LIVE with Josh Friedman

Good morning, folks. How we doing? How we doing? I just hyped you up, baby.

I'm hyped up. My fiance brought me an espresso. I'm alive, right?

I can't complain. We're living out here in Scottsdale, Arizona. It's getting real real crispy and warm out here, but that's all right. I'd rather it be beautiful and sunny 300 days out of the year than rainy, wet, cold, and freezing. But weather's just circumstance. You know, just to bring you back to this area of Santa Cruz as much as you liked it. I'm looking out right now and it's foggy.

That NorCal fog. I miss Northern California at times. Scottsdale's great, it's beautiful. There's a bunch of entrepreneurs, like-minded individuals. It's clean, it's easy to get around. But it doesn't have the beach. I also love the ocean because I'm from Santa Cruz. Of course, I grew up on the water. But yeah, we're doing good. I appreciate you guys having me on today and I'm excited to get into some of those topics and just let the conversation flow.

Yeah. So after high school, I had a couple really good years there, Russ. I know back on the waves — was it the waves?

Yep. Back on the waves, I hadn't really hit my stride yet. I wasn't that good, it kind of sucked. Anyway, I ended up getting better in my junior year of high school. I really wanted to go try to play at Chico State, some D3 baseball, something like that. But then I tore my rotator cuff senior year boxing one of my friends — one of the stupidest ways to change your rotator cuff. Anyway, I'm like, you know what? I'm just going to go to college to make friends and party and get a degree. That's what I told my dad. Yeah. So I went to Chico State and I had one of the best four and a half years of my life, but also one of the most detrimental. I went out there and just had a blast, made so many friends, was in intramural sports, but I was a party animal. I joined a fraternity within the first semester of being there. I found partying, and I've always been a passionate guy, so I put all my passion and energy into that. I'm glad I didn't get hurt or anything, but I was crazy — crazier than just a couple drinks. Crazy. So anyway, I went to Chico State. I was always getting good enough grades to get C's and B's, but I was not a good student. Something I look back on now — I didn't have a lot of appreciation for the education that was in front of me. So I have a lot of regrets, but at the end of the day, I made so many connections, so many friends. I got a lot of it out of my system. A couple years after college, I got a little quicker to realize, hey, this is done. So anyway, I had a blast in college, and then I got my stuff figured out my senior or junior year. I started doing door-to-door solar sales junior year. I was a killer. I had my own team, and they promoted me before the guys who were like 28. They all hated me. I got all my fraternity brothers knocking doors. We were drinking a couple beers, knocking doors, but we were great at it. That was the first real job I had that took skill — not just an hourly wage — where I realized, okay, I have a skill here. I'm good at sales, I'm good at connecting with people. That was really cool. From there I kind of locked in on getting a good job out of school. I studied business marketing, so I knew I wanted to go into sales. Fitness was always in the background. Out of college I went down to Santa Monica and worked at Oracle Netsuite, selling financial management software. Got a great job right out of college, jetted down to LA, didn't know anybody, and started my professional career there for about two and a half years. Then COVID hit, and the story continues from there. It kind of changes routes around 2021. I was continuing to bring those bad habits from college into postgrad Los Angeles corporate lifestyle — saving no money, going out every weekend. A lot of those bad habits I learned from Chico continuing on at that time of life.

Oh, that was the worst experience of my life. I do not recommend doing that for anybody listening. I was in Bali, Indonesia, and I got an entire leg sleeve — my leg's pretty thick — in three days. Three back-to-back 10-hour sessions. They're heavy-handed out there, those guys. It's a very dark style, large scale black and gray tattoo. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into. After day one, I was sick, sweating, terrible headache. I was just like, why did I do this? But at the end of the day, all complaints aside, that's not what I'm about. I just committed to it. Obviously, I'm not going to back out. We powered through and now I have the whole leg in three days where some people take years to get that done. But if you're going to do it, give yourself a couple days after. Don't get right back on a plane. My doctor was like, "I don't know if that was the best idea, Josh, you could get blood clots." But anyway.

I commit. That's the kind of guy I am. Whether it's when I figured out quickly that I want to do online coaching and I invested $10,000 that I didn't have. I'm a betting man and I like to bet on myself. If I'm going to do something, I just go all in by default.

Yeah. So got fired from that Oracle job in late 2020, midst of COVID. I just was sitting there. I realized that I hated being told what to do. I hated corporate. I wanted something bigger for myself. Russ, you mentioned vision. I believe if a man doesn't have a vision, he doesn't have anything. I didn't have any vision for my life. I didn't even really know what vision was in reality. But I just knew there was some incongruency. I wanted to do something that created a lot of impact. I wanted to do something on my own, build my own legacy. I didn't like being told what to do — I've never liked it. Working for someone else, I thought, "I got to figure something out." So the wheel started turning there. As I continued to get in great shape — fitness has been my first true love. I started lifting weights freshman year of high school, even 8th grade a little bit, as my parents were going through a divorce. I was angry, confused, pissed, and found the gym. I started lifting weights and came into freshman and sophomore year and put on a good amount of weight. While a lot of people let their life wither away with excuses, I built my life in COVID.

2022 is when I launched Friedman Fit. Before that I was coaching some buddies and a couple people local in Santa Monica on the beach. I was doing some in-person training, but I didn't have a business. I didn't have an LLC. I just had a side hustle. So, yeah, 2022 I built it up. Now it's 2026 — that's year five. I'm not a big time guy.

Well, I appreciate that, Russ. I'm curious to hear about what you've been doing the last 25 years too. I came across your page and I know Samantha connected us. I was like, man, that's my old coach. I remember him doing this kind of stuff. That's so cool. I see you speaking and doing similar stuff in your own facet in Santa Cruz. It's really cool. I want to hear what you've been up to as well. But yeah, I believe we all have skills, and if you can understand how to tap into those skills and help other people get better at them, then you have a business. If you have a gut desire to do something, a calling from God, you have to do it. You're disobeying if you're not doing it. There's an incongruency there. If you're disobeying, you're going to be out of alignment, disobedient to the greater good, and things aren't going to go as they could. But if you follow the path, you can create the life of your dreams and help a lot of other people live a better life too. People just don't think bigger. It's ingrained in our system to get a job, go to school, think about what career you're going to do. But especially this day and age, we are living in a gold rush. There are so many ways to make money that are not the typical 9-to-5. The 9-to-5 is almost outdated. You're going to see that more and more as AI continues to evolve.

That's something I got to continue to cultivate — that sharpness. I'm year five into my entrepreneurial journey. I'm still hungry, but I'm not as dangerous. I don't have that feeling of when you're at the bottom, building, with not much money in your accounts but just hungry — you have nothing to lose. That energy I fed off of for the first two, three years of business. Then life started getting really good. Everything came together at once and I got a little comfortable. We've been rewiring the last year or so. I'm still working my ass off, but I just don't have as much of that nothing-to-lose feeling anymore. You got to find different things to motivate you and get you to the next level, because what got you to the first level won't get you to the second or third or fourth.

I've had four different coaches.

Yeah, $40,000 to $45,000 maybe $50,000 in reinvestment in myself and the business.

The key — you have to do it. Most people miss that. Investing in yourself is the greatest decision of your life. Why would I take three years to do something I could pay for and figure out in six months?

Yeah. Everything was out of alignment before COVID and that first year of COVID. Out of college I was 22 to 24 and a half. Partying, doing drugs, random sex. Just not in alignment at all. I thought, "Oh, I'm having fun. I'm a player. I have a lot of friends." But that combined with the job I was doing — which just didn't fulfill me — half of my week being hung over. I just looked in the mirror one day and a couple things that led to it, but I had a vision of myself at 35, fat, addicted to substances, and just hating my life. I said, "That's not going to be me." There was a lot of misalignment where I was just like, "I don't want to live like this. I don't want to be drinking and a man of my vices." So I made a complete 180. People who went to college with me and know me now and have followed my whole journey say, "Dude, literally Josh spent a year, two years. I went sober. I started reading a bunch of books, podcasts, got in the best shape of my life, insane shape." I made a complete 180 and started rewiring my brain, subscribing to different things and unsubscribing to other things. I don't know. I just have this ability to — when I go all in, I go all in. That was the most beneficial year of my life, 25 years old. A lot went down.

Say again, you cut out.

Yeah. So there are hundreds of different peptides — chains of amino acids that send signals to certain parts of your body. These peptides are already in your body to some degree. They help optimize whatever that specific signal is meant to optimize. I've always been a big supplement guy, a big health guy. I found the gym when I was 15, so I've been working out, taking supplements, and looking for ways to enhance my energy and physique even before that. I don't know if you remember my mom, Denise Diani. She's amazing. She started us on all holistic, naturopath, all types of different tinctures, Chinese medicine. She's incredibly knowledgeable, and so is my father — he's a DO, she's a PT and a healer. I came from taking vitamins at three years old. I've always been taking handfuls of things to make my life better. It's in my DNA to be the anecdotal experiment. So peptides came around, I started experimenting with them, did a lot of research, and I felt amazing. My energy was through the roof. My blood work was the best blood work I've ever gotten. I saw that these things really work. I mean, we don't know long-term what possible side effects could be, but pick your poison. I'm incredibly healthy. My blood work is some of the best my doctor's ever seen. I think it's a lot more unhealthy to eat crap food, drink alcohol, and be at 30% body fat. Those people are going to die a lot sooner before me, I believe. I like to take a little risk, but I don't think it's too much of a risk. I think we're going to see these peptides next to the milk, next to the butter in everybody's fridge here in the next three years. They're going to be a household thing we all use to get healthier. I have some other opinions on them and people that take them willy-nilly, but I think peptides are great and here to stay.

We have some clients on the GLP-1s. It depends. It's a very strong peptide, so starting it right off the bat isn't always the best move. Something I talk about a lot is the host — the host's health matters. The host isn't doing the work. If they're very disregulated, have a lot of things to optimize figure out within their own health, you don't just want to start throwing a bunch of peptides at them. Especially GLP-1s — they can really be a negative thing inside their body and biology. But I love GLP-1s. I think they're amazing taken correctly with the right nutrition and exercise protocols. That's what people don't know, and that's why there are problems. People aren't eating enough, they're deficient in nutrients, getting osteoporosis and all these other things because they didn't know about nutrition to begin with. Now they're not hungry, so they're not eating at all, causing a lot of issues. Semaglutide and tirzepatide — they're all right, but I think retatrutide is night and day much better than either of those. They can come with side effects; they are stronger peptides and shouldn't just be "Oh, I'm fat, let's take it."

And it's a responsibility. You need to get blood work. People that don't are irresponsible. Some people might have side effects with their pancreas, liver, kidneys. If you're not getting blood work two or three months after starting, and working with a physician who understands what to look for, it's not good for you. It's not good for everybody. People don't take that responsibility on when they take a peptide or anabolic or whatever it may be.

Yeah. There's a money grab for it right now. Eli Lilly — I think they patented it. You could — yeah, I am correct. So there's a money grab for it right now. That's why I was posting about peptides for a while. Then I believe that someone's paying Meta to censor people and take posts off. I started getting my account banned and ran into issues. I had to pay my hacker in Turkey a couple bands to get my account back.

Anyway, there's a war on them. I believe they don't want people to be fully healthy. If everyone's walking around healthier, the pharmaceutical companies aren't making as much money.

I really believe in most all of these peptides. They truly work if you're working right. The better the host, the better the peptide works. The better sleep, nutrition, central nervous system regulation, sunlight — all your systems playing nicely. Strength training, weight training, moving your machine, cardiovascular work for your heart and lungs. BPC — my shoulder has some issues. I take that one pretty much year round with little breaks. I love BPC. So many stories again and again of people saying, "I've had this injury for a while, started taking BPC and it's night and day better." It's great for the gut too. All the recovery ones — I love GHK-Cu, KPV, BPC. Right now I'm really into the mitochondria peptides — SS-31 and MOTS-c. They're revamping and rewiring the mitochondria, which is the power plant of the cell. Everything falls back on the health of the mitochondria. I've never been in better shape, never been healthier. I eat a ton of high quality food. I'm incredibly insulin sensitive, which is key to nutrition. I work out very hard — cardio, run, hike, bike, weight training. I've been doing it for years, really seriously since I figured things out around 2020. That was a very long answer to your question.

Yeah, I agree. We're going to know a lot more in depth and have lots of clinical trials and studies in the next 5 to 10 years. Quick note, anyone listening with the GLP-1s — I've seen this time and time again. If you are on a GLP-1, you can't just eat whatever you want. Technically you can because you're not consuming as many calories, so it's easy to stay in a calorie deficit. That's why people lose weight. But night and day difference if you focus on high protein lean protein and easily digestible clean carbohydrates compared to hitting the taqueria. Anyway, if you eat GLP-1s, do not agree with high fat greasy meals. I've taken retatrutide periodically to get really lean. It's very easy to be in a calorie deficit and it really helps with your lipid panels and inflammation. But greasy meals, high fat meals — your gastric emptying slows, and if you have a lot of fat at that meal, you'll get a stomach ache. That's where people eat half their food and feel sick, because what they're eating isn't high quality food. Stick to high carb, high protein. You're more insulin sensitive on these GLP-1s, so your body processes basic clean carbohydrates much better. You'll feel so much better if you eat clean food on these GLP-1s compared to skipping breakfast and eating whatever for dinner and feeling like crap.

Diet is so important. I'm a nutrition nerd. I think people don't know enough about food. There's a big issue around that in this day and age. Look around, go to the airport.

Right. It's true. Cannot live it either.

100%. If it was easy, you'd see everybody in good shape putting in the work. That is a huge issue, and that's where you're running into people with osteoporosis and other health issues that are going to continue to occur. We're seeing people losing muscle mass, metabolic dysfunction and disorder, hormone dysregulation. If you're one of those people, you're in for a laundry list of issues. You always got to think of what this decision is causing down the road. People just want instant gratification, but the more the instant gratification, the more the punch you're going to have later on in life.

Movement is king, especially the older you get. You don't need to be beating yourself up in the gym. I think strength training at least three times a week until you can't move anymore is highly beneficial. Muscle mass determines so much of your health. It is the building block for your body, metabolism, disease. Everything runs off it. But you got to be in a calorie deficit. People think, "Oh, I'm just going to take this retatrutide." If you're not in a calorie deficit and your body's in dysfunction, you're not going to lose weight. You've seen people tell you, "I'm taking this GLP-1 but it's not working." It's because you're still bending the elbow too much and not moving enough.

It's not just — for some people it really does the trick. The more overweight you are, the easier it is to lose weight. But for other folks, it's not as simple. If you are not doing lifestyle aspects or controlling your habits and changing the way you think and behave, they're not going to work. It is interesting what these GLP-1s do to your brain to some degree. For some people it's stronger than others — how it changes the way you process dopamine and experience pleasure. I like to experiment with these things, so I wanted to try a high dose of retatrutide. You kind of lose interest. There's a word for it, I'm blanking. Your pleasure senses are kind of dulled. You're not as enthusiastic, not as energetic, a little more even-keeled. You're not having all these cravings, but it took away from my personality, the pleasure of having sex. It zaps your pleasure. Too much of it, a lot of friends have experienced that same thing — just being dull, life not as fun and energetic. I didn't like that at all. I'm an energy guy.

I'm blanking on the scientific word. Anhedonia — no, that's not it. But it's something that we're seeing in folks. Even my dad, I got him on some retatrutide and he's lost a bunch of weight. Overall he's healthier, but he was feeling the same thing — just kind of dull, numbs you out a little bit when you take too much.

Keeping therapeutic dosing throughout.

Yes. When I first got in really good shape in high school, I started lifting weights. I was drinking a liter of whole milk and a Taqueria burrito every day bulking up. I miss Taqueria — that's another thing I miss about Santa Cruz. I eat pretty clean, but I'm not afraid to eat a burrito now and again. When I first started my fitness journey and first dropped weight, got the abs showing, I thought, "All right, how do I get shredded?" It was like, "Oh, just don't eat carbs." So I just didn't eat carbs. I got shredded but felt terrible, and it didn't last long. I ended up binge eating and gaining the weight back because it wasn't sustainable for me as an athlete with muscle mass working out at a high level. For the first four or five years of working out, I thought, "I just don't eat carbs." I see so many people caught up in this, especially men who are crushing work, crushing caffeine, and they think, "I just won't eat carbs. I'll do this carnivore diet." It has some benefits for the individual depending on the time period. But I was a big no-carb guy when I was young and didn't know anything. Carbs depend on the individual. For someone 15 to 60 with muscle mass who works out hard, they need carbohydrates. I utilize carbohydrates with most all of my clients, and they always say, "Oh my gosh, I didn't know I could eat so many carbs. I feel so good — my energy, training, sleep, everything." I'm a heavy believer in using carbs correctly. A lot of people think, "I'll just not eat carbs to get really lean." That's a huge limiting belief. They don't have the knowledge. That's why I believe so heavily in teaching people about nutrition — macros, calories, how their body handles food, how to get their body to handle more food or be more insulin sensitive. It's one of the coolest, most beneficial tools to learn about nutrition. Otherwise, you're just scrolling, hearing this and that. "Sherry over here doesn't eat carbs and looks great, so I'm going to do this." But you don't have any actual knowledge. Nowadays, with so much information, go fact check it. Do double research on anything you hear. Don't just believe what you see. Who knows the agenda behind it? My parents always taught me to think for myself and go get my own answers through research and exploration.

Think about what you want for your life — the vision for your life. I'll speak directly towards men because that's who I work with. If your health isn't in order and you're not tapping into that pillar, you're missing a fundamental key to live the best life possible. If you have optimized energy, testosterone, overall energy from the inside out, you're going to be able to serve everybody at such a higher level. Your quality of life will be so much better. If you find yourself in a place where you're disregulated, have no energy, overweight — start your journey, flip a switch. You have one life. Look in the mirror. Stop making excuses. Take full accountability for every single thing in your life. Start building discipline. It's not easy, but it's simple — my friend Michael Smoke's line, I won't take that from him. It's not the hardest thing in the world. Cut the excuses, take full accountability, and start putting in the work. I guarantee your quality of life will be so much better — night and day. Don't get distracted by peptides and supplements. Start focusing on yourself, the stories you tell yourself, your habits. Every day, have daily habits that move you forward. Start with small things — learn about your nutrition, move your body in one way or another. Whether you start walking more, getting 10,000 steps, getting in the gym, investing in a coach or mentor to help you with your health. But you need to walk, drink enough water, get good sleep, manage your central nervous system and stress. Move your body. That's it. It's not the most complex thing, but you have to be consistent. Focus on the day by day. Don't get overwhelmed with how far you have to go. Get in an environment that benefits you. Most people are in an environment that doesn't benefit them. There are people at home distracting you. Get a coach, join a community of like-minded individuals that will help you. Whether it's a spouse, family, or people at work who aren't who they want to be, find an environment that's positive.

Eat good food. Go to bed. Don't eat the stuff on the shelf with a thousand chemicals. Just be the human you were meant to be a thousand years ago, and you'll be a lot healthier. Go jump in the ocean, go yell. People overcomplicate everything when it comes to their health.

Yeah, if you do — oh man, you should have heard my mom. There is some study — I put some poison in my body for sure. We've been slowly doing things to get it out, drain. Lymphatic drainage is super important. But there was some ink, some poison in me.

Everything in moderation.

It's all about you. If we want to be better for others, it starts internally. Wellness is not about — what is it again?

Right. So for you, you're doing your wellness journey, your health for you. You got to remember — maybe it's for other people too because you know how much it's going to impact them, but you won't be able to serve them until you are happy, content, and serving yourself — putting energy into your vessel. Progress can be measured in ways you may not even think. The small things — journaling, having goals, short-term milestones. As long as you're happy — I believe we just want peace internally. We want to experience life peacefully without all the stress and crazy stuff. Take into account, understand where you got more peace today. Where did you come through and do what you said you were going to do? How did you move the needle forward? How did you win the day? Small things. Being present enough to see those things play out is really what wellness is, and that all turns into progress. That's a great question about you. Don't let anybody else determine and label your wellness journey. Look in the mirror. You know where you're doing good and where you're full of it. I did pretty good today. Genuinely or full of crap.

Yeah, Instagram is my main platform. We're on some others as well — @JoshFriedman spelled F-R-I-E-D-M-A-N. Shoot me a DM. I have a whole bunch of resources and guides I've built out. Introduce yourself, I'm happy to send them over, and we can start a conversation. I like to give with no expectation in return. If you need help — because we all do — hit me up. I'm happy to help. Guys, thank you for having me on. This was a fun time. We might have to do a part two where we talk more about entrepreneurial vision and starting a business.

Thanks, Josh. Of course. Thanks for having me on, fellas. Crush the week.

Thank you guys.

Thank you. See you guys. Take care.