Meet FP And Family First Fitness

SPEAKER_01 0:30

I go by the name of FP for certain reasons. The name of the business is Family First Fitness. Me and JP and the management, we decided to go with Family First Fitness because we love what we do and we observe and see a lot of people out there that's just going around and not really performing the way they're supposed to. And we've been doing this for a very long time. We're both in the military. I'm in the military. I'm actually retiring this year from the Navy. Hoorah.

SPEAKER_00 1:06

Wow, okay. Yeah. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah. I did my tour. I did I've done two tours. I worked with a lot of different branches. I'm a father. I'm a friend. I'm a cousin, an uncle, and I'm handsome too. I just wanted to throw that out there. I'm pretty funny, by the way.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Absolutely. I can definitely tell you're a simple person.

SPEAKER_01 1:27

Yeah, yeah. Even if I didn't want to be, I still, for some reason, I just gravitate towards people. I guess they can feel the vibe.

SPEAKER_02 1:36

For sure. Absolutely. And for listeners meeting you for the first time, is there anything else you'd like to share about your background and the experiences that have shaped the man and motivator you are today?

Liberian Roots And Education First

SPEAKER_01 1:48

Yeah, actually I do. So my my mom and dad, they're from Liberia. That's West Africa. And then before that, my grandpa, grandma, and great-grandparents. So I'm the first generation here. Yeah, we are the first generation. I have a brother and five sisters. And we're all born in America. So we we live the best of both worlds, as you would put it. What I mean by that is that the culture was in the house. The accent is strong. The food we eat was different. My favorite dish is actually fufu and soup. So then after that, you go to school, we eat hamburgers and sandwiches. Yeah, Liberia. The discipline was in the house. It was mostly about education. That was everything they focused on. Educate yourself because they can uh this world is a crazy world. They can, but the only thing this world can't take from you is what's up here. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_02 2:49

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 2:49

Yeah. So all I do is educate myself, try to learn, and then I just shifted off to the fitness lifestyle. My mom and dad, they weren't like fitness people, but they worked very hard. My mom was into fashion, my dad is a mechanical engineer. My mom worked very hard to provide for her children and her stepchildren.

SPEAKER_02 3:12

So had a strong strive and work ethic, and I can definitely see how that kind of was instilled in you too.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:19

And you described himself as similar to Forrest Gump because of the depth and range of experiences he's lived through. In what ways has your life journey shaped the perspective and resilience that you carry today?

SPEAKER_01 3:37

So, yeah, that that Forrest Gump one, yeah, if you watch the movie, I'm pretty sure the world's seen that. But he went through different transitions in his life. He's been to Vietnam, so have I. I haven't been to Vietnam, but he's been to war, and so have I. Twice. One was the 9-11, and then the other one was just random. Hey, you're going to Afghanistan. Oh, okay. I'm Navy. You got me confused. I thought it was the Army and Marines for that. But I guess you got to do what you got to do to serve your country. He's uh Forrest has deaths in his family. His mom died. So did mine. He went through a series of different channels, and so I can't get into all of it because we won't have that much time. But we uh my life has been a roller coaster. Nothing comes easy in this world. What you have to do is fight for it. Some people were born with a silver spoon. I wasn't. I grew up at the bottom and didn't work my way up. So there's no excuses, is what I want to tell people out there that's listening. You have to do, you can't. I want to give you an example. Every day at lunch for work, I walk to Harris Teeters. It's a supermarket, and there's a guy standing out there with money, with his hands out, and he's always asking for money. Sometimes he has a bag of Coca-Cola. He has people just giving them money. And I'm saying to myself, I'm not giving them no more. Well, he could walk right in that store and say, Hey, can I work here? He's not trying. If anything, I'll probably say, Hey, let's go inside. I'll buy you something to eat instead of giving them money. I'd rather I'd rather do it that way. But that's just the way I think.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Absolutely. I completely agree. And things in life, you don't have to really want it. And people like that, I think they just need to get to a point where they're not there yet where they really want it for themselves. We'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 5:39

But yeah, I completely agree with that mindset.

SPEAKER_01 5:41

Thank you for understanding. Thank you for hearing me out.

Homeless In 2020 And The Comeback

SPEAKER_02 5:44

Of course. And you shared that you experienced homelessness at one point in your life. If you feel comfortable, can you tell us about the season and what helped you find strength and direction during that time?

SPEAKER_01 5:58

Okay, that was around 2020, during COVID. Okay. I was employed and I was moving from Connecticut to the DMV area. And I can't say how I lost everything, but I did. I didn't have an apartment. The only thing I had was a car. My daughter was just being born. She was just a newborn. And I lost everything. So I told the mom, you're going to have to stay with your parents for a while. Because I have nothing. And that was nine months of couch surfing, trying to figure out what the name, what the game plan is going to be. So for two months of crying, I think that was like the worst part of my life. Other than my mom's death, that was the worst part ever. And I don't know. Like I said to myself, either I just give up or I gotta fight. It's the same thing, right? So I decided to fight. My daughter's born. I can't just sit there and just feel sorry for myself. Who's gonna help me? Nobody. I had to I what did I do? So I went to the library every day to study. I was transitioned from being law enforcement to IT, cybersecurity, networking. And I studied every day, and it looks like college doesn't matter anymore. You need certificates like a security plus, CYSA, things like that. I will go every morning to the playground, elementary school, and do because the gyms are closed, right? So I just work out, do pull-ups in the morning, do push-ups, walk around the playground, and then go handle my business at the library. Study, study, take the test. So that was a crazy experience, and which makes me grateful for who I am now. Some people would have given up. I slept in the cars, I was dirty, I had a beard, my hair was grown out. So I know what that life, that lifestyle was like, and I took myself out of it. Nobody helped me.

From Law Enforcement To Cybersecurity

SPEAKER_02 8:10

That's super inspiring. It's like a sink or swim situation. And you decided to swim.

SPEAKER_01 8:15

Exactly. Yeah, you're getting it.

SPEAKER_02 8:17

It's super inspiring, honestly.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

Yeah, it's crazy out there. So hopefully, I inspired others that's listening to it to listen into my story and be like, you know what? Yeah, yeah. Because I do motivate a lot of people.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

Absolutely. I can tell. And as you mentioned, you also lost your mother at a young age. If you're open to sharing, how did that loss shape you and how did you navigate that period of your life?

SPEAKER_01 8:44

So I was that was during the time of 9-11. When I came back from 9-11, she already had cancer, which sucked. She didn't want to tell me about it while I was overseas. But when I did come back, nobody was there to greet me, like one of those postcards, welcome back, stuff like that. She said, I'll explain to you when you come home, we'll throw a welcome home party. And she let me know. She said, Hey, I have cancer, it's spreading, this and that. And I was like, Oh man. And I spent a lot of time with her taking care of her. That was my vacation. And then when I went back, I got a call from like my life insurance or Aetna or something like that saying, Hey, you need to go back. I was like, I just left there. But they gave me permission to go back. I was 22 years old. It was 2003. And yeah, I lost her. She didn't say, she couldn't say her last words. I love you. She couldn't say these things. So that was a really hard time. I was actually going down the wrong direction after that. Cried, cried, because I was a mama's boy. I'll admit it. I'll admit it. I was a mama's boy.

SPEAKER_02 9:56

Nothing wrong with that.

SPEAKER_01 9:57

Yeah, and yeah, because of that, I had to be strong and make the decisions by myself. Some were good decisions, some were bad. But I didn't have any guidance to say, hey, do this, do that. No, that's not right. You're messing with the wrong girl. You're doing this. And nobody didn't. I had to learn by myself at 22. My brother and sister, they were even younger. They were 17 and 13. Shout out to Dina and Monk. They were young. So it was hard for them too. It was like, who's going to take care of them? So she on the will, I guess, she said, Oh, my sister will be in charge of her. My brother, he's getting ready to graduate high school. So I think that's when he decided to join the Navy. And he looked up to me for a long time. He followed my footsteps. If I like basketball, he would practice so he could be like me. And so that's what he did. He joined the Navy. He's living in Japan right now. He's doing great. My sister's here in the same state as me. She's doing great. Everybody's happy. But remember the education thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 11:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 11:08

Yeah, so we made it somehow without a mom.

SPEAKER_02 11:11

I want to say that's so sorry for your loss.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Nah, it's okay. Thank you though.

SPEAKER_02 11:16

But at the same time, I can see how it made you that much stronger. And it really showed you how to be a role model to your siblings. And I think that's amazing and something that I know she would be so proud of.

SPEAKER_01 11:26

Right. And speaking on that, I'm sorry, but when we, because of the way she trained us, clean up, educate yourself before you go out and play, stuff like that, that's what I'm doing with my daughter right now. She's seven and she's learning the steps, you know, how to take care of yourself.

SPEAKER_02 11:44

That's awesome. Good for her. Good for her. Got a good role model to look up to.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 11:50

And you've been committed to fitness for more than two decades. What continues to motivate you to stay disciplined? Not just physically, but also mentally.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

Well, I like the transition. I like the way so I was like one, I would say I was a scrawny kid growing up. I didn't eat much. I only like the play. But I would say as an adult, like 18 to 22, I was like 155, 160, soaking wet. And I think I, okay, so I got out of the military, active duty, and I was like, there's nobody gonna be able to train me. I started to get a beer belly, still skinny, just a little pouch, like Beavis and Butthead kind of thing. I was like that. And I was like, and what we did in the military, we jog, do push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups. But I wasn't in the weightlifting yet. To get rid of this gut, I went to Bally's gym back then, and the guy saw me, said, What are you doing? I'm working out. I was just focused only on my check, my chest. Pecked. And then he said, No, one day you have to push, the next day you have to pull. Let me give you an example. So he's showing me and stuff like that. And I see the transition, what was happening. Like, I was only focused on this, but I had no arms. So I looked like I wasn't formed right.

unknown 13:22

You know that?

SPEAKER_01 13:22

I looked messed up, skinny arms, no abs, just a nice test. That's it. But listening to him, I want to thank him if he's out there. But that was like, yeah, back in 2003. And I've been creating my own little model ever since. And uh yeah, I've been killing it. I like the way my body looks now. So that's what motivates me to keep going. Just looking at the way you treat, you're taking care of yourself is what is what you want to say. Oh, why would I stop now? Why would you stop? You're looking good, not just for for physical purposes, but mentally too.

SPEAKER_02 14:03

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

So when I'm sad, when I'm sad, I'm going to the gym. When I'm happy, I'm going to the gym. When I'm depressed, good news, bad news. If I'm sick, I'll go to the sauna. You know what I mean? To get out the sweat out the toxic, stuff like that. If I had a hangover, go to the steam room, sweat it out. So the gym is like my happy place. That's what's been working for me. And no excuse. I don't know how else to tell you.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

Yes, I love the North East Marshall. There it really isn't. We got one life to live. You want to do it right.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

So, yeah, if you're doing all these good things, why stop? Yeah, just continue going. It doesn't even have to be a gym. Basketball, football, baseball, throw the ball. Get on a bike. It's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Just keep moving.

SPEAKER_00 14:55

Yeah, that's it.

SPEAKER_02 14:57

I'd love to talk about family first fitness.

SPEAKER_00 15:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 15:01

What is the mission of the brand and what are the main pillars that guide everything you do?

SPEAKER_01 15:08

Okay, so the three pillars are healthy eating, family fitness, and fitness first. Those are the three pillars. Healthy eating is like just making more home cooked meals as opposed to going out every year to these chain restaurants every time. I support the restaurants, they're making their money and stuff like that. But these chains, you could do it once in a while, just not all the time. Burger King, McDonald's, Wendy's, Chick fil A. Just make something at home. But I guess some people can't cook. So I don't know if there is YouTube, right? You can go on YouTube and say, hey, how do you make this? For me, I do healthy eating. A lot of people walk up to me just about every day and say, What is your diet like? And I just say, look, I just eat three meals a day, breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Less chips and cookies and stuff like that. But yeah, I eat three meals a day. I eat, I cook it, I make it myself. And thankfully, I know how to cook. The healthy eating is it plays a big role in what you're doing because you can work out for 20 straight years, but if you're not eating right, when you go to the trainer at, let's say, LA Fitness, and their training, they did their part. Now you have to do your part and go home and do. You can't go back to you can't get a good training and then go back to McDonald's. Yeah, so it was like you look the same. You didn't change. You just paying this training. Now, the family fitness is something that I like to do. I like for my daughter to see me. Right now, we're not training together. She's seven, so I'm thinking about taking it to the boxing era because title boxing says you have to be seven and up to do it. So we'll do it together. But as of right now, she's just doing tennis. The mom takes her to tennis, and then I take her to swimming. The swimming, she's been doing that since she was three.

SPEAKER_02 17:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 17:21

Yes, three. And she's running, she's swimming laps now on an Olympic pool, spinning around, swimming, going under. I was like, see, we're not, we didn't do anything together yet, but we will. I think we're gonna either do dancing or boxing. Fitness first is just something where we just like it's very important. It should be something like when you're brushing your teeth.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

It's something that has to be done. If I'm on a flight going out of town, I know I missed that day, which is gonna suck. It's like rehab or something. For me, it's like rehab. Oh, I miss my day. So I gotta make up for it either when I get in the hotel or make up for it the next day. Find a gym that's nearby, goals gym or something like that, and say, hey, I'm here for a week. Can I can I get a week pass or something like that? Yeah, I treat it like I'm brushing my teeth.

SPEAKER_02 18:17

Yeah, you make it work, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:20

Yeah. Oh, I gotta let you know, I'm actually very funny. My but my boy and my best friend, he said that I'm funnier than Kevin Hart. He said that two times. And I was like, wow, that's a compliment. Kevin Hart?

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 18:33

One day you'll see that other side of me.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

That's awesome. I can already tell. You're so fun to be around.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Yeah, thank you.

Global Movement Cultures And Everyday Activity

SPEAKER_02 18:41

And you also travel, and you've seen how active lifestyles look in other countries. What do you think other cultures understand about movement and health that we might often overlook here?

SPEAKER_01 18:54

That's a good one. So, yes, I have been around the world, and what I see, well, okay, back to that chain restaurants and stuff, they don't have that over. It's not many. They do have McDonald's in other countries and stuff like that, and fast food, but nobody really takes that seriously. I see more produce markets in the street, people picking up fruits and stuff like that, smelling it, seeing if it's ripe, hitting the coconut. I seen a woman once in Greece, she was, I think she had quadruplets and was four, and she just pushing the stroller by itself, and she was just walking down those little alleyways with fruits and stuff like that. She looked like a model. I would have never guessed. So it may not have the lifestyle. It could be a third world country or first world country, but everybody was just doing something, walking. People jog outside, they can't afford to go to the gym. And you see it right here in, let's say, San Diego, Miami, or Brooklyn. I've seen right here domestically, where people were on it, like Brooklyn, they're on the traffic lights. We're doing pull-ups.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 20:09

And in Miami, they always have these parks where it's pull-up bars and stuff like that. They're walking around doing something, right? Same thing with San Diego. I saw some skateboarders doing the same thing. Overseas, I give them credit for what they're doing. They're trying. They don't have the stuff, the gyms that we have, but they're doing they're very active.

SPEAKER_02 20:31

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

You make it work with what you have. You don't need to go to an expensive place.

SPEAKER_01 20:37

Right. Bougie is what I call it. Bougie places. My gym is bougie. I've heard somebody say it once or twice. Bougie this, bougie that. I'm just make it work. The only reason I went to this bougie place was because they were the only people that had daycare during COVID.

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 20:56

Yeah. Okay. So I just stuck with it.

SPEAKER_02 20:58

That makes sense.

Start Where You Are And Use Your Time

SPEAKER_01 21:00

Just stay where you at it.

SPEAKER_02 21:01

And you're passionate about removing excuses and helping people start where they are. What's your best advice for someone who feels overwhelmed and might not know where to begin?

SPEAKER_01 21:14

And they might not know where to begin. I would say just try. Ask somebody. Ask me. I'm always happy to help.

SPEAKER_02 21:22

Tune into the FP and JP show.

SPEAKER_01 21:24

Yeah, yeah, the JP and FP show. Tune into that. Ask. I have Instagram. They can DM me. I never ignore anybody. But if they don't want to ask me, just listen to what I'm saying and just say, yeah, you know what? You're right. My goal is to motivate and inspire people. That's what this Family First Fitness is all about. I wouldn't mind being sponsored for Under Armour or something like that. Or I could talk more on a commercial, say, hey, do your thing. But that's my goal, is to just go ahead and this is the reason why I'm here. It's so people are so I can be heard. You come out there, listen to what I'm saying, just try do something. You're not benefiting anybody by sitting on a car watching an NFL Super Bowl game. After the game, then get up and do something. Oh, and my favorite is this my theory 24 hours in a day, nobody sleeps eight eight hours anymore. I'm probably I'm pretty sure you didn't sleep eight hours. Hours. So let's say you got seven or six hours of sleep. Then the average working is eight. So we got 14 now, six plus eight, fourteen. What is going on with the ten? There's no excuse. You can't drive three hours to work, three hours back. Let's not play this game. You go to work, you do what you have to do, and you got 10 hours to go. So find a way there's plenty of gyms out there. There's plenty of things to do. You don't have to go to the gym, the 24-hour gym. You can go to you just do a little quick walk around your complex.

SPEAKER_02 23:11

It doesn't need to be, it can be simple. Right. It doesn't have to be complicated.

SPEAKER_00 23:15

10 hours. And then let's say no. Oh, I'm working overtime. All right, you still have five hours overtime, you still got six to five hours to get five to six hours.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Yeah, yeah. It doesn't fly with me.

SPEAKER_02 23:31

I just a really good piece of advice, and that's to use your time wisely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

That's it.

SPEAKER_02 23:40

And since your past podcast with us, what's in your family first fitness? Any wins, growths, or something you're especially proud of lately that you'd like to share?

Growth, Mentorship, And Gear Plans

SPEAKER_01 23:50

I like how the so we started in September. Shout out to my manager for believing in me. We started in September. We're now in March, so that's six months, and I'm seeing growth. We just have to, we just have to try harder and expose ourselves in a better way. But I like where everything is going. It's a great learning experience with the photography, with talking talking, doing interviews with you, interviewing other people. It's awesome. I never thought or imagined myself being in this position if it wasn't for my manager. Yeah, that's the experience I've learned so far. The plan is to probably try to put out t-shirts, family first fitness t-shirts in underarmor gear. And yeah, go from there. I'll start wearing it at my gym. And I have two guys right now that look up to me. They're 18 years old, Dom and Evan. They they work out at my gym and they did some interviews with me already. And I said, you know what, as a thank you, I'm gonna send you Under Armour shirts, and then we're gonna put Family First Fitness on. And they'll happily wear it. They look up to me, like I said, because I think one of them, his father's 51, and I'm not too far from that, believe it or not. And he's what? So I was like, yeah, this is what the fitness does. It doesn't just working out, throwing weights, it actually helps with your health and mental being.

SPEAKER_02 25:24

Look good, feel good.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yep. Yeah, yeah. I don't even feel like my age. I feel like I'm 25.

SPEAKER_02 25:31

That's amazing. Yeah, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:35

It really inspires us all, I think, to work towards that, to be that way as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Yeah, thank you. So you're gonna work out after this, right?

SPEAKER_02 25:42

I guess I'm gonna have to. You'll have to call me out and be like, hey, you need to work out.

SPEAKER_01 25:46

Yeah, do something, right? I hope it helped.

SPEAKER_02 25:50

And looking back on marching family first fitness recently, what has been one of your favorite memories or moments so far that made you think this is exactly why we started?

SPEAKER_01 26:02

Favorite memory. I would have to say there's so many. No, just the I guess uh my favorite is just doing the pictures. Right now, as of right now, the photography is awesome. I have a good time just chilling and wearing what I want to wear and taking these photos like I'm some kind of star or something. So that's a good feeling. But yeah, I that's pretty much it. I'm I'm humble. I'm humble. I'm just yeah, the pictures are the fun part.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

Yeah, showing my skills, showing my ads and stuff like that. Oh wow, he really does work. I'm just not just a gimmick.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Um that's where you being a motivator comes in too and shows people this is doable. We can do it too.

SPEAKER_01 26:52

Thank you. Yeah, thank you for understanding. But like you said, you so you want, yeah, you go in. Or you're we can help register you, all that stuff, whatever it takes.

The FP & JP Show Origin Story

SPEAKER_02 27:01

Sounds good, sounds good to me. And you and I both host podcasts.

unknown 27:07

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

Yours is the FP and JP show, and I love connecting with fellow hosts. What inspired you to start the show? And what kind of conversations are you most excited to bring to your audience this year? And lastly, where can people find and follow you?

Where To Find FP And Final Shoutouts

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Okay, so I like to I this is a whole new thing for me since I started in September. I started out nervous, I started out shy, but I'm progressing, right? The experience is amazing. Not many people can do this. Some people have stage fright and stuff like that, but I'm learning how to um get it together and stuff like that. I keep practicing, looking in the mirror, things like that. What I would like to do is, yeah, as I said before, we go ahead and start putting out shirts of Family First Fitness, under Armour shirts, clothing gear, and stuff like that. Find a sponsor to help us out. So that's our goal, is to progress and show them that this family is first, fitness first. So I think it's a great name. What started me to do it was again when my partner, JP, when I saw him in Afghanistan, that's where we met, by the way, in 2012. And neither one of us had children. We didn't have any wives, nothing, and no girlfriend. It was just focused, right? And we were working out together in tents and things like that. Throughout the years, he just said, Hey, you still working out? I'm like, Yeah, I'm still working out. What about you? He's like, Of course, forever, brother. And I'm like, all right, I'm gonna be in my dying bed one day. And I just asked for a curl or a wait, do my last curl or something like that. So it just never stopped. So we just came together and he said to me when I went to visit him on vacation, hey, what do you so what's going on with you? He said he would like to be a model, a fitness model, or a star and stuff like that. And I was like, you know what? Let's see if we can make that happen. So we pushed and we just reached out to certain people. Shout out to again to my manager who said, I can help you do that. And yeah, we went from there. That's how that whole thing started. I think it was JP that came up with the name Family First Fitness. Uh we couldn't figure out a name. It was like Family, Family First, Family Fitness, and then Family First Fitness. So shout out to JP.

SPEAKER_02 29:30

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 29:31

Yeah, that's how that went.

SPEAKER_02 29:33

I think the name is so perfect because when you think of fitness, it's always better when you have your family with you, your friends, being able to have that impact on each other and hold each other accountable. It's infectious. Right. You just want to keep doing it more and get getting healthier. So I think that is the perfect name that you guys have.

SPEAKER_01 29:53

Thank you. Yeah, yeah, that was a that's a great name. We got it patented and got a copyright. Nobody can take that from us.

SPEAKER_02 30:00

And we can find our podcast on YouTube.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Oh, yes. Sorry about that. So, yeah, you can find us on YouTube, JP, no, I'm sorry, FP and JP Shell. The F P and J P Show. You can also find me on Instagram. F P underscore F F Fitness. You can also reach out to me personally. Handsome Soldier. I had to cough on that one. Handsome soldier spelled differently. H-A-N-S-U-M S-O-L-D-I-E-R. Handsome soldier. I was I used to be cocky a long time ago. So that's when I went ahead and said I spelled it a different way. Handsome.

SPEAKER_02 30:47

Okay, nothing wrong with that. And see if it stays in the mind. That's what you want. Is there anything you'd like to add that I haven't touched on today?

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, I would like to reach out to a good friend of mine who supported me throughout all this, my friend Joe. You can find him on Instagram as well, Moments of Love Canvas. I also just want to thank my manager. I also want to thank JP and my I just lost my aunt and a Navy buddy three weeks ago. Back-to-back deaths. So I just want to say rest in peace to my aunt and my friend. I can't even think Greg. Greg, I want to say rest in peace, brother. So that's pretty much it. You asked me some good questions, and I'm thankful for it.

SPEAKER_02 31:35

Oh, we were just so much we didn't have you back on.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Yeah, I gotta do this again though. Please keep inviting me.

SPEAKER_02 31:41

Absolutely. Anytime. This comes to know.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

All right.

SPEAKER_02 31:44

And I want to thank you so much, Ekki, for joining me on the podcast again, sharing your knowledge and inspiring story with us. I wish you and the entire team at Family First Fitness to continue growing success and all the best in the future.

SPEAKER_00 31:59

Awesome. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 32:00

Thank you.