go on his Instagram and help post videos of themself doing bodybuilding routines. So it's real. They've loved it. And you know, other guys, you there was a time where, there wasn't even muscle.

When you think about it in Hollywood back in the 1940s and 50s, when Joe Weider founded and pioneered all of this stuff,

Dr. Goldman and the Sports Hall of Fame 40:38

leading men in hollywood were frowned upon if they had muscle, nobody wanted to see it and then little by little, guys like Arnold and Dwayne and Dave Bautista and these guys started to come in and make it very acceptable. Yeah, and I love that, man, because it's really helping spread the word, right? Awareness and all that stuff is extremely important. I see the Mark Zuckerberg stuff all the time. And I follow him and his wife on Instagram. He's even doing the martial arts and getting beat up, having to get surgery.

Man, you've got all this money. You're just beating yourself up. But I guess you got the resources to fix yourself. They want to live longer. Exactly. The dates for Mr. Olympia, I'll be there because I'm actually speaking at a conference in Vegas that actually worked out. I met the energize conference with our one of our platforms that we use. So October 10th through the 13th, right? If people want to get tickets, yes. October, 10 to the 30th is Olympian weekend. The main event that everybody focuses on is Saturday, October 12th.

It's at Resorts World, MrOlympia.com. Now the Saturday night tickets are sold out, there is something that were doing really cool this year. We're having A watch party. Resorts World is home to Zuke Nightclub. Zuk is like the number one nightclub in all of Vegas. So they're doing a lot of fun things to provide opportunities for people who don't have tickets. But I would say to anybody, if you can't get tickets to the show, that's fine. Come out, go to The Olympia Expo across the street at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Go to MrOlympia.com. You can get your passes. Get all the information. October 12th. October 11th and 12th, Friday and Saturday is the expo. And it's a great gathering of just all things, fitness, nutrition, strength, combat sports, all of it under one roof. So I'll be there. I'm going to bring a couple of my doctors and stuff too, because they asked about it. It's going be a fun weekend, man. Is there anything else you want to give a shout out to or anything? I'll give a shout out to you, Sammy.

I tell you I love what you're doing.

Olympia Weekend Details and Closing 42:38

Um, I've been listening to this show, the conversations you having with people are really next level and it's really taking people down a path that, um, is, it is compelling and, and forces people to think. And I loved the fact that you are not just out promote, you actually out there to connect and engage and inform and inspire and teach. have great conversations. So I love what you're doing. I'm excited to hear that you are going to come to Olympia Weekend. And I hope to welcome some of your audience to Olympic weekend in Las Vegas.

Let's do it man. It's been a lot of fun. Brother, I appreciate it, man, and thank you for coming on the show and I want to keep on growing together and however I can, you know, feed some my resources into yours and vice versa, let's just make it happen. We're making people better. Let's do it, I'm in. Awesome, brother, appreciate it. Thank you for watching another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. Again, this is your host, Sam Tahata. Make sure you go ahead and like, subscribe, share, do all of the good stuff.

And Dan, again, where can they find you? Yeah, hit me up on Instagram, Dan Solomon, underscore official, that's usually the easiest way. That's really the only social media platform that I pay attention to these days, so that a good place to start. Awesome. So thanks again for watching a Healthy Point of View podcast. Sam Tahata, your host. Make sure you like, tap, scroll, do all the good stuff, share, and we'll see you for the next one.