TOUGH TALKS – Vision and Balls! with Siavash Fashi

Here is the AI-generated transcript of the whole podcast:

TEASER & INTRO

[00:01:04] Chris Dorris: Hello everyone. Welcome back to Tough Talks, conversations on Mental Toughness. I’m your host, Chris Doris. And before we get to our remarkable guest today, let’s take care of our, as always, our one housekeeping item, which is, if you’re not getting your daily dose, mental toughness tips in 30 seconds or less, delivered to your email inbox every morning of the year at around 6:00 AM wherever you’re on the planet.

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I was recently, very recently introduced to him. I was so excited to hear about his story and him and the miraculousness that he has created, having gone through unthinkable adversities that I thought, we gotta get ’em on. We gotta get ’em on quick. His name is Si Fai. He is from Iran. And you know, I almost, I almost don’t even want to read his bio, but I’ll give you a little bit of it.

He owns this gym now. It’s out, it’s, it’s called, well it’s right there. It’s called Six Packs Gym. It’s out in Culver City, California, right outside or part of la. Um, but that’s like s the gym is tiny and he’s killing the guy. Makes or that the revenue for this, like I’m telling you, I think it’s 800 square feet, used to be a little tiny gas station and it took everything in his power to pull off.

Even getting that property and then building it when he had like two dumbbells or some, some crap like that. And just using his spirit, which you’re gonna love. That’s the first thing I noticed about this guy, is his vibe is amazing. I think that’s why so many people just like, I think that has a lot to do with his success.

I really do. But, um, you know, he’s making seven figures of revenue from this tiny little gym, and people go hang out there. The mayor, the mayor kicks it, you know, at it’s like a congregation point, but the story of how he arrived there, how he arrived here in the United States, how he got out of Iran in the first place is absolutely mind blowing.

And I’m going to have, and I only have a shell of it. So I am very excited to hear him talk about, I mean, like, what an incredibly dark horse right story, you know, against the odds escaping from Iran, risking his life and ended up working, just trying to get, not even speaking English and going to England and finding some job just so he could be, you know, somehow figured out how to get over to the states and did it illegally.

Went to jail for a year. He was in, uh, maximum security federal prison for the first year of his time in America because he used a fake passport and people all thought he was like a terrorist or something. It’s just so weird. And, and now the guy’s just full of love and watch, just check. I’m telling you, you’re, you’re gonna love this dude’s vibe.

So I, that’s enough of the story. I don’t wanna do any more spoiling. So, uh, Ash, where are you at, man? Let’s go find, I want to hear it. Give us this story, brother. You see him? I see him. There he is.

[00:05:00] Siavash Fashi: Ash. Hello. Hello, Chris. Thank you so much for having me. Thank you.

[00:05:05] Chris Dorris: Well, brother, I’m so glad that you recently showed up in my world, because I cannot wait to hear your story.

When we spoke the other day, I said, don’t tell me man. I don’t wanna hear it right now cause I want it to be nice and fresh for today.

[00:05:20] Siavash Fashi: Excited. Thank you Chris. I’m really excited to be here. I respect what you do and uh, I love to be here and share my story with your

[00:05:28] Chris Dorris: audience. Well then we’re gonna do that, man.

Before we do, I want to know what is that instrument on the wall behind you? So actually

[00:05:35] Siavash Fashi: this is, uh, there’s more than one. Yeah. Both of them are actually this one, my uncle made it, and the other one is my father made it. Oh my, my gosh. That’s a, so I’ll, I’ll dive into this. This instrument at the, uh, becau this is belonged to a part of our religious minority, which saved us at the beginning of Iran Revolution when they considered us an infidel and they were not hiring us.

Uh, so my father and my uncle, my whole family, they had to build this to basically survive, uh, survive because we were not giving jobs. And, uh, and at the time, even the music was illegal to ha play music. And so ev every time they catch us with this type of thing, and they would break him. So I’ll tell you guys about the story.

Alright. Right. Ok, cool. What, what are they,

[00:06:20] Chris Dorris: what is the name

[00:06:21] Siavash Fashi: of that instrument? It called Bubu and it said, oh, one of the oldest instrument in the world. It has no notes, so it’s only three strings. And it’s a, and it’s made of one piece of wood. It’s a strawberry wood, a hundred years old strawberry. So we, uh, kind of uncle, they carbon into it.

They carbon into it, they make it such a thin, so then they put a layer of another very thin layer on top of it, and that’s how it makes it sound.

[00:06:44] Chris Dorris: So that, so that’s gonna come up in your story so I don’t have to keep asking.

[00:06:48] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely. Alright. Roger Abso Absolutely. I’ll share that

[00:06:51] Chris Dorris: with you as well. When we were preparing for this, you make it so easy for a podcaster like me, you’re, you’re just so prepared.

You, you’ve got, uh, your new book just came out a couple weeks ago at the time of this re uh, of time of this airing and which is entitled, Small Jim. Big results

[00:07:11] Siavash Fashi: here is actually the first copy. There you go. Here’s the first copy I’m touching myself. I got a few days ago and I’m so excited. That’s so cool,

[00:07:18] Chris Dorris: man.

So I’ll just, I’ll, I’ll let a spoiler here. Secret explode. At the time of this reporting, the book is not even published. Correct. So I couldn’t get that. I have my own digital copy, but I can’t hold it up that up again.

[00:07:33] Siavash Fashi: Yes, absolutely. I can’t believe it. I’m touching it. This is awesome. Hold a little

[00:07:38] Chris Dorris: higher.

So, oh, here, here we go. Yeah. How proud do you feel right now holding that up?

[00:07:43] Siavash Fashi: Oh, I feel amazing. I feel so amazing. It’s three years of work and finally it’s here. My hand.

[00:07:49] Chris Dorris: Oh man, I love that. When did you

[00:07:50] Siavash Fashi: get it? Just actually two days ago I opened it and I was like, oh my God, this is it. Yes. It’s a lot of fun.

Yes. I’m having Nice to you brother. That is a beautiful feeling. Thank you so much. Thank you. I appreciate it. I’m really, really excited being here, sharing

[00:08:04] Chris Dorris: my story. Yeah. So, well, okay, well thank you for that segue because you shared with me, uh, several topics that we could discuss. Ned, you know this, you know, this isn’t a podcast for people who wanna start a gym.

Mm-hmm. Now, that said, if there happens to be anybody, listen, interested in opening a gym, this is your lucky day.

[00:08:25] Siavash Fashi: Yes. Gold

[00:08:27] Chris Dorris: baby. Thank you. That’s not the, that’s not the actual point. Obviously the focal point of the Top Talks podcast, we’re gonna talk all things psychological, which you’ve got a lot to say about.

Mm-hmm. And you gave me like a menu, which I got to choose from, of topics. And here they are. Here are the three, I don’t know if we’ll get to all three, but we’re definitely starting with the first one. No problem. Which is vision and the

[00:08:47] Siavash Fashi: balls. That’s right. That’s what it takes.

[00:08:51] Chris Dorris: I didn’t even need to read the rest of that, but my vision involves the journey of how one man’s illegal dream mm-hmm.

Turned into a million dollar reality. And then the second one is changing lives. Remembering where you came from and painting it forward. Absolutely. Mm-hmm. I couldn’t love more. And finally, if we get there, your most important client, four ways to become and stay the leader of your business needs to grow and thrive.

So, uh, let’s start with vision and balls. Let’s hear it man.

[00:09:23] Siavash Fashi: Sorry baby. Absolutely. So when I wanted to start my gym, that’s, uh, of course I had no money. Uh, I was starting and I didn’t know how to start. I was watching this guy and he said, all you need is vision and balls. And I said to myself, I have ’em both.

I have ’em both. I know exactly what I want and I have no fear. And I started my gym with $3,000 unemployment. I was, uh, fired from a job and unemployment gave me a $3,000. And that’s how I started my small gym. But I would like to take you guys Yes. Way back. Thank you. Way back. And then, uh, I start from, I was born in 1980 on a border of Iran and Iraq.

Six months later. Uh, basically a few, uh, a year before that, the revolution, Iran Revolution happened and the Shah of Iran left and the Islamic, uh, the uh, uh, basically government took over and, uh, we were part of a religious minority in that, uh, on the border. And all the men in my religious minority, they kept their mustaches.

So we were very easily, uh, be spot on and, uh, government considered us as an infidel. So they were not giving a job. We didn’t have university access, but we were such a small group. No one in the world was hearing about us. We were just a few hundred thousand people in the mountain and, uh, border of Iran and Iraq.

Um, And life was brutal. And any, and the only way you could make money was to join the army. My, uh, uncles, my dad, everybody was uh, basically sent to war. Uh, sent to war. We see hundreds of people dying. I was, I was around eight years old. I remember, uh, the exit. They brought two people in our neighborhood.

They hanged them. Uh, they were like 18, 19 years old. They hanged them. And I was eight years old. I was watching it and them kicking on the rope. I, I didn’t have feeling for two weeks. And, uh, I didn’t know what’s happening. It was just, it was just so chaotic. And waking up in the morning, four or five. My dad was not home, so he was sent to war.

Uh, I was the oldest kid. I was like seven years old. They sent me, I was standing in a line of bread, long line of bread, the shortage of food. We never ate meat and stuff. We didn’t have money for meat. Uh, we just ate pretty much bread and rice all the time. And, uh, uh, my family was four kids. And as I said, I was the oldest one being eight years old going there.

And I was the. In, in that region. I was very white skinned compared to the other kids, and I had a green eye, so I was getting bullied every day. I was very skinny kid. Uh, life was brutal and painful. So I was, we were going through that. And, uh, the only, and you talk about this musical instrument. Yeah. And a lot of, uh, because, uh, the government was not hiring us.

So my dad’s uncle, he knew how to make musical instrument, which was played, uh, kind of like a, a spiritual thing. People play and, uh, we start making those, we start making these. But music was illegal. Bodybuilding was illegal. Boxing was illegal. Body, body

[00:12:18] Chris Dorris: building was

[00:12:20] Siavash Fashi: illegal. Absolutely. Beginning of, uh, the, the revolution happened because it was American.

Anything American was considered as a propaganda. So, uh, even the boxing, uh, did not have federation body building, uh, not body building is an American thing. Yeah, absolutely bodybuilding because you’re paying attention to your physical, to your, and you were not allowed to show your skin. Uh, in, in Iran, no woman is allowed to show their skin.

Or even men at that time, especially at the beginning of religion, we were, uh, men were not even allowed to wear short sleeves. So you, you all, everything was, and everyone, it, it is, it, it’s, it is unimaginable for you Americans, uh, for American to even, uh, even imagine it

[00:13:00] Chris Dorris: already only this deep into your story.

I am already, and I hope everyone else is with me on this feeling unbelievable appreciation for how beautiful my life is right now.

[00:13:12] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely that I, that’s why I love to share my story, mostly because I want people to, uh, kind of reevaluate some of, some of people they make. I, I have a lot of people at the gym, they come and talk to me.

They talk about the problem. There is a Persian saying, this said this guy, he came and I said, I have a problem. And the monk told him, Hey, go to the desert to this tree and drop your problem into that box. So he sat on a donkey. Three days later he’s by this tree and it is a box. He wants to put the problem inside.

And he says, before you put yours, read three. So he pick up three and read them and he tear his own one because his is nothing compared to the others. Oh, wow. So I like to share my story for you, uh, for, uh, with people that, hey, it doesn’t matter how bad it gets, you got this. Just, uh, that’s, that’s what I’m saying.

There’s nothing special about me or as a parent. It’s just when you are there, it will kick in and you just gotta stay strong and it will pass. It’s a phase that will pass. And that’s, uh, that’s my message of you constantly just gotta go through stuff and being strong and having faith that good things are coming.

Uh, so that was my added when I was a kid. That was, it was chaotic. So when you’re looking at someone getting hanged, and, uh, I was, I, I think later on, uh, at the age of 16, I saw, uh, a guy, they stoned him to death. So I was coming after the school and the kid said, oh, they stoning some guy, you know, the, uh, by the graveyard, the stoning.

And we all went, you know, because people were going that the TV had only two channel and it was only propaganda about this regime, about it was just sadness and death. So, I went to, I went to look at, and I went to, uh, they buried this guy half body, he’s half of his body out, and his, they put a cover on his head.

People were throwing rock at him. And, uh, one of these, uh, and then one guy threw a big rock at him and we saw the blood coming out and a cloth, and the bam, he’s dead. So I’m just, uh, it was a, it was a wild, uh, unimaginable. I would, I would, I would like to say, imagine, so life is going, uh, brewer and life is brewer.

And one day I’m playing soccer in the dirt. Um, my friend, my uh, friend showed me Arnold picture and I said, what the hell is this? I’ve never seen a man like that. Yeah, he, he looked happy. He was standing by the beach arms open big arms, and I, he represented everything that I wanted to be. He wasn’t weak.

He was a deterrent. Like I was getting constantly bullied. So I said, okay, this guy is perfect and he’s happy. He has food to eat. He got, I mean, the pictures with the woman and I’m like, wow, this is what I want to be. Exactly. Uh, it just, uh, and I was doing TaeKwonDo. I was a pretty competitive TaeKwonDo. I was very, very good at TaeKwonDo, but we could not go to national team because we were a religious minority.

We could not represent the country. Uh, the only people could represent a country if they believed in them. Uh, basically what the government, uh, wants. So we were not one of them. So my dream kind of died With that going forward, this bodybuilding picture, Arnold put a fire on me. So I would go to black market.

I would buy other body willing picture, which I have ’em all here now in my garage. I put ’em all on the wall to remind myself yeah, how luck. Lucky I am to be here. Um, so that, that bodybuilding picture was, I was just going in the back of a wrestling gym. I was pumping, but I couldn’t get bigger because we were eating only rice and bread.

I didn’t know anything about protein. We didn’t have food to eat. Uh, so fast forward, I go to university. I, uh, art university. I was a smart kid. Um, but I got cancer in my right eye. Then one day I was, I feel a blurry in my right eye when we were like playing with the air gun. I told my uncle, uncle said, take him to the doctor.

I told my dad and my dad took me to doctor and they said, Hey, this is a serious thing. You have to take him to capital City. So we went, I went to Capital City. Doctors are coming at me, they’re looking at my eye, and it’s a rare disease. Cancer, they said it cannot be treated in Iran and it will leak your liver.

And that’s it. So everyone is dying. Uh, I mean, everyone is crying for me and thinking I’m gonna die, uh, anywhere. I’ll go feel p people are feeling like, like, like someone I’m gonna die. Um, it was painful, man. It was painful. And I was like, I can’t take this. I know I can’t listen to these people. I, I just, no, I want to, I wanna be on i the, the own picture.

The bodybuilding was escape from, from the reality. That was my escape from reality. Cause it was so painful. It was anywhere I turned. It was pain. And it was pain of poverty. It was, uh, the poverty was making us go against each other. The uncle throwing us out of our house, you know, it’s just like, it was, poverty was root of the evil in in all of us.

Everyone was, if we had money, we would’ve been much nicer to each other. I knew that. So I say, you know what, I’m gonna leave the, leave the country. Go treat this, uh, cancer. And, uh, with a hundred dollars in my pocket, my dad had a hundred dollars. I left, I left, I ended up in Europe and working a pizza shop.

Restaurants. I would sleep in a pizza shop under the oven when the, the, the owner closed the shop, they would take off. And I work all day. I would sleep over there, but I’m, I’m under the oven.

[00:18:17] Chris Dorris: Can I slow it down? Second? I wanna, sure. So you were able to

[00:18:21] Siavash Fashi: leave, you could just leave. No, I left illegally. You can’t leave around.

Can we get that detail? Yes, absolutely. So, uh, just basically I left the borders, I left illegally through the borders and, uh, uh, left the country, uh, with the smugglers. And, uh, you just basically a lot of time you don’t know where you at, you, so you

[00:18:41] Chris Dorris: were, you were, let’s slow that down. Mm-hmm. Cause that seems like a really relevant piece of the story that required a boatload of well balls.

Mm-hmm. Was there, in your mind, was there the possibility of being killed?

[00:18:55] Siavash Fashi: Oh, absolutely, absolutely. People would get missing. So people get dropped off and uh, it was at that point, you cannot think like that, in my opinion. You cannot. Um, it’s just you’re in a different mindset. You’re surviving, you are running, you are running, you are running, you are you, you are running away from pain.

And the pain is so great that you are not even evaluating what’s next. You just wanna run from that pain. And, um, I just didn’t care because, uh, I knew that, uh, I mean people would get, uh, I saw in front of me, people would get, I mean, they would squeeze people outta money. They would, I mean, you’re dealing with organized kind of gangs that are running all these, uh, operations.

Uh, you’re very vulnerable. You’re putting yourself in a very vulnerable situation and you have no control of many, many things. So you just gotta let go and have faith Sometimes in life, in my opinion, you don’t have the answers. You just gotta trust. That is like, You just gotta trust. You just have to believe that there’s a bigger thing wa waiting.

[00:20:01] Chris Dorris: Wow. Talk about all in That’s what, that’s a state of mind that I referenced frequently, which is infinite commitment. You’re familiar with it. Uh, that’s all in man. That’s like, well, well if I die, I die. But I’m staying here with this. Absolutely. Uh, now were you with people, was it like planned? Was it like this

[00:20:20] Siavash Fashi: escape?

No, it’s not. It’s not. There’s not such, when you are doing this kind of thing, it’s not planned. Then you say, okay, let’s get off and we’re going. And then you stop. Nobody tells you to plan because, um, you just go with the

[00:20:33] Chris Dorris: flow. So where did you go? Where, where, like geographically, where did you go into Iraq?

[00:20:40] Siavash Fashi: Uh, yeah. You go from Kurdistan, uh, through the Kurdistan, uh, Kurdish area. And then. Are you in the back of the trucks and stuff like that. You really don’t have no idea where things are. You’re in back of it for three days, four days. You’re just having little food and eating. Um,

[00:20:56] Chris Dorris: and the people driving the trucks are just doing it because they just wanna help.

They don’t know.

[00:21:00] Siavash Fashi: Some of them don’t know. Some they don’t even know. Yeah. Some of them don’t know. Some of them know those are not your deal. Those are, you don’t know what’s going on. Uh, that’s the deal with the per people that moving around. Um, and uh, it is just,

[00:21:12] Chris Dorris: so you’re, you, you, you used the word, I don’t, I think you used the word a few moments ago.

Surrender.

[00:21:17] Siavash Fashi: Yeah. You gotta let go. You have to, you have to learn. You have to. Otherwise it will eat you alive. And not only that, in, throughout my whole, throughout my whole journey, I built some kind of a survival mechanism of the way I think. The way I taught, I had to build that belief system for myself. I made it up.

There’s not such a thing that, it’s a made up thing that I’m made up for myself. At that point in my life, it was very, very helpful. But at this point in my life that I’ve progressed, those belief system are working against me. So I’m, right now, I’m, I trying to undo them through therapy to EMDR through stuff.

Why? Because those were amazing tools that I used at that time. But I cannot carry to the point that when I’m successful and I’m dealing with the team and I’m dealing with the people, clients. So that was a great belief system. I built my, for myself, when I was alone, I had just nothing. I had basically a t-shirt.

That was a

[00:22:10] Chris Dorris: great, see that sentence right there? And I’m sorry for interrupting you, but I, I told you I’d be doing this.

[00:22:15] Siavash Fashi: No, no problem, Chris. I, I understand

[00:22:16] Chris Dorris: cause you said, cause what you said, man, that’s mic drop material right there. That belief system I, that I created for myself, that’s language that I think people need to hear slowly.

Absolutely. You created a belief system for yourself that would serve you in that circumstance, correct? Correct.

[00:22:41] Siavash Fashi: That’s possible. That’s

[00:22:43] Chris Dorris: correct. Oh, that’s what I want everybody to hear. Mm-hmm. That, that’s a possibility that everyone can do that, and you don’t need to be running for your life. No.

[00:22:52] Siavash Fashi: Mm-hmm.

And the ma and the main thing is the, you have to be extremely careful the way you talk to yourself Extremely so, because as soon as you say doubtful things negative, uh, it will, it will be like a spider web that it will catch you and you cannot come out of it because now you start out, you cannot talk to yourself like that.

You have to. Stay constantly po Everything was going against me. My cancer, I’m throat this, that everything was against me. Do I know that? Of course I know. But the way I talk to myself, it’s a bigger thing waiting for me. They will see me, they will see me when I’m shining. Uh, they will all be proud of me.

Look, uh, I would tell myself I am the warrior. I, I have it. I have what this I’ve been chosen. I would tell my. This true? No, but I was telling myself that at that time and I made it a reality in, in the long run. But I told myself that I so much, you are worried you can take the pain. No one can take as much pain as you.

I would tell myself costing that the root of growth is pain. Pain is a good thing. It’s, it will make you grow. So I would tell myself positive things. Uh, when I was sleeping in a pizza shop under the oven, I could think of millions of bad thing. I’m a loser. I’m a de that, no, I would flip the bodybuilding picture and I was reading, I trying to learn English and I said to myself, I’m gonna g I’m gonna be here.

They’re gonna see my gun arms. I’m gonna see my muscles. Here I was. I created a world and I lived in that world. I wouldn’t live in nobody’s world. I would live my own reality. I’m live the, in English, I think you say you are architect of your own life. So that’s kind of a thing that I built this beautiful bodybuilding world and I’m in it.

I’m a star and I’m in America. I’m doing all this thing. And I was living that and I was thinking, okay, this is a phase. I’m pretty sure this pizza stopped and I’m sleeping. It is the phase and I’ll be there. Even at that time, I would strongly believe something big, but I didn’t know what, I didn’t trying to look for the answer because I didn’t have any answer.

I just had the vision as you earlier on at the

[00:24:55] Chris Dorris: started. You’re so good, man. So glad that we crossed paths, brother. That is so important because you, can I tell you what the number one, uh, so my whole life has been basically doing the same thing in different, you know, iterations. Mm-hmm. It’s her, it’s serving people.

It’s helping people create the lives that they want. Absolutely. Like I said, my whole career has been about helping people not settle, not struggle, and hopefully not suffer. Mm-hmm. Right. And what you just said is, okay, so the number one mistake through, for 30 years I’ve been doing this and the number one mistake that I’ve observed people making in the pursuit of life on their terms or the life of their dreams is getting paralyzed because they can’t see how it’s going to unfold.

Correct? Mm-hmm. Right. Immobilizing themselves because they think they need to see the how. Mm-hmm. You’re telling a story about sleeping under a freaking pizza goddamn oven somewhere in Europe and flipping through pages going, this is what I’m gonna create. And you never got caught in the how. Maybe you had moments of, I don’t know how, but you didn’t, it didn’t stop you.

You were just like the what? So it was the what?

[00:26:09] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely not at all. A lot of time, even people come to my gym, um, they want to train. They always think about the outcome. I want that six packs. I want a constant, and that outcome is bugging the hell out of them. It kills the joy of the process. So it, the thing is, I, I tell ’em, I show myself, hey, We’re having a blast.

Where do you want to be? You’re in the gym having a blast. You are blessed to be healthy, to be able to push this weight. So having a six pack is awesome. Trust me, I’ve been 3% body fat. I could see vein in my head. There was no difference. It was, it looked great from outside, but I was feeling miserable inside from the dieting.

So sometimes, sometimes the idea of having this stuff is actually a lot more than, than having it. Like for example, having a Ferrari is an amazing idea, but once you have it, you have to have the maintenance upkeep, the tire. The thing is so expensive. You know, it’s funny. It kills the two. I didn’t realize this until this,

[00:27:02] Chris Dorris: I just took a sip of this.

So this says, create the state. Don’t wait. And that’s really what you’re talking about. That’s, that’s right. Don’t wait for the six pack. Go get the six pack. But don’t wait for the six pack to feel. Yeah. Have the fun in a, if you’re laying under a pizza oven. Mm-hmm. And you’re feeling, this is so good, man.

This your Thank you brother better. I’m just so right now, like in love with you and your story, the way you’re telling it. You’re

[00:27:26] Siavash Fashi: amazing. Thank you. Thank you, brother.

[00:27:29] Chris Dorris: You know, you’re, you’re, you’re, you’re staying. I’ve, I’ve already taken a shit load of notes here. It’s like the power, how unbelievably enormously important, the way we’re speaking to ourselves and or what we’re thinking, what we’re putting in our heads.

So you’re literally sleeping. Under a pizza oven because you’re working in that pizza store. Is that the thing? You had a job there. Where is this, by the way? Is it

[00:27:50] Siavash Fashi: in England? Yeah, England. So I was, yeah. So this pizza shop, it was in a suburb of London, and then I was, um, yeah, uh, uh, uh uh, the way I found jobs, just, I just want to tell you guys something about finding jobs.

Okay. You know how I found jobs? No, I, I didn’t know speak. I didn’t speak English. The only thing I said, I’m looking for job. That’s the only sentence I, I’m looking for job. So I would tell myself, this is street. This is street from here, from the beginning to the end and coming back, I’ll go to every single one of them.

I would go in and I say, hello, I’m looking for job. And they said, no job. And I said, okay. I would go next door. I said, I’m looking for job. Oh yeah. And then some of these guys would say, okay, come back. And I would go back and say, okay, clean this. And I would clean it back or whatever. They had to wash and they would gimme a little money.

And then that was the one day. Or some people say, okay, come from tomorrow, come and work. And this piece of shop told me, okay, come work. Uh, passing flyers, you know, fa flyers in to the houses and it was over there, rains and stuff like that. I would had this heavy bag on my shoulder, I would just pass. And, um, I have to say, I wanna just make people conscious and through, uh, this as well, people hated us because we were coming from, we were immigrant, and, uh, they were looking at us.

They called us name and they called us. I don’t blame them. It’s okay. I never, I’m not angry at anyone. I just wanna make conscious and educate people. It was so hurtful and painful to me. I run away from that country and I’m coming here seeking help and, The way they look at us. They was, uh, they were thinking we’re changing the, uh, culture, the jobs, and we stealing them.

It wasn’t true. We were, I was in the bottom of the society. I was like, it, I didn’t do anything. I, I couldn’t do anything. I was like, uh, I was literally lost and it was so painful, but I couldn’t believe I said, man, they hated us over there in Iran because our religion, and here they hate us because of the, the way I look or the color or whatever.

It’s not, it’s not a good thing. I just wanna make a conscious in case I think it is. I just, anyway, I went through that and, but I was staying positive. I was going to the gym. I went to this gym and it was owned by a, a, a world champion. And I was training at that gym was a heaven. It was a dungeon. You go down to play heavy metal.

Nobody cared about your race or who you are. Religion, the only thing mattered. Who has the bigger guns? And I had the big, so the, your effort was, Measure not the way you look or you talk and stuff like that. Your English was good, not good, doesn’t matter. You live and everyone respected, I would always show up.

I was a kid, I was showing up, I was pumping, and I wouldn’t leave till I’m like dead. And, uh, over in that gym, I would skip the reality of a pain of being, uh, being, uh, all these stuff that was happening around me in TV every day. They had this, every day they were talking about, uh, uh, immigrant refugee and uh, send them back, send them this.

It was a very fearful thing. Every moment you’re thinking, they come and grab you. They sent you, they can, you can go back home and you can, uh, basically you can be dead back home. They can put you in prison. And consequences of that is absolute death in Iran. As you can see even these days. How they executing people left and right.

Um, Sorry if I’m moving fast. Uh, you, you can stop me. I’m

[00:31:03] Chris Dorris: bro, and I suspect so is the entire audience right now just lost in the beauty of your story? Keep going, man.

[00:31:09] Siavash Fashi: So I was there and, but unfortunately I didn’t like the environment and the way they were, were getting treated. I said, you know what, this is not it.

This is not a place, this is not my, it wasn’t me. And I said, I’m gonna go to America. And I had a little money. I bought a fake passport from this smuggler. He had this passport. He put my picture on it. It was crooked. The picture was crooked. It was so fake. I look at it, said, oh my God, this is, what am I gonna do?

I can’t go to, it is not like a, a real shop. You can go, oh, can you fix this? No, it’s done deal. So I said, man, this is it. So I I I went to the airport and I What an airport? It was in England. Yeah. So, and then, The lady scanned the password, said, son, this doesn’t work. And I knew she’d just given me the warning and I said, scan it again.

That was my only money I had. That was the only chance I had. I said, and she said, okay, wait here. And then I saw them, I started radioing each other, all the car, every secure, every police. And, and I, they’re looking at me and I said, stay calm. Just, I talk to don’t do anything. Don’t just, this is it, do or die.

And I went in a plane and, and they got, they put one guy in front of me and he was keep turning around looking. I said, if I stay up, I’m gonna panic. I just gotta fall asleep. I forced myself close my eyes. I wasn’t doing much and I wasn’t doing anything. So the plan land landed in America. As soon as it landed, they, they announced everyone Wait, hold, hold on, hold on.

[00:32:35] Chris Dorris: So they

[00:32:35] Siavash Fashi: let you on because Yeah, because they taught, they, uh, I’ll tell you the story, what happened. Uh, I’m unfolding it the slowly so you can, uh, see what, no problem. Uh uh. So they arrest, uh, they came and they announced, okay, everyone remains seated. Suddenly the police came into the police as, uh, police come into the, uh, plane and they said, you stand up, big man.

Uh, uh, stood up and they put a handcuff on me and they bring me out. And I told you are, what is the, uh, you are Albanian gangster? I said, oh, I’m not Albanian, because I was white-skinned and I had to bring, at the time they was working against me in Iran this time I got a pass through and they, I said, I’m not Albanian.

I’m, I’m Iranian, and I’m from a religious minority and this and that. And they said, you’re not Iranian. They brought a translator and they talked to me and said, oh, okay. So they put handcuff on me and now they think I’m a militant from, uh, Iran because I’m a little bit a muscle. Uh, they, so they think, oh, this is a militant passing through all this airport.

They put handcuff on me, they throw me in a little, this little jail that was Mexican mafia that. What city were you in? Chicago. Oh. So they, they threw me in this little jail, like little, very, very little small. There was six bunk and the toilet was right in the middle. And this, I had, I had no idea about Mexican mafia.

I had no, I had none of this stuff. I had any idea what works and everyone had tattooed, they, everyone could read what they are, uh, the code they had. And these, they crossed the hall was MS 13. And, uh, they were swearing at us and these guys were swearing at them. It was mad house. And I was like, I lay in my bunk.

I said, that’s, I stopped crying. I just, I tear came out, said, that’s it. I’m done. I can’t do nothing. Then the next day, uh, I just want to say this right here. Sometimes you have no answer to what happened to you in life. You don’t, you don’t need to look for it. Don’t look for it because you will torture yourself and you’ll make the matter worse.

Just shut it off. Hang in there. You just gotta handle it. Handle it, and write that pain. Nothing gonna happen to you. You’re breathing. That’s the only thing matter you breathing. It’s just the emotion that is coming and it’s heavy. Uh, uh, uh, it’s painful. I get it. Trust me. Uh, it was nobody, nobody. I couldn’t make phone calls, nothing.

I had nobody. Who am I? It’s only me. And that’s it. That’s it. You’ll start making a lot of, uh, belief system. Other, you, suddenly you become too religious. Something to be very careful not to give yourself a big belief system, because what it does is it takes you to a wrong way. It can take you to a wrong place.

And it takes it, it creates another problem. So the only thing I suggest my explain, hang in there. Hang in there and write the pain and realize this is a phase and you got this. Otherwise you wouldn’t be here. Uh, somebody told me in the past and said, If you didn’t have the strength, you would not be challenged.

You are getting challenged because you have it in you. If you didn’t, it wouldn’t be you. So I’m there and I’m seeing these people, and then they, they transferred us to a bigger prison. Now I’m going to the maximum security prison with blindfolded. They rolling me into concrete buildings, big buildings. I have no idea where I’m at.

I have no right to make phone calls. I’m constantly getting interviewed by cia, f, fbi, all kind of agency coming, taking me six hours a day, five hours a day, uh, no food, nothing. I’m just, they’re grilling me because they’re thinking I’m, I’m doing, I’ve done some and they’re doing all kind of background check, fingerprint or whatever you name it.

They did it, uh, uh, constantly moving me from one print to another so I don’t make much many friends. And over there you see crazy, crazy characters. Uh, one of my cellmate was one of the biggest Chicago mobsters. Uh, his nickname was Nino. And his name actually was in the GU book. I’m not gonna mention his name.

Uh, so he was my, so. I remember the first day was sitting there and I’m a very bad loser, so we were placing cards, we play cards and playing cards, and he was my partner and I didn’t know who he is. I just got into the, this prison and there were two other guys were playing with us and we lost. And I told this guy, Hey man, you’re stupid or something.

He didn’t throw the card and he said, oh, you’re stupid man. And he looked, he looked at me, he walked away. And the other two guys and said, are you fucking crazy? I said, what, what happened? He said, do you know who this guy? No man, who the fuck? And they said, you’re gonna get killed here, man. Don’t talk to this.

Go apologize or something.

[00:37:04] Chris Dorris: Just do. And what was the card game, by the way? Do you remember what the card game was that you were playing? Sp Spade Spa man.

[00:37:11] Siavash Fashi: Yeah, so I became a, I became a really, really good chess player over there too. Actually. There was one guy who was pissing me off, uh, because he would just look the other way and he would play with me and he would beat me without looking at it.

So it, there was, yeah, it was amazing. So this guy was, we became friends with Nino. I became friends. I couldn’t trust anybody over there. I could not trust. Uh, even my, after a few months they gave me a lawyer. This lawyer was a, uh, one of these student that, you know, uh, they do these cases for charity. So, He had my case and, but they were asking me so many questions that they were weird, like weird question that, no, I’m not like, and I came to the cell and I said, Nino, I’m scared.

I don’t know even that this a lawyer is with me or not. I, I have, I don’t know who is with me, who’s not. So he said, gimme his name. I gave his name. He said, wait, uh, a lunchtime, I’ll figure this out. Once that let us out of the cell, because we, we, we could not see outside. Like, I didn’t see Sky on, we were all inside.

We were like, nothing. We couldn’t do anything. And he went and he made a phone call. He came back, he says, Ash, this is his address where he lives, how many kids he has what he does, don’t worry. He’s on your side. And I said, oh my God. Wow. That’s, that’s pretty efficient. Yeah. There they were really, really crazy characters.

So after almost a year being there, I went to a judge and the judge looked in my case and, uh, uh, my, my, my lawyer presented the case, of course part, uh, to, uh, coming from Iran, the, and the judge. Told me that he granted me a refugee asylum to stay in the country. And even the homeland security got up and shook my hand and he says, um, I’m sorry about what happened.

It’s just, and I, no problem. You know? I understand. I came here in a wrong way. I was running, you know, and I came and I broke, broke the law and everything You did, it was fine. You know, just like a, it, it’s, it is at the end of the day, uh, I respect the, the thing, but I made promise myself.

[00:39:08] Chris Dorris: Can I just for pause, just hold that where you are.

Cause um, that’s amazing too. Tha Thank you. You can just be pissed off, man. And you can be a guy. Well, you have options, but I like you’re picking Yes. Like you’re saying and you’re saying it very, as a matter of factly, but it isn’t as a matter of fact, which is why I do these slowdown moments because that’s, um, you took ownership.

That language you just used man was totally powerful. Ownership language. You said it’s all good. You can be like, yeah, well no shit. Have a thank you. Finally, you just ruined pure my life. Thanks a lot. As opposed to, Hey man, I came here the wrong way. I broke the rules. We

[00:39:44] Siavash Fashi: good? Yes. And I, I have to say, um, in the worst situation, you’re learning something.

I’ll learn so much about the street life, about not doing bad things when I’m out. But then Nino told me is, Hey Sash, when you go out there, don’t hang out with the bad people because you’ll be one of them. If you are good, one of the good one, you will be good. And another thing, uh, he told me to stay away from, he said, stay away from religion and politics.

These two are there. You never come to conclusion and you always make enemy. So, wow, these three, I’ve always followed it my life in, in America. And I am having a blast. So many people here love me and support me. And I think because of that and going back to saying yes, uh, you’re taking it the right way.

That is another way of talking to yourself. Dad is talking to me. I can come home and say, oh my God, they destroyed my lot. Or I can have say, Hey, that was a phase. I’m ready now. What’s next? And at the time when you are going through stuff, you have no idea. These are assets later on right now that I have a book and I have everything, these become my asset, these my stories at the time.

You’re right. Look what we’re doing

[00:40:54] Chris Dorris: right now. This very I moment. Yes. Yes. You and I are serving humans right now through your past suffering.

[00:41:02] Siavash Fashi: Yes, exactly. So if you going into something, it will be a lesson for someone else. They won’t make it. Repeat it again. You will pass it on. And I always say that the gym iron sharpens iron.

So we are by talking me, uh, you talking here. We evaluate each other’s thoughts. You might be sometimes thinking a, a different way, but you’re hearing someone else’s and it makes you evaluate your own thoughts and then might say, Hey, am I wrong? So it happened to me many times. I’ve had a certain view because I come from an Iran, I come from a different culture, and I’ve come here, American had completely different value.

And I was like, Hmm. What they’re saying is it, I can be completely opposed of it or be listening to it and evaluate, Hmm, is this maybe part of it is right? Maybe I won’t accept everything, but, but a portion of it that I can implement to my life and make my value a little richer. So I, I’m coming back to this.

Uh, no, I wasn’t pissed at all. I wasn’t angry at all. Said, I thanked him. I said, thank you so much. You know, I appreciate and even, uh, Many years later when I’ve become successful and my chip becomes successful, I send a, a picture of myself holding a award, big award, winning award, and to my lawyer, and he said, oh my God, I’m so proud of you.

Uh, but the time that the judge, the judge gave me the grant to asylum, I told myself right there, I said, I’ll make this guy be proud of the decision he made. I’ll make sure I’ll go out there and be a good, productive member of this, uh, country society. So they don’t think, oh, I came and, uh, he is a, he is a is a bum or something like that.

No, I want to be a good person doing things. I didn’t know what I’m gonna do. I had no idea what I’m, uh, going. I just knew. I’ll be a good person. You know, I will do bad things to end up in prison again. I won’t do crime or stuff because I saw so many people were there, made mistake, and they ruined their lives.

I said, no more of this. None of that stuff. So I learned a lot about the street language in America, which I think it was like a university for me over there. So it was a, I’m not mad. I, I, I think it was actually very educational.

[00:43:02] Chris Dorris: I love that man. That’s beautiful. That is truly beautiful. Is taking good, creating from every experience, man.

Creating from every experience. That’s one of my favorite mantras is it’s, that’s abbreviated version. The longer version is every set of circumstances can be created from if viewed masterfully. So you’re, so, you’re out. So

[00:43:24] Siavash Fashi: you’re out. So I’m out, I’m out. I’m, I’m, I’m gonna see Chicago, no shoelaces. Because in prison when, when they take shoelaces, you, so I’m on street, I’m.

Wow, this country is huge. I’m looking at these big buildings, I’m like, oh my God, I can’t even cross the street. This is, this place is so big. And, but I’m seeing people underneath of all the bridges. They know I’m out of prison because they see my shooter. And I told myself, okay, if I’m out here, either I will hurt someone or someone will hurt me.

So, um, like I could tell, I would make eye contact with them. They would make eye contact. And so we knew what the language is. So I said to myself, I gotta do something. And uh, this taxi driver was pa I said, Hey, tax, can you take me to where the Persians are? He said, I know one restaurant, but you have to pay a hundred bucks to take your days far.

And I said, ah, okay, one second. And I went to my, uh, uh, phone list that I made in prison. I, I had a bunch of phone number from people and some of them become religious or become completely convert, you know, from being bad person. Like they become, uh, they, they stop praying. So I called one of the guy. And I said, Hey man, uh, I’m on the street.

I don’t know where to go. So he said, okay, where you at? And I told him, I said, oh, we’ll pick you up. And then he came with his family, kids and stuff like that. He took me to his house. He was from Guatemala originally, and he was working in a, uh, restaurant. So he had the basement and he throw a mattress in the basement.

And I, I was just sleeping there and I kept going to library. I would come and I would print out. I would read and sometimes he had, they had the family that they would go clean houses in people houses. So I would go and clean houses with them. They gave me a hundred bucks. So I would buy milk for them. I would just, anything that I could help with house, I would cut grass, whatever I had to do just to give back.

And once I got a couple hundred bucks and. Chicago about to snow. And I hate the snow because I grew up in a western part of Iran, which is snowed, and all those memory of being in an line for bread, for meat, uh, oil, uh, I just, it just brings those back, my feet always being frozen in those messed up shoes when I was a little kid.

So I hated snow. I said, you know what, I’m gonna go to California. I got the $140, I paid ticket for a train, and it took me three day, two, three days to get here to, and I end up in la uh, again. I’m in a union station homeless. I’m, I’m, the funny thing is, I just want to tell you this, that we’re, because it was snowing, a lot of homeless people were jumping in a train and those guys were homeless.

And I was homeless too, but I never viewed myself as a homeless. I was looking at myself as a champion is coming to California to conquer the world. So that’s why I’m coming back again. The way you talk to yourself, I could have said to myself, I’m homeless. I have nobody where I’m going. But I was coming with excitement to conquer.

Uh, and the guys were sitting right next to me to talk to me. But I, but I wasn’t one of them. I was one of them, but I was telling myself, I’m not one of the homeless guys. Um, so I ended up here. That’s

[00:46:11] Chris Dorris: amazing that this is, that’s amazing. That’s worth slowing down again. I’m, I’m glad you brought it up again.

Thank you. Right. Is creating, or cre, you’re talking about creating your world with your thinking. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Oh, yes. Is it true that you are homeless? Yes. Uh, are you homeless? No. I’m creating, yes, while I’m homeless, but I’m not homeless. Right. Creating your own deal. Having your own deal. I’m, I’m, I’m a warrior.

I’m here creating a dream. Yeah.

[00:46:41] Siavash Fashi: Because you can break your spirit in an instant. Look very, let’s do a simple exercise. Put your arms down, put your head down, and tell yourself a little, one little sad story. That’s it. You ruined it. Yeah, right. You ruined the moment. So it’s just the, it is just the how you wanna talk.

So I, I came and then I’m, yeah, the same thing. Uh, the guy I, I told the, I said, where’s the versions are? Uh, he dropped me in an area here in, in, in LA called Glendale, which most of the Persian Armenians are. And, uh, he dropped me over there. And again, I’m like, oh my God, this place is beautiful. The sun and everything.

I called one of my friends, said, Hey man, I’m here. I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know where to go. I just, it’s just too confusing. He said, okay, I, I think I know somebody. So the guy came and I told him, I’m looking for a place. And he didn’t know anything as well. His English wasn’t good. So he lived here, but his English wasn’t good.

And I told myself, okay, I walk in the streets. I walk in the streets, uh, and I saw a sign. He says, rent. And I saw the guy and I told him, Hey man, I rent this. And I just came here. He charged me like a six 50, uh, for the, for the little room in a back house. And I jumped on the street. I go to the shops. I’m asking the same style, asking everybody.

And then I was reading news, uh, look at the papers. There were like a paper, you know, the stand. And I would look for a job. And there was a lot of security job. And that was, uh, recession just happened. 2008 was 2008. Recession was crazy. And, uh, there was no job. So I found this security job working graveyard shift from, uh, night till morning.

And I would be sh all the security guard were messed up, shared. They don’t shave. I go there sharp. My tie on sharp. I’m cliche. I’m ready to go at night. Every time the manager pops up, I’m awake. I’m white weight looking around, I’m ready to go. He says, everybody sleep at their post. Why should I never catch you?

You can never catch me. I’m reading bodybuilding, I’m studying all night. I’m studying, I’m reading bodybuilding, I’m reading nutrition, anything that I can, I was like, okay, this is the best time for me. I have no interruption. I just have to open gate with people. And the people in the gated community, they love me because every time they come at night, before they come, I memorized all the license plates and every single people that they were coming in community, I knew the license plate.

And if they had a guest, I would log it in. I was so organized and they made me the manager and the the boss made me the manager cause everybody loved me. So, and um, I, I became a manager. I working, and I, I, I, so I moved to the shift, seven to three, and then three o’clock I would take off and I would go to Gold Gym, north Hollywood and train.

Man, I’ll go give it everything I got. And another guy was there, it was a older guy, and one of the, uh, thing, you see that guy I, yeah, he said he’s, he trained the world champion. One of the world champion. His name was Flex Wheeler. He said he trained Flex Wheeler and po. I said him, see, I went to the guy, asked him, excuse me, sir, I want bigger legs.

And he looked at me and says, come back tomorrow, I’ll show you. I said, uh, I don’t have money. I only make $8 an hour. I, I can’t pay you if you tell me I’ll do it. He told me, come back tomorrow. And I said, okay. I came back, he trained me three years. Not a penny charged me every single day. At three 30, he introduced me to all the big time body.

Well, he took me to Gold Gym, all the big body ball and you name it, I rub elbow with that. Uh, he taught me how to train the American Body Bowl. Exactly. Not a penny. And he kind of was cheating me like a father, you know? He, he’s way, he was way older than me, Mr. Peter Longwood. Amazing, amazing man. Uh, amazing man.

So I would meet a lot of people. And one thing I like about American culture is like, uh, They think people here, they think is abundance. There’s enough for all of us. There’s a lot here. Versus in the other part of the world, people don’t believe that. Like when I was in Europe, people think, oh, because we came, there’s not enough for them.

That is a wrong attitude. There’s so much. And in America, fortunately, we don’t, we we, we have the, the abundance mindset. So many people have helped me to be here. So many, I’m like, I’m the face of that. But behind me, so many, so many just neighbors here, there, I’ll get to that, how much they helped me to build this gym.

And everyone rooted for me. So I’ve been surrendered with amazing people. And I was a, uh, the good thing was one attitude that I had. I love people. I love talking to people. I love talking. As you can see, I’m, I’m taking over. I’m, so,

[00:51:03] Chris Dorris: it’s very handy for me.

[00:51:07] Siavash Fashi: Yeah. I enjoy talking because I always find it interesting other people, how they think, what they, it’s like a.

I just having fun. I just have blast one. I enjoy talking to people and share stuff. So I made a lot of, lot of great friend here and they’ve been supporting me. So I was training and I started to myself, this is the time now. I’m gonna compete. I got ready for the show. I hired a nutritionist. I would, I paid them, uh, 400 hundred bucks.

I was working security seven to three, and then I would rush from there. My work, three 30, I was at the dock. I was at the training because Mr. Peter was there. I had to train with Mr. Peter. We trained till five 30. I had to go home. Shower and everything. 7:00 PM I had to be another post till two, 2:00 AM and then 2:00 AM I would come sleep till, uh, six and six, get up, eat my five 30, my eggs and all the chicken and everything.

I would had to be at work at seven. So I would, everything was machine. I calculate every penny. I had to pay for chicken. I only eat chicken. I didn’t eat red meat cause I didn’t have money. So, uh, I would, I say, okay, if I eat, I eat six meals a day. I eat 10 eggs and I eat this chicken. So I would buy it from Ralph.

I would buy the store. I would buy a whole chicken for five bucks. And I knew okay, that five bucks, but I split it in half one day here. So I calculated every penny. So I knew how I can afford myself. Uh, so I don’t ask people for money or get in debt or anything like that. Uh, uh, I, I just, my focus was bodybuilding, bodybuilding body.

So I kept pushing. I became, uh, I went on a stage, I got the trophy. Uh, I’m driving, oh my God, I’m in America. I see this picture. I’m on a stage posing, and finally I made it Then. But suddenly I went into the dark side of the bodybuilding. I realized what it takes, those drugs steroid and the, uh, the, then the culture of bodybuilding changed in a recent years.

In the back, in the days when I was watching it from Iran, it was this lifestyle, beautiful lifestyle, American lifestyle that bigger than life through Joe Leader publication, he made them a star. But unfortunately in a recent year, bodybuilding has geared toward being mean, looking ugly and being intimidating and posing like those kind of characters.

And that’s not bodybuilding. So plus the, uh, the drug, it just got so much more, uh, and become a lot of, uh, politics that who wins. It was so, it, it become the, I saw the ugly side of it, but I wasn’t giving up. I said, you know what? I’m gonna make this happen. Um, The gym that I trained in England, it was a dungeon.

And I, and I was going to these gyms around here and I said, what’s up with this? All this shiny stuff here? Just everything is pretty. And after 13 years, I, I got a refugee passport, so I went to Turkey to see my family. When I came back, they fired me from a job for no reason. I’m like, why, why? What did I do wrong?

And because he wanted to put his own brother, the guy, the boss, he wants to put his own brother in my job. So he let me go and we, we ended up, uh, we go to the, uh, unemploy. I, I had to go to unemployment. I was so embarrassed standing on the line. I, I had no choice. I was looking for a job. It was 2000. I was looking for a secure job.

I couldn’t get it because uh, a lot of soldiers were coming back from Iraq and stuff like that. And they are a lot more qualified than I am. They were like soldiers. They’re real security job is nothing. These guys were applying for the same job. That was like $10 something and they would get hired. I wasn’t mad because they were more qualified than I was.

It wasn’t that, oh, they don’t like me because, no, these guys were actually more qualified. So I’m not getting, catching a break. So I had to go to unemployment. I was so embarrassed. I was like, God, man, what is this? And uh, but the judge said, you know what? It’s a wrongful firing. This is not a a reason. There was no reason.

So he gave me $3,000. I had this $3,000 and I said, this is it, 3000. And I was on Craigslist looking stuff, and I, this gym, it wasn’t a gym, it was a little place in Culver City. The guy wanted 1900 bucks and he could, and I. Say, you know what? I have 3000. I’ll give him 1900 bucks. Maybe I can, I was tackling stuff.

So I gave the guy 1900 bucks. I said, Hey, I’ll give you the money, uh, the next month if you can gimme a break for the, a deposit. I don’t have it right now. I’ll give you next month. I had a couple of dumb balls, uh, 30 up to 30 pounds, and a bar, a bar and a couple of play. But I knew about, but I could kill anybody with those couple of tumbles.

So people would come to me and say, oh, what’s going on here? I’ll put the banner over their gym. And people would come. They say, where’s the gym? I, this is the gym. It looked like a hospital. It was like gray walls and a concrete floor and a couple of tumble in that corner with a boxing bag. And I tell, just train with me.

You know, I, I’ll get you in shape. So just try a free session. I would kill them. They would throw after 10 minute and it’s a bar, and they loved it. And they would bring their friend, Hey, come on here. This guy’s crazy. And I would trade them and they, they would throw up. They would feel it. I start getting results result and people bring their friends and they think the next thing I know, the mayor of Culver City training with me, people are from Sony Studios down the street, people coming, my clients are all smart business people.

All Americans, they come and this one tell me, oh, make your website like this. I don’t know how to make that. I’ll make it for you. The guy tell me, oh, paint the walls. I don’t know how to do it. I’ll do it for you neighbor. Anybody that was in my gym was doing some helping me. Somehow the guy, I don’t know how to set up my stuff they would do it for, because I’m not very good techy person.

Uh, everything I did along the way, people give me business advice, gimme me accounting. So, but I couldn’t make it. It was just a hustle. It was a lot of hustling and I was like, man, there must be a better way. I can’t figure it out. So this guy comes to my gym. And my, and this, he has a big belly and he speak very soft.

Very like soft. And he talks to me, he, he tells me, oh, you’ve gotta change your business like this. I said, what is this guy talking about? I’m killing here people. He told me, oh, your business is like Apple. You need to have a formula, but uh, you have to do this. I said, no, man. My business not like Apple. I’m killing people.

I’ll lift weight. And I’m like, blah, blah, blah. So he start teaching me my business. He start mentoring me. He taught me about how marketing works, hack everything. So I start working on my system and start making the gym exactly appealing to busy, professional, the avatar. I interviewed hundred people on my client to see who are these people, where are they coming from, exactly why they’re here.

Then once I figured out who they are, then I’ll start talking to them through my channels, through social, every single day. I’ll put my eyes self out there. At the beginning, I was very doubtful of myself. I just wanna tell your audience over there, if you’re trying to take action, if you wanna try to do something at the beginning, girl, a lot of voices in your head.

I was thinking, oh my God, my grammar is not good. My mustaches, my, my big head. Those voices come to your head. Don’t worry, just do it. The cure of the fear is action. If you want to cure that fear, action every time. Yeah. And so what, when I was, I was, uh, constantly, uh, what kind of fuck being analyzing myself.

So I got that camera, uh, to beat around the bushes, not to do the videos. I bought a big equipment, camera, equipment, stuff like that. I didn’t do even one video with the big cameras. Grab your phone, grab that phone, just put it in your face. And I said, welcome to six back gym, and let’s go. I give every single day a tip to my community and.

I’ve been posting over, I have on my phone over 70,000 videos and pictures I’ve posted in the last few years. So imagine how much I put myself at that would be thousand. Thousand. Yes. So I wanna tell you, when I talk about consistency of putting yourself out there, and remember you talking to a moving train, don’t be thinking, oh, because I said that yesterday, I can’t say it again.

You are talking to a moving train. Keep putting your message out there. Keep saying it. Keep saying who you are. Be proud loud. You uh, I have this very, uh, good saying. I heard this, it’s not mine. I heard it from somebody, actually, I’m gonna give you credit to him. His name was, he called himself Mask and uh, he was a owner of Tapout uh, uh, clothing line.

He said, I may not be the one that touches million, but I may touch one that touches million. So you have no idea who you’re touching. It might not be you that doing all this a big thing, but you might. Inspire a kid, that kid might change the world. So, uh, that, that’s why it’s very important for you, all of us, your audience, me and you are doing it right now, sharing our story and putting ourself out there without, with being loud and proud.

Of course, you get those comments are, some people may say something negative. It’s okay. It’s okay. The good and bad. It’s the part of the ecosystem. Um,

[00:59:34] Chris Dorris: can I ask you a question here? Yes. Uh, so many people throughout this story have wanted to help you. Mm-hmm. Why do you think so many pe what is it about you?

I have a hypothesis on this. Mm-hmm. But I wanna hear your answer. Right. How come so many people wanted to help you?

[00:59:59] Siavash Fashi: Um, uh, it,

[01:00:01] Chris Dorris: that guy trained, you didn’t talk for three years. Mm-hmm. Said, I want bigger legs. He never, he never charged a penny. Right. People say, you need to paint this place. I, they did it for you.

You gotta do this website. They did it for you. Mm-hmm. How, how about why, what is it?

[01:00:15] Siavash Fashi: Um, everything I say is assumption, so I don’t want to, I’m, I’m gonna say something. What I’m assuming. I think the hearts are connected. You know, we, we like, uh, the heart are connected. It’s just like a. When you wanna give, you get, I think in it is in a, in a, I think I, I believe it’s in the Bible, it says you, you give like a, you give, I can’t, I don’t know.

I’m not very, I don’t know about the, but I think so it’s not, uh, it’s not about the relationship, but it’s, I think it’s in nature. When you give, you get, you receive you just like a, the, uh, when you have intention of giving. And, uh, but at that, for those people, they had the intention of giving. And I was there.

I was there. So they, those people are tho I have to give the credit to those people at, they had the same thing. And now I’m giving, uh, I learned from Mr. Peter. I told your

[01:01:04] Chris Dorris: literary agent, uh, Angela the other day, or after we spoke for the first time, I said, wow, what, what an amazing vibe that guy

[01:01:13] Siavash Fashi: has. Thank you.

Which was

[01:01:15] Chris Dorris: immediately obvious to me. So that’s my hypothesis. Okay. So I’ll just go out. I have, I

[01:01:20] Siavash Fashi: have to say, I have to say that is kind of true because anywhere I go. Anywhere I’m standing in a line, people talk to me, I go to anywhere. People, uh, people, I mean, police pull me over a couple times. They didn’t gimme a ticket.

They look to talk to me, and I, they start talking about bodybuilding. So it’s just, it’s not about, I, I don’t know. As I said, I have assumption, I don’t know. But, uh, everywhere, uh, people treat me very good, especially in America. I have, I know there’s a lot of maybe bad stuff happening. I personally, I’m talking about my own personal, um, experience.

Everybody in America here, they, everybody. I mean, I would say 99. Be nice to, I like, I I’m having, I’m really having a blast with people like everywhere. You’re killing it.

[01:02:07] Chris Dorris: Yeah, right. You’re, you’re killing it. You’re making seven figures with this 800 square foot damn gym in Culver City, and you’re killing it.

It’s, you created your dream.

[01:02:19] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely. I’m absolutely living at every minute of the gym is a mad house. People come go. It’s fun. People bring their dog, their kids. I wanna come see. I wanna come visit you.

[01:02:28] Chris Dorris: I’ll be more than happy to time. I’m in la I wanna come meet you, man. Absolutely. You, you’ll love

[01:02:33] Siavash Fashi: Yeah, you’ll love the place.

[01:02:35] Chris Dorris: Uh, I bet. I sure I will. I cuz I’ll just love, I’ll just be soaking up the vibe, man. So this is, all right. So I had an idea about three times that I wanna share with you. Uh, I’m, I’m gonna make a request. Mm-hmm. Because I know you’re not done. We did, we only, I haven’t even totally finished the first of the three points.

We got that. But we’ve gone for an hour. Yes. But I’m gonna suggest is if you’re willing, that we could do a part two.

[01:03:01] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely. No problem.

[01:03:03] Chris Dorris: Absolutely. Where we could Now the story’s been told. I think you’ve won all of our hearts, brother. Okay. Thank you. And, and then we can talk about changing lives and your mo and like the business end of it.

[01:03:13] Siavash Fashi: Yes,

[01:03:14] Chris Dorris: absolutely. Just that I, now that you’ve arrived and you created your vision from the, from, from the most like horrible situations and you’ve created miraculousness, that alone is enough for us. But you got more, you got more to say about how to treat people and how to think of yourself in order to thrive in business.

And I, and I say, let’s make that, um, Session two, if you don’t,

[01:03:40] Siavash Fashi: AB a Abso. Absolutely. Absolutely. I, I love the vibe here. I love, uh, what you do, and I’ll respect what you do and absolutely. I’ll, I’ll be more than happy. I’ll be more than happy to be for a second time. I just wanna say, um, people who are just listening to the part, and this is a, at the end of the day, I’m a business.

I’m coming as a business. So I’m gonna pitch the, uh, book one more time because in this book, the first section of this book is kind of my story of how I came all the way through this struggle. And hopefully even, uh, of course, the, uh, goal of this book is, uh, part of it is. People being interested in a six pack gym and uh, start opening these little gyms in their own community, all, all over America.

That’s my vision. So we can serve people with these small places that care about people. You are not the number in the big gyms. You are a number, but in a small place is a community that I want to build this kind of little community all over America that people go, you’re depressed, you go to the gym pump, you feel better.

You have no friend. Here we are, there’s hundreds of us at this gym waiting for you to shake your hand and welcome you. So it’s gonna be all over the country. This book, a small gym, big result, teaches people how if you have some struggle or you have an idea, start, let’s go. Let’s go. Vision and balls, let’s go.

And the rest of it, it will go into every aspect of the business, which for a lot of you will show you even how to do customer service, how to call people by their name. Mm-hmm The things that are important. Very little things that are forgotten. The art of. Relationship is getting forgotten because of all these automation and all these, um, emailing stuff.

No, we are at this little place, this little gym, and we love helping everybody. So the small gym, big result, uh, on Amazon, if you just type, uh, this or you can put a, go to the website, actually a small gym, big result.com, you’ll, you’ll see it and you can order it.

[01:05:30] Chris Dorris: That’s awesome, man. Beautiful.

Congratulations again on, on that, but, and congratulations on

[01:05:38] Siavash Fashi: everything. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations

[01:05:41] Chris Dorris: on, on being the guy. I mean, you are seriously, you are a mental coach, man. That right. You know that.

[01:05:48] Siavash Fashi: Thank uh, no worries. You’re, you don’t have to

[01:05:50] Chris Dorris: say

[01:05:51] Siavash Fashi: it. I’m saying it for you. Thank

[01:05:52] Chris Dorris: you. So tha yeah, thanks for making time.

I’ve also, I will put in the show notes, a link to the Amazon, to the book, also your social media, awesome links if people wanna connect with you, the website or the gym and all. So, uh, yeah, you and I will set up a time Okay. To, uh, sound great, to be continued and to get into the details of the rest of it.

Right? Like, like how to use your spirit and your leadership in order to, you know, to really grow. Because just to get the place was pretty miraculous, but to have it thrive. Yes. That’s what your six pack gym, I mean, thriving mm-hmm. Is a whole nother story for us to open up. That’s

[01:06:33] Siavash Fashi: mechanic of that. A actually, let’s, if we can, let’s next time to show you how you must change in order to grow something, you must grow along with it.

So let’s talk about the, if you like, the growth that I had, of course I did all this stuff, but some of the belief system that I made along the way to get here is it worked against me when I start building teams, when I start building people around me, I needed, uh, Relationship and growth, uh, to build this small gem.

So I would like to dive into that to tell you how you gotta shift all those stuff that, because, uh, I can say this to make it simple, I was running away from paying, now I’m running towards success. So I’m running towards success now. At that phase of my life, I was running away. So this shift, I, we, I like to cover it next time if we are in a here, so your audience hopefully can, uh, benefit from that as well from that experience.

[01:07:34] Chris Dorris: Now, one last request. Yes. What was it running from Payne And now you’re running towards, what’d you say? You’re running towards Su success. Success. Mm-hmm. So my final request is, um, when we do our version two or, or our second interview, uh, we, we will you play one of those Persian instruments for us?

[01:07:59] Siavash Fashi: I’ll play a little bit.

[01:08:05] Chris Dorris: I’m giving you time to practice.

[01:08:07] Siavash Fashi: I’m starting now. I’m starting now.

[01:08:10] Chris Dorris: Say your name so we can say it properly.

[01:08:14] Siavash Fashi: Absolutely. I’m gonna say it the way I like to say it to be proud not Ash Pshi, the founder and CEO of the most successful small gym in Americas.

[01:08:24] Chris Dorris: Man, this has been amazing. Thank you. Here we go.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Great being with you today.

[01:08:29] Siavash Fashi: Thank you so much. Thanks for Thank you everyone for listening as well. Thank you. Even his name

[01:08:34] Chris Dorris: is cool. Si Fai. It’s fun to say. Si. Fai, what a vibe. We didn’t even get. We just got to one and I’m so happy. That’s all. That’s all we got to because I think that’s all we needed to get to today.

Uh, there’s so much learning in that story. In his story. I, I mean, okay, so we stopped recording and we kept talking for a few minutes. Cause that’s the real, this is the first time I’ve ever really spoken to him. And, uh, I mean, we spoke once before, but not in a meaningful way. We just scheduled stuff and checked on audio and crap.

But, uh, my God, I don’t think I, well, I told him after we stopped recording, I reiterated you’re a mental coach, bro, whether you know it or not. Like you definitely are. Like, he’s just hammering some of the most important things that I work with on, on people all the time, which is, what are you saying to yourself?

What are you choosing to fill your mind with? Right? And, uh, and how critical that is. And then, I mean, he was talking about surrender, which we have a recent episode on, actually just a couple before this one actually. Uh, yeah. Which is completely on surrender. With a guy named Co Blackson. He’s the, yeah, probably two episodes ago.

Uh, on Surrender. He’s talking all about surrender and not needing to know how, and keeping the faith and staying with it and staying with it. He just never bailed, man. That’s Wow. Oh, I forgot to ask him. Oh, shoot. Okay, well, okay. Note to self, I wrote it down, but I didn’t ask him. When’s the movie? Come on man.

We need a movie, bro. This is movie material, like, duh. Get on that. Let’s go. All right everyone. Thanks for tuning in as always to tough talks, and until next time, great miracles.