Episode 323 Kyle Perry Unleashing Masculine Strength Through Sobriety Transcript
This transcript is from episode 323 with guest Kyle Perry.
Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Hey everybody. Welcome back to Drive On. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio. And today my guest is Kyle Perry. Kyle is a Marine veteran who lost 100 pounds after getting sober. And he’s on a mission now to help other veterans become strong again through sobriety. So welcome to the show, Kyle. I’m really glad to have you here.
Thanks, sir. It’s good to be here. Yeah. So for the listeners in the audience that, uh, may not be familiar with you and your background, can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Kyle Perry: Yeah. So, uh, within the last couple of years, um, I got out of the Marine Corps in 2017, and then I climbed up the rink in the corporate world.
I was, uh, one of the youngest plant managers on paper for a chemical company. And I was drinking, like celebrating, you know, how the military teaches a drink and celebrate corporate world the same way. Before you knew it, like I was still into fitness, but I was using the excuses like, Oh, I’m balking. You know, I’m doing this.
So then before I knew it, I was 283 pounds and I was telling my wife, I’m like, I just don’t find a purpose in this. Like, and most people would kill to have a job like that, like to make a hundred thousand dollars [00:01:00] a year at a corporate world. But I had no purpose. Like I felt like every day I was just going to work to go to work and I.
I kicked open the door and personal development started really getting back into fitness, doing an hour of cardio a day, plus lifting, getting my nutrient, uh, my nutrition under, under control. And I just started diving in headfirst with the personal development. And then I had been a fitness coach before.
So I decided to start doing that again. There’s a big fitness guy. His name is Wes Watson. He’s a really big motivational speaker right now. I hired him as my business coach. He helped me revamp everything. So I was able to leave my corporate job and now all I do is try to help other people beat their vices and get sober because most people won’t live inside their own head.
They try to numb anything inside of there. So their whole goal is like either get high or drunk so they don’t have to be inside of their own head. So I want to show people like you’re not a product of your environment. You’re a product of your mindset because even before the Marine Corps, I’m from like a pretty not great [00:02:00] area.
It’s in between Cleveland and Columbus in Ohio. And if you Google it, it’s like one of the worst cities per size in all of America. So if I can do it, anyone can do it. So that’s why I like to share my story because most people won’t share their story. And. The only way you can change lives is to share your story.
Too many people, they always say like, people that talk a lot have a big ego, but I think it’s the other way around. Like, if, if you have a billionaire that hides off over here and dresses in Walmart clothes and never tells you he has money or how to make it, that’s the real ego. They’re hiding everything from you.
And,
Scott DeLuzio: you know, I think, uh, the, the part that you were just talking about, uh, about sharing your story and, and how that makes an impact. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why this… show even exists is to have people like yourself, come on the show, share your story, talk about some of the struggles that you went through, some of the, the obstacles that you had to overcome and how you got there.
Um, because there’s somebody else out there who is sitting around working a job that they hate, [00:03:00] um, getting out of shape, making excuses for not going to the gym or, or, you know, staying out late drinking and, uh, you know, eating. You know, heavy meals and all this kind of stuff that that’s not contributing anything to their health or wellbeing.
Um, and they’re making all these excuses and they don’t know how to get out of that, uh, that they’ve found themselves in. And so having someone like yourself on, share your story, talk about what you did, how you overcame that. And you know, that, that’s the type of thing in my mind anyways, that gives hope to the people who are out there who are, are just.
waking up every day, dreading the fact that they have to go into this, this dead end job and, you know, drowning the, the voice in their head with, you know, drugs or alcohol or, you know, whatever. And they’re, they’re just kind of trying to numb all of that stuff away. In your case here, you’re here to say.
There’s a better way and you’ve discovered it. Now, now let’s share it. And so that’s, that’s why this show exists. Um, and I [00:04:00] want to get more into your story and your background here in just a minute, but we’re going to take a quick commercial break. So when, when we get back, we will, uh, we’ll get more into that.
So stay tuned. Hey everybody. Welcome back to Drive On. Um, Kyle. In the intro, we were talking a little bit about your, your background and your, your history. Tell us about what your life was like after getting out of the Marines. Um, you, you talked a little bit about, you know, being in the corporate world and, and all that.
Um, but I imagine that there’s a story there to, uh, to where you got to the point where you had that extra a hundred pounds to lose that we talked about in the, in the intro here. Um, what, tell us about that story and kind of like where, where you got into that, that situation.
Kyle Perry: So when I first got out, I started working for the state, which any government job is a stressful job.
And then I went into the corporate world, where I went to a normal job. Kind of luck of the draw, I found this place, they hired me. They liked my interview so much, but they had already filled the position. So they hired me as environmental health and [00:05:00] safety, and it really should have been called doing everything in the place, because it wasn’t a real position, so I just had to do everything possible when something couldn’t get done.
But, I mean, it took me from that position to being the plant manager of the entire place of a 90, 000 square foot building and all the employees within a year. Like a year and a half, I proved myself. But when the corporate world comes, a lot of stress and a lot of mental. A lot of mental things that go on in your head because everyone says I want to be the boss until you get there and then you realize, um, it’s, it’s better to be a ground worker as far as mental health wise.
Sure. So, um, I was working like 50, 60, 70 hour a week sometime and then the machine would break down. It was a very lean company, so I didn’t have a maintenance person. I was doing my own maintenance. My assistant manager was helping me a lot. It was a very stressful time. So, like, we would go, me and my assistant manager, and we’d go get drunk to take off some steam.
And then before you know it, I mean, I’m a hundred pounds overweight and I’m not. And I was still pretty, [00:06:00] the thing is like, you’re so blind to the fact, I was still preaching discipline to people and I didn’t have any of it. I had, because I had discipline in the corporate world and I’ve always been a person like, no matter, I could party till five in the morning, wake up at six in the morning and outwork everyone.
Just because like I didn’t grow up with a lot of money. So my goal was always to outwork everyone. So no matter how hung over, how tired, how out of shape I was, I was still an amazing worker. So I just took that discipline and I turned it back around and mindset, personal development, all of that.
Scott DeLuzio: It’s good that you did because that type of thing, you know, partying until five in the morning, waking up at six and, you know, working a, you know, late day, uh, your body can only handle so much of that at some point, right?
You may be able to do that, especially when you’re younger. Uh, you maybe they’ll bounce back and be like, Oh yeah, I can handle that. And that’s, that’s no problem. But as, as you start to get older, your body, isn’t going to respond to that, uh, quite as well. Um, what, what did you do to change that mindset? I know [00:07:00] you said you had that, that discipline when it came to, uh, your, your work life, but with regards to your personal life, what did you do to change that mindset?
And how, how did you, uh, you know, flip that switch and what can others do to create that?
Kyle Perry: So I couldn’t find anyone around here. Like I say, I have a toxic environment, so I just looked outward onto the internet and that’s why I know this stuff changes lives. And that’s why I tell my story because I found someone that changed my life. Um, his name is Wes Watson and that’s, I eventually hired him as my business coach and mentor because of how much his YouTube videos changed my life.
If anyone watching this knows who he is, he was in prison for 10 years for, and he was supposed to go even longer. He’s got a crazy story, but he changed his life in prison. I’m like, if he can change his life in prison, anybody can change their life. So I used him as motivation. And, uh, he’s been my, my mentor, my business coach for like the last two, three months now, [00:08:00] and I hired him for six months, but he’s.
That is DeLuzio. And DeLuzio is the man who provided so to pay him every quarter for probably the rest of my life just to be able to pick his brain. So you just need to surround yourself after you make the internal change, cause that has to happen first. You need to surround yourself with like positive manifestations, positive affirmations and things that actually push you forward.
And if you have negative family members, negative friends. You can maybe go out to dinner with them every couple of months, but do not keep them in your immediate circle. Even if, I don’t care if it’s your mom and dad, if they tell you something negative every single day, you have to get away from them.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, for sure. Um, that type of thing, uh, you may feel like. There’s an obligation or whatever, you know, especially with family or even, even close friends, you know, people that you grew up with maybe or whatever, you may feel obligated to hang out with those people or, or be around those people all the time.
But you know, if everything that’s coming at you is negative, negative, [00:09:00] negative, you’re doing yourself a disservice. You’re shooting yourself in the foot because you’re going to start to believe all that negative, I would think, right?
Kyle Perry: Yeah. I mean, I just had a situation not too long ago with my, So my dad just had brain surgery.
So I walk into the hospital, um, cause I don’t really go around my family anymore, just cause I don’t like hearing negativity all the time. I walk into the hospital, I have a book. And the first thing she says is, why would you read that vulgar book? Aren’t you a Christian? And I said, like, what, what, why can’t you love God and cuss in a positive manner to what changes people’s lives?
There’s nothing inherently wrong with cuss words. Like people put a negative connotation on it, but if I’m saying it in a positive manner, that changes lives. There’s nothing bad about that word. It’s a word that we made bad over time. There’s nothing bad about a cuss word. And, uh, she got, she got like snippy with me over that.
But like, I was like, like, do you think that my dad would be the main focus? But instead, because I’m doing personal development and [00:10:00] she’s not, her main focus was the Soon as I walked in the room to try to attack me. And then she had tried to apologize later, and I was like, there’s no need to say sorry ’cause you guys do this to me all the time.
That’s just why I don’t come around anymore. And then they’ll, and they’ll try to make you feel bad, like, oh, you don’t ever come and see us, we’re your family. But if it’s not, if it’s something that’s going to make your mindset so negative and put you in a bad place of mind, like and then you do something mean to them that gives you bad karmic debt, then you’re like three days behind on just getting your life back together because you, you let yourself get out of character.
Scott DeLuzio: And, and think about if that’s a daily occurrence where this is happening every day and you’re, like you said, you’re now three days behind of getting your life back on track and you know, everything, if this is a daily occurrence, you’re, you’re in the hole. Many, many days. And how are you going to climb yourself back out of that?
And so that it becomes a big challenge to, to get back on track and, um, not only just to maintain a baseline, but, but to [00:11:00] propel yourself forward and, and make advancements and achievements in your life too, um, it’s just not. A good situation to be in. So yeah, you, you may need to cut some of that out and, you know, maybe not entirely like you, you just never pick up the phone or never talk to them ever again.
That may not be the, the extreme, um, you know, thing that you need to do. But, um, you know, maybe it’s, you know, every once in a while and they may just have to be okay with that.
Kyle Perry: Yeah, exactly. Like the craziest thing is I still try to reach out like that same morning. I sent him like a motivational workout video to my sister.
I said, happy Friday. Have a great day. And that was the first thing she said to me when she saw me in person. Like, and then like, most people aren’t strong enough up here to like, when they’re around negativity to push past it, like they would have let it ruin their whole day, but like my eyes, like I just went downstairs.
I did, because I get 10, 000 steps in a day minimum, and I went and walked outside, got some fresh air, got the sun, and I just didn’t let it affect me. It probably affected her more than it affected me, but that’s just because, [00:12:00] again, a negative person will let negativity, like, manifest into their brain and make it ten times worse.
That’s like why, if you hold a door open for someone and smile… You might change a hundred lives that day. Cause if you would have did it the opposite way, made that guy mad, he might go out and kill someone later. So like your small actions can literally change lives that fast. And people’s like, people don’t realize it.
Scott DeLuzio: No, they don’t. And even as something as small as just holding the door, um, you know, someone who was having a totally crappy day. Um, feel like they’re invisible to maybe their family or their boss or their neighbors or their friends or they’re feeling this complete invisible, uh, you know, vibe coming towards them.
And they, you hold the door open, you smile, you know, Hey, have a nice day, you know, whatever, something like that. Um, now all of a sudden they’re like, wait, someone actually saw me today, like starting to, starting to turn things around. Right. Um, and so, yeah, we, I [00:13:00] think we need, we definitely need more of that, uh, uh, in society just.
in general, just being nice to each other. Um, but also that resiliency, that, that mindset that you were just talking about, um, So that these little setbacks of what somebody thinks or says or does or it doesn’t completely Jack up your whole day.
Kyle Perry: Yeah, like I’m a big like I listen to Jordan Peterson a lot and he’s studied the mind for so long I’m a big believer.
Like you should be an absolute Animals just straight savage inside but be able to control it to where like you never have to use it But if you ever had to protect yourself, yeah But if you can, if you can channel that type of energy inside your body, you control it, you can control anything. And, um, we’re getting so far away from like masculinity and like trying to push our emotions away.
But if we weren’t intended to have anger, emotions, masculinity, It, whether you believe in God or the universe or whatever, a different creator, it wouldn’t be inside of us. So like [00:14:00] we keep trying to push these emotions down and that’s why we’re ruining it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And those things are, they’re there. So like, let’s, you know, we push them away.
Uh, where, where do we actually think that they’re going to if we just push them down? Like they’re, they’re not going anywhere. Um, and so that’s doing ourselves, doing everybody else a disservice by kind of just continuously to push these things down. Um, Deal with them, talk about them, share them, you know, fight through them if you need to, whatever you need to do, but don’t pretend that they don’t exist.
Uh, that’s not, that’s not doing you, you or anybody any, any good. So, yeah, work, work through that stuff.
Kyle Perry: And that’s why anxiety and depression is at an all time high, because people aren’t living who they’re, they’re not living their true purpose and who we’re supposed to be, because society tells you to shut it down.
Like, if anyone sees my Instagram, I’m a very intense person. I’m like, in your face. But if I got to reach their soul for them to make a change, you won’t make a change until you like. Like, I’ve [00:15:00] had people mess with me, like, I felt like you were literally talking to me. And, um, that’s the whole point. Like, you gotta be able to hold, like, they won’t hold themselves accountable, so I have to make it feel like I’m gonna hold them accountable, tell them they’re doing something wrong, and then they’re like, I need to change.
Because, I mean, I know it works, because that’s what… Drill instructors do to you. That’s what worked for me when I found my mentors. So like, it might not resonate with everyone, but one life’s changed. And nine people that messaged me hating on the message. I still changed one life because like, you know, with being on social media, you’re going to get hate, you’re going to get hate from one side versus the other side.
So people are like, Oh, you’re only in it for the money. Like if I was in it for the money, I wouldn’t go through all the negativity that people try to push onto me. It’s not, it’s not worth what you think it’s worth, but it’s saving one life is.
Scott DeLuzio: And to your point, those nine people, you know, if one comes to you and says, you know, something has changed for the better and nine people are hating on you for whatever reason, um, those people weren’t going to change.
Anyways, let’s [00:16:00] just kind of face it, right? So those people, it’s almost like for you and your mission, what you’re trying to do is you’re trying to affect change in people and You look at that as, as maybe, uh, uh, you know, uh, indication that those people don’t really matter because they’re not going to change your time and energy should be focused on that one person who’s going to change and they, they show some signs of hope.
So focus your time there and. And I think that the reason why I bring that up is because I think that’s just a general mindset that people can have when it comes to toxic relationships or a job or, uh, you know, other things that people may be going through. Um, you know, certain people, certain things, certain situations, they’re not going to change no matter what you do, no matter how much you, uh, try to change it.
Just not going to happen. So you have to, at some point, just draw the line in the sand and say, Oh, I’m not going to worry about that stuff over there. I’m going to worry about the stuff that I can change and take it from [00:17:00] there. Um, we’re going to take another quick commercial break. Uh, when we get back, we’ll talk a little bit more about this and, uh.
And, and, uh, the journey that you have gone through. So stay tuned, everybody. Welcome back to Drive On. Um, Kyle, we were talking about, um, earlier before the break, uh, sharing your story and talking about the, um, the path that you went through to, uh, finding a more fulfilling life and getting back in shape and all of that kind of stuff.
Um, and I know that the path to getting sober, um, you were talking about, you You were drinking a lot, and that was kind of maybe contributing to some of the, uh, the negative aspects of what was going on in your life, but that path to getting sober isn’t always easy. Um, what was your path like to getting to that point of sobriety, and how can other people beat those vices that they may be dealing with?
Kyle Perry: So the very first thing that has to happen, and if you notice my page, I don’t call myself a fitness coach, I call myself a [00:18:00] mindset fitness and nutrition coach, because if you don’t internalize it right here, Nothing changes. And like, I know I talk about like picking up drinking in the military, but I didn’t go until I was 21 and the environment I live in, a lot of people drink.
It’s a very violent area. I was getting in a lot of trouble. So I thought if I left for the Marine Corps, it would change my life, but you want to fit in with the people that you want to fit in with. So then you just hang out with those same kind of people that did the same thing to try to leave their environment.
And then you still get in trouble and you still drink and you do the same thing. So until you actually internalize the change. Nothing is ever gonna fix itself. I don’t care if I gave you the biggest, best, nice program in the world and you paid 10 million for it. If you don’t internalize it right here and actually start moving forward from that point in time, you’ll never be able to do it.
And especially with personal development, it’s a lonely road. Like, once you start to become a better person and the people beside you don’t really want to hang out with you anymore because they’re stuck behind you and then they feel like you’re almost hurting their [00:19:00] ego because you’re improving their life, your life, and their not.
It’s a very lonely road because you start to be, uh, almost you’re not high enough level to the next level up to like hang out with the people above you and the people below you will just bring you down. So you’ve got to hang out by yourself, like get rid of numbing the feelings and just internalize everything for a while.
And that’s really where. Sobriety or like success or anything comes from is internalizing the change first.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And that internally internalizing that, that change is a difficult thing because sometimes you want to have that support network there. You want to have, uh, those, those people who maybe are comfortable to you, the people that you’ve been hanging out with all along, but, um, you can’t get to.
Where you want to be by doing the same things that you’ve always done and hanging around with the same people that you’ve always hung Around with and I’m not saying you you need to 100% cut out everybody from your past, right? Like obviously that’s not [00:20:00] You know the the case but in some cases maybe it is you know, some people may have come up in a an extremely toxic environment where everything was drugs and everything was you know drinking and you know, everything was just a terrible environment.
Um, uh, for example, I had a guest on the show real early on in this podcast where that’s the environment he grew up, grew up in, um, abusive, uh, you know, family relationship, um, friends that he had were into drugs and everything like that. And, and it was just, There’s no way up. There’s no way out of that, uh, through there.
And he ended up just packing up everything one day and said, I had enough of this. And he moved, um, struggled. He was homeless for a little bit, but he, he wound up picking himself back up and became a successful businessman. And so like, yeah, there’s going to be that lonely period where you might need to just move on and cut certain things out of your life.
Um, it’s hard, but. You [00:21:00] know, that, that might just be what you need to do, right? My wife
Kyle Perry: and I are actually doing that exact same thing. Like we’re moving to Miami, Florida in April. And it’s just because of how toxic this place is. Like I was making, when I was drinking, I was hanging out with the same people.
I, I was, I don’t want to like try to pay myself as like a super, like a strong, amazing guy, but like, I was like getting in fights all the time and brawls and getting like shot at making a hundred thousand dollars a year, because I would go back to hang out with the people that I grew up with. And when you’re drinking and you’re in the moment and you’re so used to it, it doesn’t even seem crazy at the time.
And now I look back on it. I’m like, what was I doing? Right. And my wife is such a supportive person. And she’s so down to ride like with me through Matt, no matter what, she would be there with me and not like complain to me. Just because like, I’m her husband and she’s my wife and we’re like best friends.
She was down, like whatever I wanted to do with my life, like she would try to help me improve it, but she would never give me a hard time.
Scott DeLuzio: Sure. And that’s, that’s an important thing to have too, is to have that, uh, [00:22:00] supportive uh, spouse in your life as well. Um, you know, if that person is. A toxic person as well, but like, it’s not going to be any easier for you to go down that path, but you, you, in your case here, you have that person who is supportive of you and is willing to, you know, kind of go with you down, down that path.
And that had to be a huge benefit too. Um, now in addition to being a Marine veteran, right? Uh, you’re, you’re also, like you said, a personal trainer, my mindset coach. Um, There’s some veterans out there who are, who are listening to this that may still be able to fit into their old uniform, you know, if depending on how long ago they were in, right?
Others may only still be able to fit in the socks that they wore from their old uniform, so maybe not be able to fit into much anymore. What advice do you have for the people who are trying to get back in shape or maybe stay in shape if they haven’t let themselves slip quite yet?
Kyle Perry: So the funniest thing is someone else told me that yesterday about the socks thing.
And [00:23:00] I’ve never heard that, but, uh, the first thing they need to just start doing, like I tell all my, any client at all is, um, just start walking, walking is so beneficial. Like, I don’t know what it is with the internet and society. We try to overcomplicate fitness, but we need to just take our body and do with it what is intended to do.
And it’s. Like if we can fast for 30 days and not drink water for seven days, it means our body’s meant to do it. So like we should not be hungry every two to three hours, like starving. That just means you’re not fueling your body with the right foods. So you need to start walking. And let’s say you eat McDonald’s for breakfast.
Let’s say you just find a lower calorie, higher protein option of that food for breakfast. And then you do the same thing for lunch and the same thing for dinner. Or if you’re drinking like a lot of sodas, you want to do like. Like, I drink a lot of Coke Zeros, but I used to drink a lot of Coke before I got, like, into fitness.
So, like, you do half, half a cup of Coke, half a cup of Coke Zero, to, like, trick your mind, and then you just start, like, changing the levels of it, and eventually you’re drinking nothing but Coke Zeros, and you a thousand calories a [00:24:00] day. So, just really small changes. If you go too fast, too extreme, that’s why 90% of diets fail.
It’s, it’s gotta be a long term thing, and you gotta start with the discipline. Like, if anybody watches my Instagram, I have the most disciplined life ever. I wake up in the morning… I film my supplements. I do my burpees. I go on my ruck. I eat my breakfast. And then I hit my lunch and then I do my second workout and then I make a motivational post.
And if I don’t do that, cause I have such an addictive personality, I’ll fall off the bandwagon. So they need to find something that works for them though. Like if they can’t follow that and they don’t need to do.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. And coming up with that routine is important too, because that becomes just, it’s almost like a itch that you need to scratch.
Like, like if you haven’t done whatever it was, like you said, you just laid out your, your daily routine. This is what you do every day. You wake up, you do X, Y, and Z. And if you missed a step or something like that, it, It probably feels strange to you. It probably feels like I, I need, I [00:25:00] have this itch, I need to scratch it.
I need to go do this thing. Um, you know, it’s just like, you know, you wake up in the morning and, you know, if you don’t brush your teeth or, you know, you don’t take a shower or whatever, uh, your, anyone else’s, you know, regular morning routine is, if you don’t do that, you start to feel weird. It’s like, Oh my God, I didn’t, I didn’t brush my teeth today.
Like now I feel disgusting. Like this doesn’t feel right. I got to go correct this. Right. And so very similar to what you, you just described, I If you have that routine and this is what you do every single day, you go through this routine, um, you, you’re going to want to do that. You’re going to, that’s just going to become part of who you are.
I would think, right? That
Kyle Perry: exact same thing happened to me the other day. I did some like really early morning podcast. I knocked out like three in a row and like, I just slipped my mind to do my burpees and I was sitting there and I’m like, I feel weird. Yeah, when I was like watching my Instagram story, I’m like, I didn’t do my burpees and then I just did them like once it Becomes a habit.
It’s the same thing I do like you said if you forget to brush your teeth cuz you’re in such a hurry You’ll be sitting there and you’re like, I didn’t brush my teeth today and then you’ll go [00:26:00] do it So like once you build that momentum, I mean it takes a while cause I have, it takes a while to build, but you’ll eventually realize like, Oh, if you skip it, you feel, um, like lazy and you feel like lethargic and like your energy levels aren’t there because that’s what is the pick me up for your life.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I mean there’s, there’s going to be built in, like, I know people will probably be questioning like, Oh, well don’t you get a rest day every once in a while? Like there’s going to be built in rest days when, when you have, uh, Like you said, there’s going to be an early morning commitment. Like maybe you have an early flight that you gotta, you gotta go catch or something like that.
And, uh, you, you go. And you may have to skip it one day and, and schedules may not allow you to do it. Or maybe you get sick or, you know, whatever the case may be. And yeah, so you’re going to skip it here and there. Um, those are going to be kind of like what I think of as built in rest days, because they, they just occur.
And yeah, maybe you’re going to have to skip one day here and there. Um, but, but generally if you [00:27:00] keep doing the same thing over and over day after day, you’re not going to need a rest day. As a matter of fact, you’re probably not even going to want it. You’re going to, you’re going to want. To that consistency of let’s do this thing.
Let’s check this box and let’s get this done. Um, to, to keep going with the day,
Kyle Perry: right? Yeah, nothing I do is really fitness related. It’s discipline related and then that bleeds off from everything else. So like, and my body will force me to do a rest day. Like I’ll go so extreme, so hard and I’ll film like so many podcasts and do so much all day long every day.
It’s like one day I’ll just. Sleep through my alarm for a couple extra hours ’cause I beat my body that bad. Like it’ll give you, it’ll tell you when you need your rest day and then that’s when you really need to take it because you can push your mind and body so much. I mean, anybody that’s a veteran on here, they know like bootcamp, like look how far extreme people talk about over training.
If over training is real. People wouldn’t get diced and jacked in bootcamp ’cause you barely eat and you move a lot. Most people come out better in shape
Scott DeLuzio: than they were. Right? I had one guy in my basic training, uh, he came in. Really overweight, really heavy, um, they gave [00:28:00] him like one of the bigger uniforms to, to put on because that’s the only thing that would fit him.
Uh, by the end of basic training, uh, we, we graduated. They actually had to get him a new uniform because like the old one just wouldn’t stay on him anymore. It was, it was just falling off. He had lost so much weight. It was, it was actually incredible to see the transformation. And, and his parents, when they came on the graduation day, they’re like, I, we don’t recognize you.
Like, what did you do with the rest of my son? You know, it was, but it was, it was incredible to see that, that discipline and just following that, that regimen is it will work. Um, you know, but you have to keep up with it. Um, you can’t just say, Oh, I’m going to do it today, but I’m not going to do it next week and I’m going to do it, uh, you know, for a little bit.
That’s why a lot of the new year’s resolutions, people, you know, they, they start going to the gym in January and by mid February. The gym’s a ghost town and it’s like that’s why they all fail because they’re not doing it consistently.
Kyle Perry: Exactly. And bootcamp and naked and afraid are my two biggest examples I use the people.
You know how people love to [00:29:00] say, well, if you don’t eat enough, you’ll get fat and you won’t burn fat. Like if that was real and science proved that bootcamp and naked and afraid, you would see people get fatter, but you don’t.
Scott DeLuzio: Right. Exactly. Um, all right, we’re going to take another quick commercial break.
Uh, when we get back, we’ll talk a little bit more about your journey and, and, uh, the steps that other people can take to, uh, create more of a disciplined approach here in their lives. So stay tuned. So Kyle, um, I want to talk a little bit more about the transformation that you went through. Uh, you talked a little bit earlier, you know, you lost about a hundred pounds after getting sober.
Um, Obviously, that’s an incredible achievement, I think, for anybody to have been able to do that, to make that kind of shift in their life and get to that point. But how did that transformation impact not only your physical health, which probably had some obvious benefits there on your physical health, but also your mindset and your overall well being?
Kyle Perry: Well, the first thing is I don’t wake up anymore regretting what I did the night before. And anyone that’s drank too much [00:30:00] knows they wake up the next day and they’re like, why did I say or do what I did when I was drinking? So I don’t have to go through nights like that anymore or the next day. And I don’t have wasted days anymore.
There’s been times where a lot of people, you know, have been, they’ve gotten. Annihilated. And then three days later, they’re still like groggy. It’s called hang anxiety where you have anxiety from being so hung over your body doesn’t recuperate. And, uh, I don’t have any of that anymore. And then my relationship with my wife and my kids are 10 times better because I get up at five in the morning, no matter what, I don’t have to sleep until noon to get some sleep.
So the weekends are more jam packed and like. Well, a lot of parents that uses a scapegoat to like, well, I don’t have time, but if you actually prioritize your health and your wellness, I mean, you would spend way more time with your kids cause you would have the energy after work. You would have the energy.
on the weekends. Um, you would have just the mindset and clarity. I have so much more mental clarity now than I ever have. And I used to be that same, [00:31:00] like, I used to be the same thing that they’re going to say. They’re going to say, well, there’s, you can have balance and you can celebrate, but you really can’t like, yeah, you can drink here and there.
But like, if you have an addiction to alcohol, like if you drink more than to get drunk, That’s that’s an addiction and then most people will switch that addiction to food once they quit. They never beat their addiction They just switched it. So your mental clarity will be ten times better. Just like that’s the biggest benefit I’ve got the Muscles and like getting in shape and getting ripped like if I just posted my before and after like I’m shredded now That’s all secondary benefits.
None of that matters. It’s all the mental like I could care less if I have abs the rest of my life It’s
Scott DeLuzio: all about how I feel Yeah, and I think, you know, part of that may be when you look in the mirror, obviously that there’s… a better version of yourself that you’re looking at. So there may be some, some secondary mental benefits to that as well.
But, but you’re absolutely right. There’s, it’s, it’s the mindset. It’s that, that, uh, that mental clarity, [00:32:00] not regretting what you did the night before, or, you know, any of that kind of stuff. The, those types of things are the biggest benefits. And I think, For anybody, if you can wrap your, wrap your head around the mental side of things and, and get that disciplined approach, um, I think you’ll, you’ll completely change, uh, your outlook on, on life.
And, um, you know, things will start to improve for you all around. You’ll, you’ll have, you know, better relationships, your, your job, you know, you’ll, you’ll find yourself in a better place with your job and, um, you know, all that kind of stuff will just. start to get better. But, um, so many people, uh, fall into this trap where they, they work, you know, uh, uh, you know, Monday through Friday type job and they stay out late on, uh, you know, but, you know, nights and weekends and all that kind of stuff.
And they, they just, let themselves sleep in on a Saturday, Sunday, because, you know, that’s just, um, you know, [00:33:00] where they’re catching up on sleep or whatever. Um, but then Monday comes around and they’re completely groggy because their body is now starting to get used to that sleeping in late routine that they’re, they’re getting to.
Um, that’s why I, in my opinion, that’s why everyone hates Mondays because. Who wants to wake up super early when you’re used to sleeping in a few hours later, right? Like, it just doesn’t make sense. Like, keep that consistency going all throughout the week, um, you know, even on the weekends, right?
Kyle Perry: I post that on my story every Monday.
I say, you don’t hate Mondays, you hate your life. Like, you hate, you hate how you feel on Monday because of what you did over the weekend. Yeah. I like Monday because it’s a fresh restart to like start the week off great. So if you start the week off great, the rest of the week will be amazing.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And a lot of that, uh, stuff that goes on on the weekends, like you were talking about earlier, may just be to cover up the, uh, the demons that you got going on in your head and try to drown out some of that stuff.
And if you can get all that [00:34:00] stuff right, maybe you don’t need all that stuff going on. Uh, to, to drown out all that other stuff. I’m not saying you can’t ever have a drink every now and again. Um, but, but it’s not like you need to go out and, you know, have. You know, crazy nights and, and, you know, drinking like crazy.
Uh, you don’t need that. And quite frankly, you probably don’t even want it at that point.
Kyle Perry: They need to just realize everyone has crazy thoughts. Like I’m a psychopath inside of here. Um, if I have a weird thought or a thought that makes me want to go like do some crazy stuff in my life, I’ll just drop down and do some burpees and pushups.
Because if you do some physical activity, your body’s like, Oh. This is what I’m supposed to be doing. And then your thoughts click. It’s, it’s really simple. Like it’s basics, just like basic science, but we ignore it and we try to overcomplicate it.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And you were talking earlier too, about how we overcomplicate, uh, things like our, our fitness and there’s, you know, there’s.
All these apps and all these, you go to gym, there’s all these crazy machines that you wouldn’t find anything that looks anything like some of these things out in nature and our bodies are [00:35:00] designed to do things, uh, you know, out in nature. Like you said, go out for a walk or, you know, even, even run or, uh, you know, Do some body weight exercises, you know, burpees, pushups, sit ups, those types of things.
Those are things that our bodies are designed to do. Um, and you may not need all the extra stuff. Um, you know, unless you’re, you know, getting into bodybuilding and you need the extra weights and all that kind of stuff, but you may not need all that. And, and, Not only do you, you know, eliminate the, the complications or, or the, uh, the complicated nature of, of all these things.
Um, you know, you save a little bit of money too, not having to spend money on a gym membership too, right? Some
Kyle Perry: of my best clients transformations are before and after. Like people don’t realize how much money they spend because my coaching is. It’s 2. 99 a month or 7. 50 for three months, but you waste more than that on vices over those three months.
They spend 20 to 40 a day on cigarettes, alcohol, [00:36:00] fast food, and DoorDash. So some people are like, that’s too expensive. I can’t afford it. But you can ask any client I’ve ever had. I have saved them. 10, 20, 30, 000 over a year or two. Plus they started making more money cause they get promoted. A lot of my clients have went on to make successful businesses.
So back to the nine to five thing. If you don’t like your job and some people are going to take this as bragging, but like we said, like if you’re not going to internalize a change, you’re not. Um, I make five figures a month by helping people on the internet. So if you just get your life together and you actually realize you can make the change, you can give your life, your family a life you could never picture living just by starting today.
I’m not saying you gotta go be a fitness coach or a mindset coach, but you might be on a ground level person and you might start investing into yourself and then you have enough energy to go get that extra certification you’ve been wanting to do. Now you go from 20 an hour to 30 an hour. One of my most successful clients, his name is Anthony Davis.
He owns AID Remodeling. He was making 20 an hour [00:37:00] and he bought my highest tier package where I pretty much peeled his life apart like an onion. Broke every habit and if you go and look, he’s uh, one of the most shredded dudes I’ve ever coach. He, like I have screenshots where I started helping his business with referrals.
He started his own construction company. Within six months of leaving my program, he made 140, 000 and he was making 20 an hour before he got his life back together. Like it’s like personal development will change the whole trajectory of your life within a couple months if you take it serious.
Scott DeLuzio: I want to take a little bit of a detour here at this point.
Um, during, during one of the breaks, you and I were talking a little bit about, uh, The impact that masculinity, uh, the way it’s viewed in society these days has on people’s mental health. Um, talk to me a little bit about that and, and what your thoughts are on where people are and where they’re heading as far as masculinity goes, especially, you know, guys, but a lot [00:38:00] of, a lot of women have their, their views on masculinity as well.
And it, it, Is different than what it was when we were growing up, I
Kyle Perry: think. Yeah, so one thing I want to start doing, I want to start bringing my wife on this podcast to show women that actually women believe this too. Because we, we are made to have these emotions in our head and we bottle them down.
That’s what gives us anxiety and depression because you’re telling men they can’t be men anymore. That’s why my whole motto is making men and veterans strong again through sobriety. Because it’s almost like they’re shunned in society because we tell them not to be a man. But then we’re reversing the roles because the women that want masculine men, they become the masculine role because they don’t have it.
So then you’re forcing even more men to shut themselves down because the women are starting to be like that. Um, society wants to cancel men, but men are like, if you, from the dawn of time, and this is just biology at the core, men have created the world. They built the pyramids, they did all the strong stuff, they have the most dangerous jobs.
And then [00:39:00] we’re like, Oh, well, let’s water this job down. The military is going through it right now. They’re like, Oh, let’s water down special forces to let the women in. What are we going to do if we actually go to war with somebody? Those women aren’t going to be able to carry a dead body. Those women aren’t going to be able to carry wounded.
And then all of a sudden you let society and the mothers of America downplay masculinity. And now like, look what, like same thing, like what happened to Ukraine could happen here. What are you going to do? And those people that were screaming at you, they’re going to be the people hiding behind you now.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I think part of it too is, so you’re, you’re making men less masculine so that the women are now becoming more masculine. Um, and. That means that they’re less feminine. So not only are the men not doing what they were intended to do, the women aren’t doing what they’re intended to do. And, and it’s like, there’s that huge conflict.
And so. How do we, how do we break that cycle? And I, I think we, we may be [00:40:00] starting to turn a corner a little bit here in society with, with this, but we got to change how we perceive masculinity, um, and, and femininity in, in this country, I think.
Kyle Perry: I think one thing we need to do, because if you look at it from a grand scheme of things, is the people that should not be bullies are being bullies.
And we need to re bully them back because they’re only saying that stuff on the internet. They would never tell a man to stop being a man in person, right? Like they’re so ballsy on the internet. So we need to just start pushing back the other way. Kind of like how Bud Light got canceled, right? Like you have to push back the other way instead of letting them push us away because that’s what we did because we were scared.
Same thing, like I got canceled on Tik Tok and I had a normal job at the time and I was scared that I was going to lose my job. If I was doing what I’m doing now, that would have been the best thing that could ever happen for my business because I could have proved my point. And now like I got canceled over calling Lizzo out of shape.
[00:41:00] She’s getting canceled right now because she was doing some really grotesque things to her workers. So it all came back full circle. Like, uh, what, like the people that were trying to cancel people before were realizing they’re not the people that we need to be listening to. And there’s great people out there like Andy Frisella.
There’s tons of podcasts out there now. That’s actually trying to push the tide back the other way. And Andy Frisella is a billionaire, so you can’t cancel him. Like he has that podcast, Real AF and he owns First Forum. Like he. He says what he wants. He calls out the politicians. He has real politicians come on his podcast, talk about how like grotesque it is to be in that type of industry right now because they hide behind things and push weird agendas.
And that’s what we need more of. It doesn’t necessarily have to be political, but it has to be like, we’re not listening to you.
Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I, I agree. Like take politics out of it. Um, I think we just need to just come to reality here and be like, look, this isn’t. how we were intended to be. And this is how I’m going to be.
I’m, I’m, I’m a man, I’m going to be a man [00:42:00] and I’m going to do masculine manly things and I’m not going to apologize for it. And, um, and I think that’s going to go a long way as far as the mental health issues that we see. Um, because when you’re telling people that they’re wrong for being who they are and, uh, you know, trying to be masculine.
To the, the term toxic ma masculinity comes up and all that. It’s like, it’s not toxic, uh, to be a man. It’s, it’s toxic when you’re telling people to not be who they are. And that needs to have a little bit of a, a mindset shift here. Um, I’m glad we were able to, to chat a little bit about this and bring some light to it.
Hopefully we can maybe shed some more light on it in a, in a future episode here. But we’re gonna cut to another quick commercial break here, so stay tuned. So Kyle, It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. Um, I, I think some of the topics that we were talking about, uh, anything from the, um, the mindset changes that need to take place to the, uh, sobriety [00:43:00] and the, um, the, the physical and mental health benefits of all of that.
Um, I, I think it’s all. Something that we need more of, uh, more conversation around, more people talking and doing things about. And so what you’re doing is incredibly, uh, effective here. Um, where can people go to reach out and get in touch with you or find out more about what you do, or even follow you on, on social media?
So,
Kyle Perry: um, mainly everything’s ran through, um, my Instagram, which is Perry’s underscore powerhouse underscore fitness. And I know some fitness coaches, like you’ll reach out and you’re actually talking to a salesperson. I get like 50 to a hundred DMs a day. And I, it’s me every single time. If you need to talk to me about anything, um, if you want mindset coaching, we’ll talk about your life, what you need.
And, uh, I told, I was talking about my price earlier, but I also have a go fund me if you want to buy a veteran and plan. So if you go to my link and my Instagram. Uh, you scroll down to the third link, it says, Buy a Veteran a Plan. Every 750 [00:44:00] goes towards a Mindset Fitness and Nutrition Coaching Plan where I mentor a Veteran over the next three months, and we have a mindset call once a week, and I get them as, uh, they obviously have to be willing to accept it.
I’m on my second free plan right now. It is kind of hard. Cause I’ve reached, I took, uh, it’s probably like every 10 veterans I reach out to, one of them will accept it. So if you’re not in a personal development yourself, that’s a big way to help me move my mission forward because my overall mission is to build sober camps in all 50 States.
Uh, cause I just feel like. AA is a cool program, but they don’t put anyone back on a mission and veterans and men alike need to put on a mission in life to make
Scott DeLuzio: the change. Yeah, and that’s, I think, a great mission. Um, and we, we need more of that, um, to, to get people, um, having that sense of purpose and meaning behind whatever it is that they do.
Um, you know, whether, whether they, they, whenever they wake up in the morning, they need to know that there’s a purpose to me getting out of bed. Uh, you don’t have that purpose. There’s what’s the point in getting out of bed. And, and so, yeah. [00:45:00] Um, keep, keep on doing what you’re doing with that. Uh, and I’ll have links to, you know, your, your social media and everything else in, in the show notes.
So anyone who is looking to check that out, um, definitely click through there. Um, now I like to end each episode, uh, with a little bit of humor. Um, it’s been a few episodes since I’ve done the, uh, is it service connected segment? Um, and so I want to get that one going again. And for anyone who isn’t familiar with that, hasn’t caught that segment before, uh, is it service connect is where we take a look at a video of a service member doing something stupid or otherwise getting injured.
And we. Try to predict whether or not the injury would qualify for VA disability somewhere down the line. Um, and so for the, the podcast listeners who can’t see this video, I’m going to do my best to describe the video for you. Um, or you can, you can go check out wtsmtv. com to see the video. I may even start posting these to the social media later on too.
So if you follow at Drive On Podcast [00:46:00] on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, anywhere else, um, you should be able to see the videos there. So, um, I’m going to get this video queued up here, um, while I’m doing that, um, this video right now, as we’re looking at it, um, it looks like it’s, uh, just a soldier standing there.
It looks like he’s got his body armor on, um, and he’s just kind of hanging out. Um, Kyle, are you able to see the video on your end? Just popped up for me. Just popped up. Cool. All right. So I’m going to start this video up here and right now it’s just a soldier standing there. It looks like somebody else is starting to film in the background.
So it’s obviously some, some weird shit about to go down and,
and now he just got drop kicked. He just got dropped kicked out of nowhere from some other soldier. Didn’t even see that coming. But he gets up with a smile on his face, so I don’t know. I’m thinking [00:47:00] to myself, maybe this isn’t, this isn’t quite as bad, but I mean, when he went down, his head, his head went down hard, so I don’t know.
This one might be service connected. Did
Kyle Perry: he have, I wonder if he had his carrier placed in there, dude. You know how bad that would hurt.
Scott DeLuzio: That would, that would hurt. Yeah. It looks like, I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. The video is a little bit grainy. Um, it looks like he, he’s definitely got the, the, the carrier on, but I don’t know if the plates are in there too.
Um, but if he got hit just the right way, those things might, might crack in there too. So that would be. Yeah, that’s
Kyle Perry: crazy. I definitely could, you probably could pull it off, man. I mean, they were all in their uniform.
Scott DeLuzio: They’re all in their uniform. It looks like they’re on base somewhere, you know, I could
Kyle Perry: just say it was a martial arts training
Scott DeLuzio: and you got hurt.
Yeah, they were doing combatives or something and someone just got a little overboard and drop kicked him. So yeah, I have a claim here depending on how bad the extent of the injuries are. But hey, he’s got this going for him. It’s caught on video. So obviously he can use that going forward.
Kyle Perry: So I’m not letting somebody drop [00:48:00] kick me just to go viral, dude.
There’s no way.
Scott DeLuzio: No, no, like that’s, that’s the kind of situation where you’re standing there. It’s like, Oh yeah, go ahead, dude. And then, then the guy’s like in the air, point of no return. You just kind of take a step away and like, let him go fly.
So anyways, uh, Kyle, it’s been, it’s been great having you on. Uh, thanks for playing along with the, is it service connected segment here? Um, And, uh, again, for, for the listeners, we’ll have the links and everything in the show notes to get in touch with Kyle here. So, um, thank you again for taking the time to join us.
Kyle Perry: It was a pleasure. Thank you.