I sat down with Aaron Machbitz to talk about discipline, masculinity, and entrepreneurship. What it actually takes to build a life most people only talk about. Aaron doesn’t deal in motivational fluff. He lives in the trenches of fitness, fatherhood, and leadership. We unpack what that looks like when the camera is off. From mental resilience to building physical strength. As a foundation for character, this conversation cuts straight through modern noise.

We get into personal responsibility, the state of young men today. Building confidence through hard work, and why comfort is quietly destroying ambition. Aaron breaks down how fitness isn’t about aesthetics, but identity. How structure leads to building freedom. Why most people sabotage themselves long before the world ever does. There’s no victim mindset here. Only ownership, standards, and showing up daily whether you feel like it or not.

If you’ve been feeling stuck, distracted, or disconnected from purpose, this one hits. It’s about sharpening yourself mentally and physically. Leading by example, and refusing to drift through life half-awake. Real growth. Real accountability. No shortcuts.

Where to Find Aaron Machbitz? 🌐 Website: https://aaronmachbitz.com 📚 Work: 🏋️ Fitness coaching & mindset training 📲 Social: @aaronmachbitz

He also wrestles on tv. Um, and we, yeah, we were just, uh, we were struggling to get by, but living sort of the artist's dream, you know, as, as independent professional wrestlers, hoping to someday get a contractor, get on tv. And that was the dream at the time was to, to wrestle for wwe e and I was on my way there.

My perspective about life changed, uh, my perspective about who I wanted to be, who I was being, how fragile life is, uh, everything you could possibly think about. I mean, maybe, you know, you've been through something catastrophic. Everyone's been through something catastrophic, where in an instant it changes your perspective about everything.

And it did for me, obviously in that moment. Took me a couple years to sort of figure out the direction I wanted to take with my life. Uh, but that was the moment everything changed and sort of the reason why I do the things I'm doing now, now they've morphed over the last seven years. And, uh, but really, yeah, I feel like that's my, my purpose on the planet.

I call it my massive transformative purpose to, uh, to try and end mental suffering. I know that's not gonna happen in my lifetime, but man, if I go in the grave knowing that I moved the needle just a fucking little bit, I'll be happy about that.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, it's the interesting sort of journey with, uh, with grief, you know, but like I think in our culture, we have just a weird. Feeling about death. I don't think there's anything wrong with thinking about death, but we see it as like this sort of weird taboo thing. Um, but thinking about the end of my life, thinking about what I want people to say ab at my funeral, I think those are sort of important discussions to have.

'cause then you can track backwards, okay, how do I wanna live my life? Because when I'm in the grave and people are talking about at my funeral, they're not gonna talk about how I was a professional wrestler and I run, I ran around in my underwear. They might make fun of me because that's fucking funny.

And it'll be funny 70 years from now when I'm dead, you know? But they'll talk about how I made them feel, hopefully. Right? They'll talk about like, hopefully the values that I represented in this world that I was, I aimed to be kind and empathetic and compassionate. And I lived my life with some fucking zest, you know?

And I went for it. Like, that's what they're gonna say.

Aaron Machbitz: You know what I mean? That's what they're gonna say. That's right. And so like. There's no reason not to think about that now. Like fast forward a little bit, like, uh, you know, what's the best version of me look like? What am I, what do I look like as a grandparent to my son?

I got a five week, a five week old son. You know, I think about these things a lot now, you know, what do I want him to take away from me? How do I, how do I represent that day in, day out, even when I'm frustrated and I'm tired? And the only way I can think about that is, okay, what, what am I, what am I gonna feel when I'm taking my last breath?

Am I gonna say, yeah, I fucking gave it all I got, or I left a little bit on the table. I should have had this conversation, or I should have did this. No, all these things are gonna be hard and challenging, but the more things we avoid, the more things we brush under the rug, just the more it compiles. And then where does it all go?

There's varying degrees when it gets to sort of the intent part and I'm sort of making a plan. Yeah, we definitely need to get some help at that point. Suicidal ideation is a little bit different. I'm sort of thinking about the end of my life and how I may, uh, end it. That's totally different than what I'm talking about.

That's a sort of serious mental health sort of issue. I'm talking about just every day thinking about what do I want my life to be, and that's okay because death is coming for us all, no matter what. And for me, it makes me feel. Like, I wanna be in the present moment. David, Dave, you and I met over TikTok right Fucking crazy.

Dave: On

Aaron Machbitz: I go on live almost every night, right? It's just wild shit happens on TikTok live. Um, and hopefully this isn't the case, but we, me and you never, may never speak again. I hope that's not the case, but while we're speaking right now, I'm gonna enjoy it as much as humanly possible, and that, that puts into perspective my life and interactions and having lunch with people or meeting friends or meeting new people.

You put money in your bank. It's not there. They're just showing you a number. If they go broke tomorrow, your a hundred thousand or whatever you got, it's gone. Gotta figure out what that legacy and what value is in your life.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, what's really being rich? I've been thinking about that a lot because, you know, I like money. I wanna make money for my businesses. You know, you need money to, you need money to do stuff, yada, yada, yada, yada, yada. But I'm like, you know, sitting back, looking at my kid, looking at my wife, looking at my parents that are down the street from me.

That is, that is richness. You know, there's nothing better in life than having a meal or a conversation with someone you love or someone you're getting to know, like, there's nothing better. And of course you need money to have that meal and go on the vacation and all that, yada, yada, yada.

Dave: gonna

Aaron Machbitz: Sure.

Dave: know, it's like you're gonna need hella money, bro.

Aaron Machbitz: But the essence of it is that you're with someone you care about or trying to get to know or that you love.

Um, and that's the, that's the beauty. That's the beauty of life.

Dave: I think also what it boils down to is doesn't necessarily solve your problems you know, been blessed to be able to have a child, right? People can go from today until tomorrow, spend thousands of dollars. But if the universe doesn't want you to have a kid, you ain't having a kid. It's like,

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: your adoptions could fail.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: your mind into perspective in a way, you know?

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, we're like one in a trillion or something to be born or some crazy stat like that. Yeah. You know, it's, you know, it's funny, Dave, you know, when you're younger they tell us like, dude, super easy to have a baby have, don't have unprotected sex. Like you'll get pregnant instantly. It's like, it's so funny 'cause then when you're like actually trying to get pregnant, like it just like takes like a real bit of work and it like, it doesn't happen for everyone.

Dave: a gold star.

Aaron Machbitz: to, to be honest. Dude. Watching my son get circumcised was way worse.

Dave: I wasn't. I was there, but very much do not remember the situation. were both

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Way worse.

Dave: We, we

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Yeah. So,

Dave: God.

Aaron Machbitz: um, dude, the, the, the sex part was funny. My wife and I were just joking about it. It took us about three months to get pregnant, which is not very long considering it takes people years and it never happens for some people. Um, but it's like they tell you, you know, they tell you, you just gotta, you can't have unprotected sex, you're gonna get pregnant instantly.

It's like, it's, uh, so funny. But I mean, yeah, obviously it's true when you're younger, like 16, 17, 18, 19, right? Things happen. There's more, there's more stuff going on. Women are more fertile at that age, whatever the case may be. But still, it's still a miracle.

Dave: this up 'cause I'm just thinking about the episode of have you Watched Friends?

Aaron Machbitz: Uh, yeah, for the most part.

And I'm like. Even that idea is crazy. 'cause like they're in their thirties, right? They're in their thirties, they're career driven and like he happens to be that one dude that puts in a condom that's like the 98% chance, like bam, pregnant nine months later kid

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. It had to be Ross though.

Dave: be Ross. Joey would be like, nah, Joey's like has like a hundred kids. At that point. They didn't even tell

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, it makes sense for Joey. Yeah. It's so funny. Had to be Ross.

Dave: to be wrong. But even that's kind of bizarre. You know what I mean? Like that's

Aaron Machbitz: Mm-hmm.

Dave: of fate of the universe. It's like, well, you could wait until ovulation, you could do all these right things.

You're gonna have unprotected sex. And it's like, again, the universe don't give a

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Aaron Machbitz: That's true. I, I, uh, I agree with that. You know, some, I mean, yeah, and it's so interesting, like teen pregnancies and stuff like that. Like why is that the case? Why does that happen? How does that happen? What lesson is, is being taught there, you know, whatever that might be. But it's, it's all very interesting.

Dave: I think it also has to tie in when you're really young. Again, I, I come from a religious background, so I didn't really have this experience. I'm, I'm going off of what o other people have told me. When you're really young you're interacting, either, you know, you're attracted to the opposite sex or the same sex, and you're in that environment, you're kind of blossoming when you meet somebody and you're able to create this romantic relationship where you're able to be open and vulnerable and tar to like express yourself for like, some of the, some of these sounds like, like the very beginning of your life.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, yeah. The, the, the suicide one is, is obviously one that I think about quite a bit, you know, because with young, like all, all suicides are quite complex. But in my sister's situation, right, she. She struggled in battle for over 10 years and then, uh, ended, you know, ended up losing her battle with her illness of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, severe depression.

But when someone is like 10, 11, 12, 13, like that sort of age where one event in their life could, could feel so catastrophic, someone breaks up with them, they don't get invited to the right party, right? Especially with social media now it could look just so like, your life just sucks when really that's not the case.

But we're so young and we don't have any sort of experience in dealing with these types of things and maybe we don't have the right support system at home. Or maybe it's just tho that one thing that drove us to do this. Very permanent thing. And that's where it gets like really, really scary. And we need to have some real preventative measures and teaching kids at a very young age about these sort of life lessons and experiences and handling their emotions and what proactive tools there might be.

Maybe. Early on to, to teach these types of emotional skills, this emotional flexibility, you know, this mental skill stuff to young people. I mean, I'm gonna try to teach it to my son as soon as possible. Breathing exercises, visualization affirmations, um, you know, the five senses. What can I feel, touch and see right now when I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed or frustrated?

Like all these types of things that young people can pick up. Really cool if young people can learn how to speak three languages by the time they're seven or something. 'cause their brain is so malleable. I dunno if that's an exact stat or not, but you get my point right? Then we can definitely teach them the right emotional and mental vocabulary to handle the first time that they walk up to a girl and that girl says, no, I don't like you.

Um, and I think that's really important when we talk about the future of our young people.

Dave: We, you know, I don't wanna get political, but there is this, I'm not, but there is a level. I'm gonna be careful as a libertarian 'cause I can go really far. You Is this also like setup where we live in a society where, let's be honest, like there's education stocks. Okay. sucks. We're not setting up people to be successful.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: it's so bizarre to grow up in a time where I'm literally at the very end before this whole like technological boom of social media and all this.

Like I tell people, like, I remember when Instagram came out, okay. I remember when Facebook came out. They're like, damn, you old. I'm like, it's not that long ago. It's really not.

Aaron Machbitz: No.

Dave: It's less than 20

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, I mean, I rem I, yeah, I remember it too. I'm only 33, you know? Um, it's like, I remember MySpace a little bit. Top eight friends. I remember when Facebook came out. I remember when Instagram came out.

Dave: America online.

Aaron Machbitz: Yep. I remember when Twitter came out, like recently, probably not recently, maybe like eight months ago.

I was searching keywords in my Twitter to see what I said when I was like a stupid idiot. And like, you know, it's just like wild stuff. It's like, you know,

Aaron Machbitz: it's unhinged.

Dave: unhinged. Like now, like the Elon, I, I call it the Elon era. Uh, the Elon era is, is on hinge, but it's nothing like it's heyday bro. Back then it was crazy.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. It's so interesting to think about like how ca uh, what, like what cancel culture was like if you're trying to cancel someone who tweeted something when they were like 17. Like I just, I. If we're not allowed to make mistakes and then grow from them, then I don't know where we, where we go as a society, you know?

Like especially, yes, there's never been a perfect person to ever exist, ever. And you and I definitely aren't gonna be, this, aren't gonna be the first ones. And so like, uh, we have this whole public space, like young kids nowadays. I get it. Like I, I coach baseball for some young athletes and, uh, if you don't play sports.

But I knew that this event just happened at this bar, just happened at this school and like it was pretty much gone. People might talk about it for like a couple days, but then it's out, it's finished. No one cares anymore. Something had happened, but this thing could live forever if I get rejected at this party from this girl, or if I try to talk to this chick at Starbucks and someone films it and now I'm on X for the rest of my life.

Like all of that stuff is quite scary and it's holding people back from trying, from going out there, from getting rejected and especially young men. Now, as you said, we're getting everything sort of, all these young men are getting everything behind a screen. It's perceived to be, to get everything behind a screen, but I can tell you a real life relationship in the real world with a woman.

Dave: a hundred percent. And I mean, when you look at both sides, especially even when it comes to dating, right? Either, you know, for example, you're a homosexual. You're a heterosexual, or if you're lesbian or whatever, you know what, you're in between the rainbow bucket. You know, being able I, and I've noticed this, I think like the key factors is being able to be vulnerable, being able to be communi, like have good communication skills. And a New Yorker, be a little fucking gutsy.

Aaron Machbitz: Mm-hmm.

Aaron Machbitz: Hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, if you're looking for a, a real lifelong partnership, you're looking for a wife, you're looking for a husband in that regard, that's a serious matter. There's no more important decision you can ever make in your life than that right there. I mean, my wife is the single greatest thing that's ever happened to me.

She saved my life. Uh, and now we have a son together. What a fucking miracle. But I, I, I wouldn't have created the space in my life if I hadn't made a decision, like I'm making the decision that I want to be married. Um, because I was not acting that way in my life. I was doing, you know, I was closing the loop on being a degenerate, you know, I was coming out of being a professional wrestler and traveling the world and doing all sorts of things.

Dave: to get back to you on

Aaron Machbitz: And that, that's a, that's an interesting question, right?

Because if you look at yourself in the mirror, have you showered today? Do you have personal hygiene? Have you went to the gym? Do you have prospects? Are you able to financially provide for someone? Can you physically provide for someone? Women wanna made to feel safe, but not just physically safe, they wanna be felt emotionally safe and all these sorts of things.

Are you the type of person that can provide that? Now, you don't have to have all of these things right now, in this moment because like a sports team, women do draft on potential. They love to see potential. And that's important. If you're putting in the work, you're not gonna, if you're 26 years old, you're not gonna have everything all figured out.

What values you bring to the table, what values you want them to bring to the table, because you can easily parse people out on a first date if they don't bring the values that you represent. I mean, I wanted my wife to bring stability into my life. I wanted her to bring peace. I wanted her be to be supportive of my dreams and goals.

You know, those are the, those are some of the most important things. I wanted her to be Jewish. Right. I like those are the, so if, if the person that I was dating didn't bring those values, okay, you're a very nice human, but onto the next. Now, if I was in the day and age where I was just out there getting after it, I would've explored that, but that's not where my intentionality lies.

And so if you are a young man, your intentionality is extremely important.

Why don't you act gay?

Aaron Machbitz: What, what does that mean?

Dave: what that means. It's like, why, why do we,

Aaron Machbitz: What does that mean?

Dave: do, why is there such a fear of allowing people that are, for example, masculine gays? Okay. It's a real shit. Some of us are just, Doctors or nurses or technicians or whatever, we're in all different kind of industries.

It's like, and like you said, it's being able to draft yourself through. It's where you can be comfortable with a person you know, a stable, honestly. You need to have a stable foundation in your life to have a serious relationship to start with and then build with that person. Why is this whole persona of materialism that plays, you know what I'm talking about?

It's not just about how the person presents themselves, it's who they are internally as well.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Yeah. The, what you just said about, about being gay reminds me of Douglas Murray. I feel like anytime he points out the fact that he's gay, when I'm speaking to like an, like a pretty flamboyant person, uh, they're like, what? It's like, yeah. 'cause I saw my whole personality. I just like, I'm in a person in the world doing stuff.

You know, um, I, I find that very interesting that we got so obsessed with what people do behind closed doors and who they have sex with. Like, I just, like, I want, I wanna be around people who are interesting, who care about themselves, who care about others who have, I love the word zest, which you have zest for the world, right?

Dave: either.

Aaron Machbitz: not a, that's not a, like, like if, if I were to say, uh, I don't know what's like a val, like a value, Dave, you don't act very honest.

I, I know what that means. Like you're not trustworthy or you're not on, that makes sense. That's a character value. Um, but uh, yeah, it's like I have like, you know, everyone like has some black friends who always get told you don't act black enough. Like, what does that mean? What, what? I don't, I don't, not really.

I don't follow that. Like, this is me, this is who I am. I, I got like, this is how, who I represent in the world and this is who I like. This is my authentic, like, I don't know.

Dave: for those people to meet black people in Manchester, uk. I just,

Aaron Machbitz: Those people are awesome,

Dave: awesome. And are you gonna say, well, they don't, they don't act black. They happen to be black, but they're British. drink in

Aaron Machbitz: right?

Dave: they work in manufacturing companies, like

Aaron Machbitz: And they have awesome accents.

I'm like, I'm sorry. Like when it comes to British people, they get an award for the best drinker

Aaron Machbitz: Dave, uh, a little known fact about me is that my wife is British.

Dave: She probably out drinks you.

Aaron Machbitz: When we used to drink. Uh, we did pretty good together, but there, there's no more alcohol being consumed in our home.

Dave: wonder, I

Aaron Machbitz: Uh,

Dave: Oh,

Aaron Machbitz: yeah. Uh, but her brother, she has a brother. His name is Scott and he has a girlfriend who's from Manchester. And her accent is the best. It's the best. 'cause my wife's British accent is a bit watered down now 'cause she's been in America for so long.

So anytime we go somewhere, I tell, I tell people she has a fake British accent 'cause it's funny and it gets a laugh. And now she's like, she's like, she's like, uh, sort of annoyed with me 'cause she knows that's the only joke I have. 'cause it's worked so many times that I keep saying it over and over again.

Dave: Oh,

Aaron Machbitz: Um,

Dave: where,

Dave: she's South England.

Aaron Machbitz: 30 minutes outside of there called Bushy. It's our place where she lives or her family still lives.

Dave: By the way, that is an interesting thing about, especially with um, when you're dealing with British people, when they come to the states, the more north northern they are, no matter how try how hard they try. They always have a British accent. Like

Aaron Machbitz: Mm-hmm.

Dave: take a person that's from Blackpool that's been living there since they were a baby, you know, and pull that shit out.

Like that is staying in them for the rest of their life. But like when you do like people living in like South Hampton, you know, or London or that area or Sanford, it's a whole different story.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. The funniest part is with her British accent. She doesn't even know how to say our son's name. Right. 'cause my son's name is Asher and British people can't say ours. So,

Dave: it's Asha.

And my wife was like, Asha. And the doctor just did not click. She was like, oh my God, that's such a unique name. I've never heard that before. And I was like, bro, it's Asher.

Dave: it's not Aja b Butterfield. Okay. This is completely different person. Oh

Aaron Machbitz: I can't believe I'm roasting. I'm roasting my wife on this podcast, but that's fine. It's good for her.

Dave: Again, like that kind of keys into play as well as we're, when you have relationships with people, whether in your case, you know, whether it be romantic or non-romantic, there are things that you learn to love about that person. You know, like I have a very good friend of mine that she has a tend, sorry, excuse me. They have a tendency of driving me crazy at times, and we just get into these little pissy fights, you know? They're from Brooklyn. Like I'm from Rockland County, like I'm upstate. They're like this, this city. So like we just clash back and forth and usually like, we usually land on 'em.

Aaron Machbitz: When you spend enough time with someone, you can pick out sort of anything, uh, and focus on it. And like, you know, I think my wife chews loud, so Right. I point that out almost every time she eats, but she doesn't chew loud. She chews like a normal person like everyone else chews, like, especially when she's eating something really, really, really fucking crunchy.

And like, one of the advices that I got to keep a a, a marriage or just like a, a partnership for a really long time is like, keep dating one another. 'cause that's when like, it seems so fun. And then like you get married and you have kids and it seems like everything's repeated and it's monotonous and the intimacy goes away.

But like, you keep dating one another, you keep that banter alive, you keep doing the things that created the spark at the beginning. And so hopefully God willing, you know, it can last until one of us, one of us dies. But the banter man is such an important part.

Aaron Machbitz: It is.

Dave: It blinds you sometimes

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, it can. Um, I, I think that's also, that's why it's important to enter. Relationships as one's true self. 'cause sometimes we tend to shapeshift and mold and then we do maybe become friends with that person or get into a partnership with that person. And we have to keep pretending we're this said person.

And that becomes exhausting. Then that person is really not attracted to you, that're attracted to a version of you that's not really you. And now we're gonna do that younger in our life. Like that's just gonna happen. 'cause we don't really know who we are yet. You're not supposed to know who you are.

Like for example, for me, when I was in high school, right? I love WWE E fuck. I still love WWE. E. Fucking, it's the best. And I wore a wrestling shirt to high school every single day. There was two other dudes in my high school who wore a wrestling shirt, and we sat together at lunch and everyone else thought we were a bunch of fucking weirdos.

Great dude. I found the two people who actually liked me. For me, that's sick. That's awesome. That's the best feeling in the world. You don't need 712 people to like you. You need like one or two people who really like fuck with you in the most pure sense. And like you like turtles. Like turtles fire you up.

You can find a, a group of people who love that same shit who go out and hunt for turtles, have a YouTube channel who talk about it. Like that's the best stuff. And you can only find those people when you get really honest about what you do. Like, and I got really honest that I love WWE e. Doesn't matter if someone called me fake, dude, that shit's gay, I don't give a fuck, dude.

And our boys are gonna grow up together. 'cause my son will be about five weeks, five weeks older than him. Like that's the coolest. And they're gonna watch WWE together. We're gonna take him to Monday Night Raw when they come to Dallas, all the four of us. Like that's a cool thing.

Dave: dressing up as

Aaron Machbitz: Oh yeah dude, let's go. I dressed up as the Power Ranger for, for uh, my, uh, Halloween about eight years in a row.

So I'm giving him a Power Rangers vibe. I'm a big superhero guy,

Dave: Power Rangers.

Aaron Machbitz: We will be watching Batman and Superman and, but like, there's nothing better than that. Me and my buddy Tanner watch wrestling growing up. Now our sons are gonna watch it growing up, like that's a vibe, only because we were super honest about what we really, really liked.

Dave: Whoa.

Aaron Machbitz: know,

Dave: You

Aaron Machbitz: uh, actually it wasn't, it wasn't as, wasn't as bad back then. It wasn't as bad back then.

Antisemitism is much worse now.

Dave: No. You know

Aaron Machbitz: So anyways,

Dave: really funny you bring that up because I run into so many times. people think I'm Hispanic or I'm like, I'm Latino. And I gotten to a point where when somebody starts speaking to me in Spanish, I just literally respond. I'm like, and they're just like, what? So confused. reason like I get in that mindset and attitude is like, there's so much more to me than that. You know, like we were talking before, like the exterior, like Yeah, you know, I'm Jewish. Yeah, I'm Sephardic. Yeah, I'm gay and fabulous and gorgeous. Yes girl. But there's all of these other things that are about me, like you said, like you know, your passion and love for wwe.

Aaron Machbitz: Germany's my favorite country.

Dave: Germany. Anybody that like hates German cars, just do better fucking maintenance and make more money. Okay, don't buy a Mercedes CLA two 50 and come back and be like, oh my God, it's a piece of Garp.

Shut up. We know that you leased it for 1 99 and put down $3,000 you couldn't even afford on 16 cards.

Aaron Machbitz: Get fired up, Dave, get fired up.

Dave: hate, I'm like, that's like my pet peeve of the day is Mercedes. C-L-A-C-L-A. Two 50 drivers. Ugh.

Aaron Machbitz: I've never been, I've never been a car guy. So you have to, uh, you have to bestow some wisdom on me.

That's just fact of life. Now in the c supposedly mid-tier, there's this piece of garbage called the CA two 50. really just an A class. It's a cheap garbage Mercedes. You could probably get better money just buying a Toyota XLE at that point. like a nice, like Toyota Camry and just the people that own them, just bitch, just complain and they bitch and it just drives me crazy.

Aaron Machbitz: That's funny. What is your, what's your ultimate car that you have to, are you gonna have to have

Dave: Um, does it have to be new or can it be old?

Aaron Machbitz: whatever, whatever floats your fancy

Aaron Machbitz: sounds sweet.

Dave: You should definitely check it up, Ben. It's a really, it, like there's a, there's something about something that has value to you. You know, we like to put price tags and I wanted to get into this. It's like we like to put price tags on everything, and there's a certain value of where you have something that means something to you.

Aaron Machbitz: You're never gonna, um, you're never gonna regret having more good memories. You know, and it comes to, back to this money piece we were talking about earlier. Yes, you need money to do certain things, but you can figure it out. You can figure it out. Like you don't gotta fly first class, you don't gotta stay in the nicest hotels, right?

Again, back to back to your deathbed, you're laying on your deathbed. You're about to take your last breath. You're gonna be like, oh, fuck yeah, dude. That concert I went to with Dave, I remember that. That was awesome. I'm glad I said yes to that. 'cause I was leaning on saying, no, you know, I'm glad I did that thing, or I went on that trip.

You know, that backpacking thing I did was amazing. I explored myself and who I wanted to be, and it gave me time and space to open up my mind and to be still, and all these types of things, or whatever the case may be. It's like that's what it's about. I mean, Harvard did an 85 year, very comprehensive, 85 year study on how to live the good life, and they come up with two things.

Again, great relationships don't mean you have super close relationships with every person you meet ever in life. No. It's like one, two, or three people max. Because relationships are hard. They take work, they take effort, and Right. If you have that and your health man, I mean, imagine being like. All of us think about this when we're sick.

When we're sick, we're like, damn, I wish I could have my health back. Damn, I wish I felt better. Right? Well start getting proactive with it. Now, what can you do every day? Move a little bit to eat a little bit better, to sleep a little bit better, to think a little bit better. Okay. What relationships can you nurture?

Are there some conversations that you're avoiding because they're hard and they might be uncomfortable? Well, you start brushing that stuff under the rug, like Dr. Jordan Peterson says, eventually that dragon's gonna burn your fucking house down, right? Right now it's a little flame. Okay, let's attack it.

But man, do I have full agency over my health? For the most part, there's gonna be some. Sometimes things just happen, right? Sometimes people get cancer and all that. I understand majority of us though, have control over our health and we definitely, definitely have control of our relationships and how great we can make those by the effort that we put in.

And I think those are gonna be the most important things.

Dave: Yeah, they are. And flip side of that, you do have in life, and I have had this happen to me, where you have relationships that. Are those one or two or three, you know, and you spend a lot of time with these people. You know, sometimes you move different places, even in my instance, you still communicate back and forth.

This other person wasn't even caring for themselves. continuously put themselves in

Aaron Machbitz: Something.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: it's them.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, dude, that's sort of the, the peril though of being a caring human being. I see this a lot with, with in the mental health space, right? It's like you have someone who's very mentally unwell and they refuse maybe to get help or get their medication or whatever the case may be, and the person that loves them is just trying to basically save their life for them, and that just doesn't work, right?

The person has to make the ultimate choice to get the help to do the thing, to start the whatever, right? If you're, uh, addicted to something to go to rehab or whatever the case may be, right? It only works that way. Yes, we, as the people on the outside can love and support and be kind, but it's like this difference between.

That's a toxic em. That's very toxic Empathy. What's real love and really empathetic and very rational is they come over to your house and they say, Hey Aaron, I need some money, some more for, to do whatever. You know what they're buying. You say, no, I'm not doing that for you anymore. Now, there's a, there's a chance when they walk out that door that something horrible happens to them, that they do overdose on something or they do whatever, whatever, right?

But that's the best thing you can possibly do for them because you cannot save them. They have to save themselves, but they need that push, that knowing like, this person actually does care about me. They're not enabling my behavior. I've talked to many therapists who said, part of the job is that I'm gonna lose people to suicide, unfortunately.

Uh, and that's really hard when you're looking across someone who you really, really, really love, who like you really love, and you just see them deteriorating. And, uh, there's not much else you can do except say, I, I just can't, I can't help you anymore. I can't go down with you, but I'm here no matter what.

Like, and so that's, that's a really hard situation. I see that a lot.

Dave: think it also has to do with addiction because when you, let's be real with ourselves, okay? Living in the world, world is not easy. a lot of

Aaron Machbitz: Mm.

But in reality, they're in that situation 'cause they don't want to, they don't wanna experience our reality. They wanna live in. I think the best way to put it is how they did it in a interview with a vampire. You know, you're in that, you're in that phase, in that phase world, you're in that dream world. We're not experiencing it. So I, I, you know, it's, it's hard, but like, at the end of the day, like the person's come back to reality.

And I, I know. Reality sucks. Nobody's saying it doesn't, it comes with a lot of problems.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, but it comes with a lot of joys too.

Dave: You balance

They just want the pain to end. And there's a huge distinction there that has to be made. Yes, they make the permanent choice to end their life, and they are, they do actually die, but they've found nothing up until this point that can help their pain go away. And they, they don't know what else to do, and they feel like this is the only choice they have left.

And so, again, when you think about it in that regard, it sort of debunks the myth that suicide is selfish. It's not selfish, uh, that's a low resolution take on something. And I, I just, uh, have a problem allowing that. Because it, it disrespects what my sister went through. What people get to at the end of their life when they see no way out and they're in the trenches and they're in their own hell, is that very thing that I don't know what else to do.

I need this pain to end and this is the only way I know how. And so, um, you're right, they, they're trying to escape something, um, something that's potentially temporary, but they make a permanent solution for it. Um, and so I think that's an interesting point that you make.

It's possible that that person's brain is just, it's not working anymore or functioning

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, I mean, yeah, it goes back to sort of the, um, the other point I was making about, you know, getting mental health resources and mental health education with young people. It's the same people for, it's the same way for adults. We gotta be proactive with the way we think about our mental health, um, so that when the hardship does come, we've armored ourselves up.

And I think that's really important too.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Yeah. It's why I, uh, created the shirt that you're wearing. So the message on the back is very clear to everyone,

Dave: Yeah,

Aaron Machbitz: right?

Dave: it's nice.

I mean, we talked about being born like one in a trillion, right? And so knowing that it's like a hundred percent fact that the world is better with you in it, the world is a better place, a more unique place, a cooler place with everything that you have to offer. Doesn't matter if it's your mistakes, your faults, your imperfections, your successes, everything.

The world is better because you're in it. And, uh, when we can start from that place, you know, Brene Brown is a famous Texan. She's also like a vulnerability researcher. And, uh, she says that if you assume. Everyone's doing the best they can. It makes your life a little bit better. And I think that's true.

Aaron Machbitz: Oh yeah.

Dave: Normal. I cannot stand normal people. Hell no.

Aaron Machbitz: What do they talk about?

Dave: Normal people, I don't know.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: I don't know. I don't wanna

Aaron Machbitz: I don't know. I'd be,

Dave: Probably

Aaron Machbitz: I'd be singing weird songs to my sons, like random shit's coming outta my mouth. I'm like, if anyone knew what was happening in here about what I'm saying, it's like, doesn't even make just like gibberish bullshit, you know? But it's great.

Dave: rant, rant at

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: in the morning to calm your fucking kid from crying.

Aaron Machbitz: Oh God, it doesn't work.

Dave: Indian flute, put it on a mask. Getting out the sombrero,

Aaron Machbitz: I'm dancing around, you know, I haven't thrown him up and down yet. Apparently that's bad for his brain when he is five weeks old, but we'll see.

Dave: were kids, our parents did shit to us. Like today we be like considered like physical abuse. Like back then it was just like normal shit, you know? It's like you throw your kid on

Raise great kids will be just fucking fine.

Dave: It's true because it's,

Aaron Machbitz: It won't be.

Dave: a learning curve. I mean, the, there's no such thing as a manual. You know, it used to be back in the day, like with my mom generation, like they had Dr. Spock. Okay. That was their manual to raising kids. The truth is, is like there is no goddamn manual for raising kids. every single person, you know?

Aaron Machbitz: Nailed it.

Dave: it.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, that's the juice right there. That's a good dad right there. Respect to that guy.

Dave: But you know what? Like I'm sure nobody taught him that. He,

Aaron Machbitz: Just figured it out.

Dave: He figured out like that was his way of calming down his daughter.

Aaron Machbitz: There's a great book called Everything is Figureoutable. Uh, and just on the title alone, that's true. Well, let's say 99% of things are figureoutable like in an everyday life. But again, if we take that mindset and that approach, and also at the same time assume everyone is doing the best they can, we're we're gonna live a better life.

I promise you, you're gonna live a better life.

Dave: We'll, it's just being able to realize that just because today didn't work out, you always got tomorrow. Tomorrow doesn't

Aaron Machbitz: That's right.

Dave: out. Remember the accomplishments that you did yesterday?

Dave: Um, before we wrap up, I wanted to honestly touch base on your organization, your work. We've, we've talked about like literally we met on a TikTok live. you not, this is the shit that you

Aaron Machbitz: Dick.

Dave: Um, your, and just kind of like where people can find you a little bit more about your work and just all that jazz, all that wonderful goodness.

Aaron Machbitz: spiel.

Dave: Yes.

Aaron Machbitz: You got it.

Dave: good.

Aaron Machbitz: Um, well, most importantly, I have a podcast. My podcast is called Something for Everybody. Um, you can find it on every major podcast platform. Um, we have, we have, uh, 420 episodes. We almost a thousand reviews on Spotify. Were ranked in like the top. 120 on Apple podcasts. So it's pretty good, pretty good deal.

Um, and then, yeah, if you wanna check out my, uh, my nonprofit where the shirt that Dave has on is from Wear This Hat that I'm wearing, it's called You Are Loved, you can go to ur loved life.com. It's all connected to my podcast. It's why I have a lot of conversations about mental health and things of that nature.

And uh, those are the most important things I'm doing. But if you Google my name Aaron Mitz, I'm sure a bunch of stuff will come up and, uh, it'll be interesting what you find. So there you go.

Aaron Machbitz: If you find some, let me know. Screenshot those babies.

Dave: Oh my God.

Aaron Machbitz: fire 'em up.

Dave: must have

Aaron Machbitz: I can't,

Dave: somewhere on like Blockster or somewhere.

Aaron Machbitz: I can't be canceled now. All of my businesses are my own. So

Dave: You're un That's even

Dave: You know, I think somebody could have smelled that a mile away. like Diddy, you know, like there were signs. There were signs. I love where people are like, oh my bro. There, there were, there were fucking signs everywhere. Like if, if, if

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: if you took like that UV light, you know, they do in the hotel shows on like H cheat TV and just scan the room, you'd see like Siemens.

Aaron Machbitz: Nasty,

Dave: stains everywhere, bro.

Aaron Machbitz: nasty.

Dave: on the pillows, on the carpet,

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: uh. God, I will make sure, I'm gonna put all of your links to your stuff, uh, below I, I'm a little bit of a rebel, so this is gonna be on some, uh, Substack and rumble. Um, 'cause

Aaron Machbitz: I love Substack.

Dave: is awesome and people could subscribe.

Dave: do

Aaron Machbitz: is the best social media platform we have.

Dave: page?

Aaron Machbitz: I do,

Dave: I'll definitely, I'll tag you onto the post once this episode goes out. That way we can share the love and

Aaron Machbitz: yeah.

Dave: 'cause to be honest, that's what we kind of did today. You know, we kind of awareness and openness and it's okay. You know, I, I, I think like people that are struggling or going through difficult time, I think the both of us were really able to give out like a good understanding that life isn't always supposed to be ev easy.

And we, we run into really hard shit like losing a parent, losing your sister, like. We're not the only ones. There's a lot of people that have gone through shit and it's like, you need a place to turn to. There are those people in your life that you can, and don't be afraid to. Don't feel like you need to carry all this shit on your, you know, for us Jews, like we carry the matis, leading mat Trium.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: be that guy.

Dave: Yeah.

Aaron Machbitz: To carry the burden together. Um, and you're definitely not alone in your struggle. Like the beauty of being human is that we go through complex stuff and we find our way through it. Uh, and that's a, that's a joy. So just know where you're at right now, right?

You've already gotten through a hundred percent of your worst days, and that's a fucking beautiful thing. And so whatever's coming up next, might as well rock and roll with it. And you're just gonna be, keep coming the new and best version of yourself until you take your very last breath and you lay down, you're like, yep, I fucking did it.

I gave it my all. And that was awesome. What a ride. And that's it. That's all we can ask for.

Dave: and to your point man, it's as ac CD, C put it, it's a long way to the top if you wanna rock it. I love a

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Ac, DC,

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Come on,

Dave: on board,

Aaron Machbitz: come on. TikTok live. Oh, geez.

Dave: to God, like there are people that put in crazy shit on the comment section and Aaron's just like, okay, let's go.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah, dude, it's, it's, it's pretty fun. It's pretty vi some shit is pretty vile though, man. Like,

Dave: I've noticed

Aaron Machbitz: some wild stuff. But, uh. I finally got a moderator in my chat. So some of the stuff that's like really Nazi, sort of Holocaust related that I don't want to speak on gets removed. And then now people are, since I've been removing them or muting them, they now message me afterwards and saying, dude, you're fucking lame for removing me.

I'm like, dude, don't put like weird dotted swastikas in the chat, bro. That's like not a question. That's like nothing, you're not saying anything of like of substance where we can have a conversation about it. So I'll pretty much answer anything. Uh, but not that stuff.

Aaron Machbitz: Oh yeah. That one happens all the time.

Dave: it was like, it was hilarious. 'cause I was like, yo, I don't think this man is gay. You know? And it's just like, people are like fucking disgusting sometimes, you know? It's just like.

Aaron Machbitz: My favorite comments 'cause they happen every night. I think it's a bot that comes in, but they, they say a jerk mate comment and a grinder comment. They're my favorite ones to read 'cause it's hilarious. They break up sort of the seriousness of the conversation. I get to laugh and they're like, bro, I can't find you one jerk mate anymore.

Why'd you, why'd you block me? I'm like, fuck dude, my bad. I found someone new. It's like, I just think it's hilarious

Dave: Oh God. Oh my God. I, you know what, like, again, that, that's a caveat of social media. Like you just, you gotta deal with the crazy people.

Aaron Machbitz: if you put yourself out there, man, you can't, it's hard to like get upset when like, weird shit happens. 'cause that's, that's the place, it's the internet,

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. That when it, it does really get really weird. It got really weird at one moment when someone. I took a pic, got a picture of my mom off of Facebook, made it their profile picture and impersonated my mom on the TikTok live in the chat. That was weird.

Dave: Oh my god,

Aaron Machbitz: That was weird.

Dave: as fuck. That's like a Twilight Zone episode, right? I mean modern.

Aaron Machbitz: Like that's a lot of effort just to be like, Hey, it's your son, it's your mom. I'm like, my mom doesn't have TikTok. Nice picture. You got off Facebook.

Dave: And my mom had recently, when she was leaving to Israel, this guy from like somewhere in Africa was like FaceTiming her like a hundred times and like sent a picture of her picture with candles around it and was like saying he's like putting a voodoo hex or something. it was just like bizarre. Like they, it was like almost as if they knew we were going to the airport that they chose to do that. You know how

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah.

Dave: is. So strange.

Dave: right man. Oh my God. Oh, listen, thank you so much for seriously taking the time and I hope anybody that's listening to this, you gain something out of this because man, let's get conversations like this.

Aaron Machbitz: Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate it very much. Thanks for having me. Happy to do it. Uh, anytime.

Dave: And to anybody out there, if you wanna check on more of the podcast, you can find us at Loss in the Groove Pod. Like I said, we are on Rumble and Substack and you can find us everywhere and anywhere you listen to podcasts. We'll catch you on the next one. Alright, peace out. Yeah.