Gracie & TJ DeFalco on Volleyball, Sacrificing for Success, & the Road to LA 2028

we get to the olympics we had this beautiful gymnasium in in the center of tokyo get in there it's like 17 18 000 capacity there's not one person in there i thought it was going to be you can't hear because there's so much noise there's music going on there's fans you know right behind the bench yelling and screaming trying to they're fans on the other team and they're trying to get interrupt the coaches messages and get in your head and it's just 14 guys squeaking on a volleyball court against 14 guys squeaking on a volleyball court and you hear all the scoops no how did you handle that today's guest has competed the highest level of volleyball on just about every stage imaginable he's a two-time olympian and olympic bronze medalist a two-time national champion at long beach state and a four-time all-american his collegiate career was so dominant that he was later inducted into the long beach state hall of fame since college he's taken his career around the world competing professionally overseas while continuing to represent team you on the international stage but today we're going beyond the medals the championships and the highlight reels we're talking about what it really takes to reach his level the pressure and sacrifice that comes with it life as a professional athlete overseas and the person behind the player tg defalco welcome to athletes after hours wow thanks for having me so so pleasure to be here oh so happy we can make this happen this man is always so busy but you married my best to you so we had to get you in here yeah i mean it was only right that was the kind of the right of passage and i only did that just to come here on this podcast so i'm glad we're here together i'm so excited to get into it because i know obviously you from the last four years but there's so much lore you have a lot of family lore you've got a lot of academic and athletic lore so i say we dive into it but starting off like how did you get into volleyball and what was it like growing up from the very beginning um my parents have always kind of been on the very athletic they my dad and mom played softball mom played basketball in college my dad did every sport that he possibly could uh within the realm of his father he wouldn't let him play any organized sports but he would do all the sports for recreation friends and all that kind of stuff um so they were the ones that kind of got the kids uh into athletics in general but then also they would go i don't even know every friday night or whatever over to the local ymca and play in the beach court with 12 on 15 and it was just a just a scramble kind of um just a fun volleyball setting and that's where it started i was like seven years old six or seven oh something like that also can we please just take a moment he's literally in chris girl applesauce because he saw me do it and he's like i can do that this man is six five so he did he can do it are you comfortable though yeah sure that's great well i did also hear recently that you moved away from your family while you were pursuing volleyball so can we talk about this this is crazy like you lived away from your family for how long why did you do it and also you have like the biggest family ever so was it difficult to do that well yeah so we'll get into a little bit of the family size i have uh six siblings so i'm one of seven um so it makes it pretty difficult to do anything travel wise so we drove cross country from missouri to california and it was about a 29 hour drive yeah that we did we spaced out and well whatever over the three days um so having that amount of people with seven children and doing all that stuff and figuring out activities for them to do and yeah your mom's a saint yeah my mom's the savior um so doing all that with seven kids nine people total in the household and then we had our cousin's household that was with us and and kind of living in our house with so we had like 15 to 16 people in one house which is like holy shit absurd it's a small army but it was what we did that was all we knew and we were like all right let's do it let's buckle up and that's where we lived in southern california for the beginning stages of it because the volleyball was just better out there we didn't move here for volleyball oh it was never a thing it was a recreational fun thing it was like the move uh my dad's company he started a company with his buddies were on the wave of internet and the towers and the cell towers and the 2g and the 3g back then and all that stuff so they did that's why we moved to california because it was a big booming market as you would imagine in that time frame so then i kind of started a little bit after that and then um right before high school was when my sister my sisters were doing volleyball they'd go to clubs and my mom was a coach my older brother was a coach and so it was kind of like kind of infused into the family core like we're gonna go to practice we're gonna go and i wasn't old enough to stay at home so i had to go along and i would sit there for the entirety of a practice with my mom and my brother were the coaches and just hit a ball against the wall and that's what i would do that was my entertainment that's how i we didn't have ipads we didn't have phones but i would hit a ball against the wall for two and a half hours three nights a week wow so yeah you got your reps in oh yeah i was starting from a young age ten thousand hours baby come on so from there then it transitioned into oh i can actually do this like on an organized thing when i finally started playing club and then family let me go do go to a public high school situation and by that time it had already been seven years that we'd lived in california okay eight years maybe and it was getting the prices with everything was going up and the job went down and the company so it's like it's it was difficult so then my family moved back to missouri okay um and so then that's from my sophomore year of high school that's when i lived alone not alone i wasn't alone but i was without my family yeah my family moved back you literally lost your entire support system yeah yeah and they just they they supported you though to be able to stay out there and kind of take care of yourself a little bit yeah because they knew that it was going to set you up for like good recruiting and stuff oh that was never the mindset it was more like you want to do it well we'll figure it out you know kind of thing and so my dad would go back and forth to mom and the rest of the kids and then come out to california and hang out and do stuff with me for a month a couple months at a time i would live with a family friend and we figured all that stuff out um so it was more of like i got thrashed into public setting public space peers public school all that kind of stuff and then my family left and so then i was like okay gotta figure it out it's like 15 years old holy shit yeah what were like the pros and cons of that well pro i i guess in in a con kind of way was that there was a forced early development of maturity it was like i had all the freedom to do whatever it is that i wanted and i was never a rebellious or a very adventurous person but i was fully at at the mast of my own decision making oh yeah it's a lot of freedom so it's like what do i do what i want to do kind of thing and um all i wanted to do it turns out was play video games and play volleyball so it was pretty easy there you go kept you out of trouble that's right i love that yeah well obviously when you got from the high school stuff when would when did you start getting recruited um i started getting recruited my junior year okay sophomore junior year of high school okay and then did you know that long beach state was like the goal or did you have any other schools in mind or were you just kind of like i want to go to this one place i will in one step back i didn't even know that volleyball was a thing and a profession or a career or any of that stuff i was playing it because i enjoyed it i love that so the passion was just always your purpose yeah so then my sophomore year um coaches started to have conversations with my dad because they can't talk to me yeah and that's how the old rules used to be and this is a totally different thing now and they started talking to my dad and i was like i can go somewhere for this kind of thing and get paid heck yeah well then that came a little later yeah paid to go to school for sure yeah but being paid to do it as a career and as a i was like that there's no way that that's actually a thing yeah um and then we kind of got discovering all that and then it was oh long beach state's gonna whatever they're interested they're gonna go on a visit we have to go to their campus because that's the only way they can legally it was the only way that they could legally talk to you yeah and i had a visit planned to ucla and i went to long beach and it was just like no i'm good wow it just felt like home yeah i just everything from the coaching staff the way that i got into their structure love that was so closely knit to what i was and grow grew up and was already familiar with so i was like yeah this is where i want to be yeah didn't use any of my other official visits i committed my sophomore year of high school no way it was like yeah i'm done verbally committed so it wasn't like whatever but was like yeah i'm good i know where i'm going and just didn't even use my just trust your gut yeah i love that yeah that's cool that was like your first ever visit as well yeah it's kind of fate yeah it was it was it was a lot of fun and it was it just everything kind of there was no format of like how i was expecting it to go or how i wanted or needed it to go it was just like let's go do this and see how it is and it was like yeah okay great i'm good it clearly paid off yeah right because your boy won not one but two national championships yeah i actually didn't know that which is crazy like i was doing research on obviously like your accolades and stuff and i asked logan your wife for like some accolades and i was like i didn't know you you won too so what years did you win your national championships um all four years we went to the final four and we won the last two sick yeah that's a fun way to bow out of your college career yeah it was nice because it was the my first two years kind of came um into this with the realm of like oh wow we're appearing in the final four like this is pretty big deal this is pretty awesome yeah and lost to the same team both years which is frustrating that's annoying yeah and then it was like i started getting offers from professionals professional teams and i was like okay i'm good i'm going because you think about it coming from a kid of one of seven yeah or one of six sorry not very much money coming from missouri to california and then the family having to go back because of financial whatever it's not a smart decision to stay in california yeah to then going to college being lucky enough to have that all paid for and living that realm and doing that and then all of a sudden i get a professional offer to earn money to go play pro i'm like yeah this is the greatest thing ever i get playing my sport for money like yeah yeah literally the dream i'm out and then it was like then there's a bunch of conversations that i had with my dad and the coach alan knight so you were gonna leave before your junior year yeah i was gonna leave my after my sophomore year oh my god yeah crazy yeah so then yeah wait how do you decide not to do that well a lot of the the conversations were the maturation asked around that yeah you're not ready imagine you here in college and i was a very interesting person worth having fun it was my first priority um and imagine that in a country where you don't speak the language and like you're just you could get into like not into trouble but like you don't know anything that's going on yeah but with all the freedom and all the money now that you're making it's like that you're not ready for that yeah it's a lot thrown at a kid yeah but you're not even yeah so it was that was your frontal lobe was not developed 100 100 and i was like i it took me a couple months to really accept that i'm like okay you're probably right like i probably should probably should uh stick it out and the other conversation was i because i came into the recruiting class of about five five guys okay and it was the number one recruiting class in the country and all that stuff blah blah blah um but i'm not ready for that i'm not ready for that i'm not ready for that i'm not to start something with them and to finish it with them i love that so then you kind of started realizing okay i'm gonna put all this effort energy into being the best leader and the best upperclassmen in order to like essentially clench a national championship is that kind of like what you took on with your you know your peers i didn't take that on a role of being a leader for them i took on the role of being a leader for myself and figuring out what it was that i was going to do and i think that's the most important aspect and outlook of if i'm going to do this the right way yeah kind of thing and that that was it because it was all my decision we had lots of conversations with my dad and my coach but it was more of um am i really going to accept that am i ready to do this and it was like i had to be hard hard conversations with yourself and say no probably not yeah probably better to just stick it out grow and the amount that i grew in those two years from making that decision was net was the reason i am where i am now literally astronomical oh the amount of growth that i had from my sophomore year to my senior is like i didn't recognize my freshman year version like it's i think there is something to say about being on a team having a culture especially if it's a good one yeah like the benefit that you get and i don't know i mean obviously you've jumped into new teams and new atmospheres and new cultures but like your college culture is like core you know it's what builds you it's your foundation it's what continues to drive that and especially when you're able to go pro it's like you take all those things with you so it's cool you're able to like develop those skills and everything in order to kind of set yourself up for success so then how was winning the natty with your team it was awesome fucking everything that you could imagine that was um literally so surreal oh yeah i mean it was like i mentioned we'd we'd gone to two final fours prior and the sophomore class that we came in as freshmen or i guess the junior class they were all of our peers from club and i went to club with a lot of them but it was where all the guys that we looked up to were our with the juniors when we came in as freshmen and all that i'd say the big three of the recruiting class came in um and took all the starting spots so it was all three freshmen playing on the court with three seniors wow and so it was like there's a little animosity going on in the first couple months the first practices and whatever because it was like a senior lost his spot to a junior or a freshman yeah so it was like kind of thing and we made it to the final four and those guys were there riding with us the entire time and then the second same thing happened that my sophomore year and then it was their fifth year our junior year and it was finally we finally got it done um and won the championship and so then it was like a perfect sendoff for all those guys that were our peers and our look people that we looked up to we got them a national championship and then they got to leave college yeah so that was uh so they were grateful for you at the end of the day even though they kind of low-key hated you at the beginning it was a little tough but then after the first couple of college parties we were fine yeah you're like come on man i'll get you a beer yeah yeah i love it and then so when you transitioned into pro what was that obviously you kind of mentally prepared for it when you were a sophomore when it was actually time how are you feeling about it all it really did what was very helpful for me and the development of understanding international lifestyle and international play is all of my exposures with the national team because that's a mimicry of playing a professional season yeah of doing the three months where you go overseas and you travel to five different countries the national team during the summer yeah you live like a very international competition yeah yeah yeah so that the national team helped a lot with that okay okay this is what it's like to go to a hotel and play a match outside and this is the preparation and you don't speak any language if you want to go outside and get food and this and that and so you got to figure things out so that was like a little bit of a precursor to see but then then when you hopped into the big dog which is that an eight and a half month season it's like okay so now you move there yeah like it's a shell shock culture shock everything everything yeah before we get into that though how do you feel about being inducted into the hall of fame because that happened recently and that's really cool yeah that was thank you that was something that i wasn't really expecting as and i would assume it's similar to the idea of when i kind of started getting into volleyball i didn't know that it was a thing to have this as a career i didn't know if it was a thing to go further and i was doing it because i loved it and so then that's similar on the topic of being inducted into the hall of fame it was just it's such an honor and it's such a great thing um to feel that there is recognition for the things that i did while i was just having fun and it was just it's very meaningful um and i'm very grateful that's awesome yeah you're inspiring so many people to to understand that like yes i think especially now i love that you keep speaking on and touching on like the passion that drove you because i think we've lost the fucking plot when it came to like the nil stuff it's like now people are going to colleges for the money and people are going literally with the idea of like how can i set myself up to make the most amount of money in those four years yeah and i don't think we're doing it for the love of the sport anymore i don't think we're doing it for the commitment to a team like people are picking up and going to different schools now based on the check yeah that's being written and it sucks it's honestly like so disheartening to see and i hope that they find a way to like put boundaries on a little bit more so we can reel it in and focus back on like why we're doing sports yeah and the whole point of it sure yeah there's professional sports for a reason you know yeah but if you think about it we were we had already lost the plot earlier than that with basketball and football because people would go to college for their freshman year yep and then go yeah so now we're bringing that culture into ncaa where it's like we want you to stay here in this this level this domain but now how do we get those people to not leave and go play professional sports so fast we got to pay them and so it's they're they're integrated which i don't i agree with your point of like the integrity of i'm doing it because i love it yeah which and again agree we're not speaking about everybody there's a whole bunch of people in the world but a very high percentage of the people that play sports do it for the love of it yes but then sometimes people are good at something and they're like how do i make the most of this kind of thing um so i from that perspective i understand it of how do we keep these kids in college longer yeah and but then it's all a business mindset there's so many pros then they're generating revenue for themselves and then they're paying the kids but then now they're making it so it's it's all just a big paradox of what do you really want out of this thing you know yeah but i think you continuing to focus on the passion for it it's just i mean that's how i feel too it's like i'm never gonna do something i don't want to do like i'm gonna do what i love and get paid for it and like you managed to make that your reality yeah how is it going how many years are we in now going into the eighth i think eighth year going being pro did i start 20 2019 i started so yeah going to my eighth okay kind of my eighth year that doesn't even feel like a real thing to say but yeah you surpassed your super senior year yeah so now you're just old all right now i'm checking into my covid year i'm just old wow i thought you said there was gonna be no rage bait questions we did not promise that just wait till the rapid fire just wait it's yeah your wife wrote some up so we're gonna rage wait yeah you gave her control of something oh yeah oh my gosh we gave her a role we had to it's logan come on true true yeah just to give some people some backstory i've known logan since i was 12 years old logan is his wife his new wife and he's been with me since i was 12 you guys have been married now for two years yeah about two and a half years okay recently just got publicly married we have to talk about this this is fucking crazy so this kind of does tie into like the induction of the hall of fame yeah but logan calls me and she's like yeah so everyone at long beach state knows that we're married now and i was like huh you guys were like secretly married kind of because like you had to obviously do it for visa reasons yeah and you guys knew you were going to get married obviously eventually it just didn't work out and you guys were like kind of sped things up a little bit yeah and so she's like she had to go take or accept the award on your behalf because you were traveling for you know playing and everything and work and they were like oh yeah logan you know tj's wife is going to be accepting on your behalf and everyone's like wait what she's like yeah so the guy like let the cat out of the bag i don't know how he knew that well that's entirely my fault because he texted me and i was like oh yeah my wife will be there she can pick up the award there and then uh yeah so yeah anyway i'm not shocked that is my fault entirely my fault logan's like well shit anyways it is what it is but you guys are officially well you guys are publicly married yes and that is so exciting and i can't wait to get more into that but obviously going into pro you're what i think what three four years pro and you meet logan and then she's now traveling to poland what every three months or something like i remember when we you all met and like all hung out she was like yeah i have to go to poland i'm like what she's like i just met this guy and like we're kind of hitting it off whatever but i think i'm gonna go to poland and see him and i'm like for what like what's in poland yeah and i'm like why is he in poland that's so random and then there's like the dead of winter too and i'm like what the hell are you gonna do out there no one speaks english like you what are you gonna like read books and she was like oh my god i have to go to poland i'm like what the hell are you gonna do out there no one speaks english like you what the hell are you gonna like read books and she was like oh my god i'm like what the hell are you gonna like read books and she was like oh my god i have to go to poland yeah and i'm like what the hell are you gonna like read books and she kind of walk me through for people that don't know anything about professional indoor volleyball what it's like to be playing overseas and also trying to find like a wife who will have that flexibility and you know have a personal life outside of it when you're in a foreign country that you don't really maybe want to be in or you don't feel like you fit in yeah um for sure uh one of the we've had lots of conversations about this as you could imagine as she started to kind of come with and live with me more um is that under the baseline idea is understanding that you are alone yeah that's at the very base and if you're not okay with that then seriously probably rethink some other things like that at the very baseline you're not going to be have any enjoyment of any of the things you're doing if you don't accept that you're alone baseline second thing is you're going to be uncomfortable because you don't speak the language yeah and you're there for a reason sure and there's there's people that could help you out with that which is an advantage to going off and like if if you were just to pick up and just go live in whatever right now yeah be a totally different experience for sure you have somewhat of a support system because of the you know teams that you're playing for and everything yeah but but all day to day yeah it's like they can't help you with that correct and so one of the especially since i mentioned earlier that like one of my things that are my passions are playing basketball and i'm like i'm gonna play basketball and i'm gonna play basketball and i'm gonna play video games and volleyball and that's all you do when you're overseas living by yourself for nine months yeah you go to practice you eat a meal you come back you take a nap you go to practice and then you play video games like that's all you do it's a very like selfish lifestyle a hundred percent yeah which pros and cons of course there's always pros and cons of all the different things but one of the commerce a lot of the conversations that we had revolved around that of i've done this for six years now when she finally started coming and live with me full-time i've done this for six years now yeah this is like my second nature of just like i'm gonna go to practice i'm gonna come back i'm gonna take a nap in the day and then i'm gonna go back for another practice and then i'm gonna go out and have dinner and then play video games go to bed yeah like that's that's my game that's the routine yeah and then throwing another person into it with her own thing that is also new to this whole aspect was like um come on for practice let's go do something let's talk let's engage i haven't heard anybody speak all day today yeah it's like oh i didn't even think about it from that perspective because that's very real very real this poor little girl has just been sitting by herself all day waiting for you to come home and you're like fuck off i want some goddamn in so many words that's what it was like and it was it was interesting because it was i never thought of it like that it was a huge change in itself can not much changed really of the idea but then i was like oh i have to like re-engage for somebody else because it like what you said it was it is a selfish lifestyle yes you go home you don't have to talk to anybody and you want to go home and you face down the key the family and stuff like that so you have having another person in the mix is like oh you're like fully recalibrate yeah you have to yeah so that's something that i that exact advice that i said like except that you're alone yeah was something's not along those lines but it's something similar to that it was what i had to have a conversation with her about is that except that now you're alone and you don't have friends you don't have family you don't have your connection circle the things you're used to the language that you can't just go to the coffee shop and go shopping you can't just go to the coffee shop and go shopping you can't just go to do this and have all the conversations you can't just go make friends yeah so easily so i'll be your supporting system but i can't be a hundred percent of your supporting system what you think home is yeah so there's got to be some shift and some growth in that mindset i'll be better because i need to be better of you'll be more when i get home for practice let's go do something yeah let's go walk around the mall let's go do this we're finding hobbies that will kind of like fill her cup while simultaneously keeping you at bay with like not you know obviously having to expend too much energy exactly because like two practices a day is insane you're you know playing at your best you're on contract like you're being paid to play yeah like you do have to hold yourself to that standard and like prioritize recovery so how did you guys like navigate that like what you guys end up doing getting into it it was the first couple of months is the hardest part of her adjustment period of like oh my god i'm losing my mind what do i don't have any hobbies yeah yeah yeah poland is with something different and i'm like oh my god i'm losing my mind i'm losing my mind i'm losing my mind i'm losing my mind i'm losing my mind i'm losing my mind and it was a little bit different when in poland i was i was speaking about japan okay this is the first time that she lived full time with true yeah but in poland was a little bit different because what lived there for like three months because she would come for like two and a half months okay and then go home okay okay and then do their thing and hit the reset button and then come back for a couple weeks or something like that so it was like different it was segmented okay for uh exposure into the alone lifestyle but it was different on both parts because when she comes didn't doesn't come for the first three months of season then comes for two months let's say like during christmas or whatever yeah then it's like oh i'm excited for her to be here let's go and then there's no there's no no nothing about oh let's go do this after break let's go do this yeah let's go here let's go out on friday night after the game we'll go out and have some drinks and do this or whatever it was so easy yeah because it was like a new feeling a new thing but then not i'm not i don't want to make it sound negative but then the redundancy of living together all the time of course is like now you're settling into a routine all right yeah yeah and you're kind of having to navigate okay what actually is part of the routine and what's just like this nuance that we're kind of throwing just to like keep ourselves busy yeah 100 and i think too like her thankfully logan is like one of the most independent people i know and she's i think grown so much from this experience like i remember when she first was talking to me about it like i think we were on the phone like on facetime and she was crying to me about how she was just so lonely and like she was you know reading books every day and like she's one of the most outgoing people i know yeah like if we have a party she's the one out till as late as possible she's the last one to leave and so it's like it was really hard for me as a friend to be like are you okay like this is such a hard lifestyle like you know is this guy worth it and like obviously you're worth it and like you've proven that time and time again so i'm glad this all worked out but i remember in the beginning being a little bit nervous being like oh my god this is what her life is gonna look like sure but then you guys obviously you got signed to japan which was a huge deal yeah and this is your biggest contract more pressure but also a completely different environment do you think that this has been a massive positive change based on kind of how you've seen her acclimate to the environment and everything yeah well i mean it every sense of the word it is 100 different yeah there's just so much more to do out there huh that yeah there's way more to do and it's not as cold and frigid as poland is yeah which is in and of itself a bonus so the fact that we're now a month returned yeah and we're like can't wait to go back yeah that's unbelievable that's cool second thing is the fact that she probably enjoys japan more than i do you know literally so so i'm like i hit the jackpot on all fronts no literally i am good like we're going to spend the rest of our lives in japan no you can't spend your whole life okay my volleyball career my volleyball fine all right easy you have to at least pull up a knife for the viewers i can't see she pulled up a knife right underneath it's about to shake me no you can buy me a vacation house out there and i'll come visit okay sounds good i do want to come visit that's been like top of the the to-do list is to go snowboarding out there this season so well we're not going anywhere so whenever you want to get off your ass and come snowboard we'll be there we'll definitely be so fun i think yeah i've heard from every like well-traveled human that japan's one of their top places that they've visited and i think that speaks volumes it's such a cool thing yeah i 100 think japan should be on everybody's bucket list yeah that's sick so how are you feeling now after you know obviously getting settled into japan but then also the olympics are coming up yeah and we haven't talked about your last two olympics do we want to talk about it sure okay let's talk about the first one speaking of japan okay tokyo olympics baby the tokyo olympics um deep side yeah well there's just so many different things so many different perspectives and shifts that went on with that olympics i mean that olympics was from the very beginning the last tournament going in um um well first of all everybody knows that that olympics was pushed back a year yes which is in itself never happened before in history probably so hard mentally as well because you're you have everyone has such like a intricate training plan to prepare for the olympics and then oh by the way actually like you can't peak right now you need to peak a year from now yeah like that's fucked that's so hard all the things right now and you can't do it yeah yeah so that was the first thing and then the the finding out that i made the olympic roster the first the first time was um in itself its own experience its own bubble was that it was uh it was a little it was interesting because it was a little bit spoiled because why my coach we're in the beginning of this month-long 39 days we spent in in a in a we did a similar thing to the nba bubble okay but we did it in the middle of italy where there was three hotels one gym everything's blocked off and nobody can leave the hotel everybody's here they're like well they have guards and watching so it was like that was and we spent there we lived in that hotel for 39 days um to protect you from covid yeah oh shit social distancing and everything like that and especially because ground zero you say would be like wuhan china china wherever that the wherever they discover discovered that that came from yeah ground one like the one level above that was italy okay italy was the worst covid um exposure on the planet so i didn't know that yeah it was it was so bad that like when i was there because i played my first two years in italy and that was my first two years of it preparing professional was covid oh my god so it was pretty great pretty just just we love great um it would no it was it was to the the so bad that it was if you you had paperwork okay and if you left your little province you had to have paperwork to go into the other little little area like county it's what it's literally like having a passport to travel internationally it's a county yeah so you have paperwork to go to the other little little area i have to go here and it's okay by the government to go here for the only way that i got that paperwork was to have an essential job which i'm not sure how they got volleyball to be an essential job but it was essential okay so we have and if you went into a different one a different county let's say and you didn't have the paperwork to be there you would be arrested and charged with attempted homicide holy shit because you're you could be bringing a contagion to somewhere else with the rules or whatever and it was like if you go into somewhere else like you're gonna be it's not gonna be good oh my god so that was in march of my first year yeah so that was where we did that the the bubble thing so that was but it was the year after and it was kind of calming down a little bit and whatever but um mike we're on like the first or second week maybe we're playing games and my coach is like oh man we're really gonna need you we're looking forward to having you on the the roster or whatever we're really gonna need you we're looking forward to having we're gonna need you when then throughout the games and whatnot and i was just like what what what you said you're not gonna announce the team for another three and a half weeks what are we talking about here yeah and and i tried to bring it like and i was just like like playing it off like what just happened in my brain yeah um and then sure enough three weeks later we had that conversation he's like welcome to the team kind of thing so i was like i've been thinking about this conversation for the last three weeks oh i probably wouldn't have slept thanks yeah you know so it was it was a little bit spoiled but then of course all the things came out naturally of just like the excitement the the unknown the the nervousness the the shakies the everybody says the olympics is the highest it is the pinnacle of competing and all these things yeah um so how how am i gonna yeah how am i gonna do it you know that kind of thing um and then we get there we get to the olympics which is we so they announced it like two months before okay then we get there there's nobody there whoa so so it was i mean there are so many different bubbles of experiences of things that i thought were going to go on the highest of the highest the hardest of the hardest the the competing and doing this with all the fans and the different energies and everybody's just there because it's the olympics and the motions and all that stuff nobody was there it was just a zombie town there was nobody in the stand we had this beautiful gymnasium in in the center of tokyo they made it just for this this uh i'm pretty sure i don't don't fact check me on that but i'm pretty sure they made it just for this wow get in there it's like 17 18 000 capacity there's not one person in there and it's just 14 guys squeaking on a volleyball court against 14 guys squeaking on the volleyball court and you can hear all the scoops no holy shit so it was it's pretty interesting to get coming from that well um yeah the uh it was very easy really comparative to what i thought was going to go on okay i thought it was going to be easy i thought it was going to be easy i thought it was going to be easy you can't hear because there's so much noise there's music going on there's fans you know right behind the bench yelling and screaming trying to they're fans on the other team and they're trying to get interrupt the coaches messages and get in your head and thankfully playing in a lot of other countries and they talk talk a bunch of shit and they try to get in your head you're like i don't even know what you just said so jokes on you that part like there was no whatever yeah i don't know but it was way easier and i was like this is just we're just scrimmaging this team yeah we're just scrimmaging this team that's literally um so that was it i think it was an interesting side the other interesting side was that right before at that tournament that i told you that he named the team yeah we had known that our uh star starting outside hitter was not going to go or was having a lot he had a hip surgery and his hip was grinding us a hole in his socket and it was like something crazy so we were like he's not going yeah so i was like okay well then i have to train now for whatever role i need to do and i was i've always been before this maybe the third guy or the fourth guy to come in or serving sub or so i was on the bench wow which is a lot less pressure on the bench when you're just kind of you were supporting the team obviously and you're being engaging in the things that they need you to but there's not the pressure of winning or losing this game there's not the pressure of getting in your head and dealing with all that stuff there was none of that yeah going into the olympics was my first start and i had to start and fill this guy in what is going on in my head is that i have to fill this guy's shoes yeah who's an incredible volleyball player and i had to fill this guy's shoes and i had to fill this guy's shoes i was gonna say it speaks volumes to how stacked y'all's roster was if you were sitting on the bench yeah what well yes you're a phenomenal volleyball player so it's like that just speaks volumes to how stacked usa is yeah so then that guy doesn't go in and i have to i'm starting now and i'm like the best fit to fulfill that role i'd be shitting bricks and now i was at the olympic games but thankfully the first experience of playing with the team starting with the team in a giant tournament was one that was dead silent yeah so that it was kind of best case scenario for the nerves exactly yeah like that that's what i said to you i'm like after my career ended because of covid i'm like fuck i would have crushed my my season if i didn't have anyone in the stands yeah like because i was always way more nervous competing like i crushed in practice yeah but then i know some people that like really fed off the energy of the crowd and that helped them compete so well so i always find it fascinating like how people responded to that yeah yeah so then obviously you had gone to a second olympics though how does that compare to the first how was paris compared to tokyo it was my first experience true it was literally what i tell people is that it was such a shell of an experience in tokyo it was amazing i got to go to the village and i traded pins and i walked around you all the different countries and and had conversations with the people that i could and went to the all the different activities and did all the stuff in the village because it was like this is my first olympic this is amazing yeah and then the did it went to the olympics and i was like oh my god i'm gonna go to the olympics and i'm gonna go to the olympics and i went to paris and and checked into that village and it was like this is completely different this is a totally different experience the village was the only thing similar yeah but then going out and going to the matches there's 15 000 people there screaming and doing this and the white and the fans and being in france and and all the things it was a completely different experience so i got two very separate olympic first experiences with olympics yeah which is pretty pretty awesome in a way and then this third one's gonna be even crazier because it's like home in la all your family gets to go we'll see what no we're not saying we're guaranteed to be going to that but we have to make the team first but we're gonna manifest the one in la will be oh we're manifesting all right that's fine i'm good with that we're gonna pretend like we already have it i'm already manifesting that i'm gonna be there interviewing you on the court so well that pretty sure that's not far off but yeah thank you we'll do that okay period period period okay well obviously you have the most lovable personality but on the court you have kind of a controversial personality how do you feel about this what my wife's over there chuckling because you know where this is going um she's sweating yeah it's it's a lot logan just showed her armpits she's literally sweating profusely um i mean there's not much to really say beyond the fact of highly competitive person with a perfectionist mindset and growing up on the farm where there's nobody no peers around to judge or to to um have a different opinion about something there was one similar guided idea of how we did things and what we did and how we did them and that was growing up on a farm with six siblings that are all competitive to the bone and my father who's the most competitive person on this planet to my mother also who played competitive sports and played in college and played softball and did all the things and was very high level and she was competitive as well so that was your normal what i came from yeah so when i when i would go we would go down into the stream in my home in uh in missouri and get little box turtles and paint our numbers on them and then race them across our basketball court it was like i was screaming and yelling as a three-year-old with a box turtle the same way i would on the volleyball court you know so i mean there's not much to say other than the kind of what did you expect kind of thing yeah you're also a fiery ass italian duh yeah come on i say the last name with a little bit of accent and then all of a sudden you got where i come from exactly and no one's judging they're like oh there it is all right that makes sense that makes sense checks out got it and i think there's obviously too a difference between getting fired up for the wrong reasons sure do you catch yourself sometimes having to reel it in though i've had the world's longest experience with learning how to deal with that it really i know there's tons of athletes out there that deal with it but i've i was a shithead little kid shithead little kid the worst um on the volleyball court i'll only speak i won't speak toward family stuff but you have like almost like a second personality oh yeah and it's it's interesting not interesting it just is what it is but i was terrible i didn't care about it anybody thought about how i was reacting and the way that i was reacting in the the i would kick balls i would uh whatever whatever and it was just my that anger that little kid yeah what i would do on the farm when i would be angry i'd go chop a tree down or whatever you know that's an extreme example but like that's where that comes from of i'd go throw something at that a tree or something and if i didn't my box turtle didn't win i'd go ride my bike and jump over a thing or whatever yeah it was just that that amount of expenditure that was normal or had a space for it on the farm but doesn't have a space for it in team sports first of all yeah but then under the public eye and and in the media and oh yeah this thing where people don't have the same perspective yeah they don't have the same thing so it's that's one of the things that i've kind of held close i've done a lot of growing with it and a lot of processing and bettering a lot of the the emotions and the where it's guided towards yeah for myself not necessarily for everybody else because i understand that everybody has an opinion yeah everybody's got their way and if they don't fit into their glass is then it's not good and it's like i hear you i get you you're entitled to your own opinion i'm i've nobody knows the amount of work that i've done to get to where i am now where i can actually facilitate close relationships with people on the court because they know what's going on i've had conversations with them everybody else that sees it still is still like it's like okay you can say what you want yeah you have no idea what's going on behind closed doors you have no idea the conversation i've had with these guys how and they understand how i act yes i'm not saying i'm not saying as an excuse to act the way that i do what i am saying is they understand that it comes from a place of competitive and wanting to be perfect yeah as opposed to putting you down he's an asshole yeah yeah and that's what people see and that's okay people can see whatever they want to see but you know who you are at their core and the guys around me know who i am that's the most important thing is that we have conversations about listen i'm not trying to if i'm putting you down you'll know we'll have a conversation about that and i'm not going to do that yes what i am trying to get you to do is to get you to do what you want to do and get you to do is i know how good you can do yeah i just want to see it and then if i get mad at 90% of the time i'm getting mad at myself i'm not getting mad at you maybe i have some bad body language and and that's another topic of like what people see and perceive close to me in body language and the energies they feel the teammate is feeling like insecure about maybe a bad play and then you're getting frustrated so now they're interpreting it like oh now he's frustrated with me correct yeah when it's like no you're off in your own little world and you're just pissed off at yourself most of the time yes 90% of the time yeah it's on at something that i could have done better because then it made you in a bad position to do this or you didn't dig the ball and do this then it's my fault because i blah blah blah yeah yeah so all of those things incorporate to nobody knows yeah nobody knows that yeah maybe the people now knowing will have a different view of it but all the people that comment and all the spectators and all the stuff i play with a fire and a passion for the game that i we talked about earlier that it's not for a reason not for clicks not for views not for likability on the screen not for like viral clips and this and that i do it because i love it yeah and the passion for the game of trying the pursuit of perfection which is not ever achievable and that's where the anger comes in and the bad body language and the whatever comes in and it's like it's not ever achievable yeah but i also think that's like what makes you unique and like sets you apart and is why you're a good player like if that's like you're i don't know if that's like what makes you tick and like that's your drive and your passion like who's to say that's wrong yeah so long as your teammates respect you and understand like oh that's just tj being tj yeah instead of like oh he's like being negative and he's affecting the atmosphere or the culture or whatever yeah was there ever a time where like your teammates did have to like bring it up to you and be like hey this is affecting me like have you had like negative responses from your teammates before you guys had those open conversations and like kind of got to know one another on a deeper level yeah 100 and i wouldn't say i wouldn't say it was negative experience for this from my teammates i would say it's constructive experiences from my teammates of saying hey this really kind of what and the fact that they're even coming to me is a big thing because it gives me a chance to grow as well yeah i didn't realize okay great you saw it that way i did not mean it that way and i thank you for coming to me and this is what was going on and this and and to have the conversation and understand it from both perspectives yeah and say you're right all right thank you for bringing it to me yeah um they gave you an opportunity to be mindful and explain yourself 100 yeah which is is good on two fronts one it gives me a chance to say oh you're right yeah okay well i'm gonna mentally mark that one down and say okay well this person reacts to this in a different way and also just maybe just don't do that that was maybe a little extreme maybe just okay yeah and that gives me a chance to grow and be better then it also gives them a chance to grow and be better about communicating that to me and saying maybe it doesn't mean and then understanding from my perspective is like maybe it doesn't mean what it what i thought it meant in that moment yeah maybe it's just his fire and okay so there's twofold of elevating a relationship and i've had lots of those and i cherish all of them because that's what i do with myself every day yeah with different things and and all that kind of stuff i think too if someone doesn't understand the passion and the grit that comes from sport especially when it's reactions or in the heat of a moment or like and they're they're quick to judge all i feel is sad for them that they don't have something that lights them up like that yeah do you know what i mean yeah 100 i'm like i've never judged a player like i've seen like there's like that clip going viral right now where it's like the duality of sport where it's like the girls celebrating on the tennis court and the other girls smashing her tennis racket and it's like anyone that plays sports gets it yeah but people that don't understand sport or don't have a passion for life or zest for life that like these people clearly have yeah they're like oh they have anchor management problems they need to go to get checked yeah that's the first thing that's the first thing they think they judge so quickly and i think that there's something so endearing about having that level of passion and that's what sport is all about like yes of course it gets nasty and gets messy and it gets sometimes controversial but also like it opened up an opportunity for you to connect deeper with your teammates it created a space where you guys can fully accept one another for who you are and continue to grow together versus just being like oh he's an i don't want to connect with him like i don't like playing with him i don't want to be on the court with him yeah and instead you guys all embrace each other and like we all have flaws we all have we need to work through but i think like just missing somebody for that is i'm gonna go back a big problem yeah oh he's going back going back i was resetting resetting here we're good though oh yeah we're getting deep but yes you're entirely correct with the idea of if it gave an opportunity which nobody's going to understand that and know then who's to say that that's a bad thing yes kind of thing so i fully agree yeah what's next you obviously have tried avp once before i have i've dabbled a little bit and i've i'm no stranger on the sand court once once a long time ago once upon a time yeah um that was a pretty crazy experience as well um yeah what what even happened like i need to hear the story i didn't even know this yeah uh so we finished up i think it was the summer after the tokyo olympics okay i think so i don't recall i think it was the summer after the olympics so back in the day so back in the day back in my day um i got matt furbringer was my was the assistant coach for the indoor team at the tokyo olympics and he i got off the plane coming home from uh from my first professional season in poland and he is he texts me and says hey uh do you have any interest in playing uh avp in manhattan because their season is after y'all's it's it's overlapping it overlaps okay but the the the avp is summer stuff summer activities and i finished around early april with my that season okay so it was kind of around the same timeline of where i have time off from the national team and then other exposures or whatever so it's like in that that like perfect time zone where it was i had that was my rest time and i know a lot of indoor players play beach volleyball for fun and cardio and just to stay in shape during the off season anyways right because it's like more low impact movement and way better for these guys yeah way better for the knees yeah um and just about everything because you don't have to hit the ball as hard it's a different ball and it's just enjoyable you get to do with your friends yeah okay so then what you said so then he texts me and he's like hey so do you want to play would you want to play in the avp i was like because my i first started with beach oh with volleyball i didn't know that i yeah so the the person that i played with josh twiniga okay i've been playing with him for about 14 years wow um since we were like 10 um we started we were playing doubles beach at 10 and 11 years old we're playing the under 12 division we'd go up to san diego and go down up to uh close here to manhattan and and tournaments and all that stuff and we would just win out all the tournaments because we're almost six feet tall and yeah the 12 and 13 year olds are smaller um so we play we play together and so we went we played club we went to high school we went to college wow we went to the national team so we played together for forever yeah um where was i going with this that's why i started with beach volleyball okay on the beach so that's your foundation yeah so i i went to the youth olympics with beach i went to a bunch of u19 championships u17 championships with beach so i'm not like i've played a lot of beach and so it was more it was an easier text conversation and i was like uh yeah with who um he texted me he says nick lucena which that name any beach volleyball player any volleyball player is going to know that name um phil dollhauser okay you know that is he's the six nine block bald guy blocker oh one of the best yes for like the longest time like the beast nickname is like the beast okay he's like one of the best players in the world okay he's like one of the best players in the world okay he's like one of the best players in the world okay he's like one of the best volleyball players to ever play beach volleyball cool my dad for sure knows who it is that's his partner oh shit nick lucena you're like now i gotta fill these shoes uh yeah let's do it you've had to fill so many big ass shoes dude oh my god so that was from a pure excitement one to get to go play beach volleyball again but then two to play with an absolute legend of nick lucena i'm like yes yeah absolutely sounds like one hell of a summer yeah and so then i strolled up to practice the day before on the beach the first time in like six years that i played beach and we played messed around and whatever and then we went to the avp and we won three games and got like ninth or something it was oh my god it was it was great it was fantastic and it was just over in two days and it was like all right done the beach so then after that experience would you ever consider after your professional indoor career taking it outdoors and playing sand percent really yeah sorry loves you're gonna be a wag for a while yeah that wag life is gonna be a long one but it's it's easier to do beach because it's it is a shorter season but there's also a lot more home exposure yeah so it'd be much easier to live in california again we're gonna have to live in california if we're gonna be on the beach so you guys could be my neighbor you know what maybe you should just go pro and beach now even though there's no money in it yeah no money and no time to get a birth the olympics yeah point system and okay we'll make all your money now and then this will be like your little victory that'll be my hobby yeah i'll do that hobby yeah we'll come live right next door to you and we'll hear your podcast all this stuff would be great oh my god i'm already excited for it yep all right quickly getting into marrying logan we have to talk about how amazing this wedding was i'm having all the most amazing people there and i don't know i just thought it was like such a fun little way to kind of cap it off like what inspired you to make my bestie the lady of your life the one well one i was actually a funny thing you mentioned that i was thinking about that this morning as i woke up and had my coffee and all that stuff it was like that's cute what i was gonna say to that almost the exact question it's like well when you find someone that's so far out of your league you better try to lock it down because if i found someone that is perfect in all of the eye candy perfect in the fact that she's gonna come travel around the world and live with me and i'm gonna be like oh my god i'm gonna be flexible do the things that are in my lifestyle and the like what you mentioned earlier of like being in my lifestyle of going overseas coming back going overseas coming back going overseas that's very it's like almost impossible to find someone while i'm once doing that like if you do like that's the odds are in your favor but if you find someone that's whatever like her and then goes and travels around and that is funny and is friendly and whatever and as perfect as she is yeah it's like what are you doing if you yeah like yeah what are you doing yeah so that's kind of where that was what i was thinking about and i was like oh my god i'm gonna be like oh my god i was wanting to say about that of like it was i'm lucky that this all happened oh i love that was there ever a point where you were like maybe i should wait or like how did you figure out that timing well it was we one of the things that kind of started from the very beginning with us was our level of communication yeah of well you did long distance do you want to come visit poland yeah you're gonna be okay with that let's do this i'll make it whatever you can um i'll adapt we'll change i'll shift all the whatever we need to do to make this happen and then her community side of the communication also was like what do you let's do it what do we need to do let's get in let's dive in how do we and then it was like analytical from the beginning of whatever it's going to be it's going to be so let's make it happen yeah so that is like well hell yeah let's do it yeah and this is like two analytical brains kind of matching up and then going on one path together absolutely yeah absolutely you guys are very analytical and i think you did a really good job of being just practical with like you know like you're like you're like you're like you're like you're like what the future is going to look like and being like okay this is how i this is how much time i want to spend at home with my family is so much when i you know i spend with your family like because obviously you guys are both your families in different states and navigating that i feel like you guys have done a really good job of just like prioritizing what you think will fill your cup and make the most sense for both of y'all yeah obviously in the future do you want kids do you want a family what do you think that life will look like with you still being pro yeah um yeah of course uh you're coming from a big family that that's always not always been on my mind as an idea but also but been of like yeah do kids and just have little me's running around or whatever and absolutely you know there's there's a time and place for everything like that um and within the realm of this life and the traveling and or this career path of traveling and doing this and doing that and being exposed all these cool new things and i'm sure that whenever that we all the conversations we've had about you want to come visit poland you want to come do this what do we want to do how are we going to adapt how we're going to do this whenever that comes to the point and then we'll just adapt whatever it is yeah you may have to play a little bit less video games sorry buddy yeah that's okay that's totally okay or you build an army and then all your army just plays totally okay yeah no i'm gonna build an army of video game kids and we're just gonna do that all the time yeah yeah all right well i want to absolutely jump into the rapid fire okay let's do it your wife wrote them up so hand me your phone girl hell yeah okay let's do it are you ready yep i apologize in advance if i do rage bait you okay great do you wish you were more athletic yes oh i mean okay period who is your volleyball idol um i watched a lot of people probably cards cry okay he's a coach right he is my head coach yeah the head coach of the national team now um and probably him because he like all the people out there that know kind of my my antics on the court and my body language and this and that whatever he was about a thousand times worse yeah i heard there's videos on the internet right now of him ripping down nets with the reps on them so it's like if there's my if i'm the example there's always some worse ones and that's like that's who i grew up watching and he's in an obviously renowned as one of the best volleyball players if not the best volleyball player to ever do it he would absolutely be my idol he he built this house brick by brick you just get to live in it he did i love that yep what is your favorite country to play in to play volleyball in yeah probably japan okay love all of the fans and they're bought into their buy-in to the sport and the volleyball culture is huge there it is huge huge it's like the number two sport in the country baseball first and then volleyball wow yeah crazy it's very big and it's incredible to play there craziest animal you've had on your farm growing up probably emu you and emu's on your farm guys i love an emu farm i went to the one up in santa barbara and i want to go back we were just talking about how you want to do a girl's trip up to solvang and they have an emu farm really yeah that's cool it's freaking sick that was probably the weirdest thing that we've had did you write it no they are very aggressive very dangerous oh my brother got kicked by one yeah don't don't don't don't attempt to ride it they are very very aggressive they have talons on the back of their legs like this and if they they kick you they will like my brother got kicked and he's got scars all the way down his leg no way from yeah getting too close to one and it was pissed off and it or whatever it got spooked and it kicked him and wolverined his ass yep oh my god quite literally so what is your fastest serve miles per hour i think 83 miles per hour oh shit did it catch on fire was it entering the atmosphere did it blow a hole through the dude the cartoon just burns a hole through holy crap did people return it yeah oh shit okay period whoever returned that proud of you he's probably shaking his boots though when you're serving anyways who's more athletic you or logan me i think it's logan that's okay logan's strong you can have your opinion that's okay and that's my opinion one man based me before okay i have video footage of it oh i don't i don't discredit anything but she is she is very athletic 100 no you are but if i throw that phone to her right now across this room that'll be all we need to know for evidence and the only thing i'm using that for is just because catching things that's it that's fair coordination it's only catching things okay everything else she's probably more athletic than me how does it feel to be considered small in your sport yeah kind of nice honestly you're petite honestly i'm a smaller one yeah i'm on the u of the world let's go uh no it has pretty nice because short kings unite then they yeah exactly then i'm like i have a little solidarity with the short kings and i'm like i'm one of you guys now and i'm playing around seven foot giants all the time i'm like yeah hell yeah you know you're like uppies yeah who is your celebrity look like i have no idea who's a celebrity look like i thought a fan told him recently i have no idea tom cruise i do not look like tom cruise tom cruise is no i've i've gotten a little i've gotten a couple bradley cooper's before okay i see now with a long longer hair kind of whatever okay uh a tall lanky bradley cooper yeah and i've gotten a michael b jordan before and um i'm joking no i've never gotten a really long summer that italian skin yeah i'm trying i'm trying all right outside hitter or opposite oh geez for the for the mastery of the skills probably outside okay for the ease of doing it opposite so when you're tired opposite yeah because all you have to do is one thing and one thing only oh you just hit you don't have to block you have to do everything but that's what you're paid for got it that's just my opinion guys relax all you have to do is an opposite is just hit balls score points score points you'll be just fine okay so any opposites cannot complain exactly that's what i'm trying to say you have it easy because i played opposite i transitioned over to an opposite and i played it and it's pretty easy if you could play any position what position would it be besides your position besides mine i would love to be a set i'm not very good at setter and i know taylor able is gonna watch this video and say he said setter and i'm gonna kill him for it but i really think i would love to do setting and to do fill that role and do that i'm not very good at it but that would want to be what i want to do i think it's it's just cool being like the guy like you're in the mix all the time like you're always the person touching the ball yeah you know yeah and i the the reason that i would want to do it is just because of the complex nature of it all with all the uh parts yeah the moving part you have to watch you have to glance over and see what's kind of going on the other side of the net you got to play mind games with the three people there while still playing games mind games not games but with on the same page as your players there's a lot of chess and it's yeah it's a game of chess as opposed to checkers got it that's why i would be interested in doing it because it's cool very in depth i love that and it definitely is one of the hardest the hardest position to do okay so that's why it would be fun weirdest pre-game ritual weirdest hmm i don't have any weird i used to be super superstitious really yeah i used to listen to like it was either it depended on the day but i would always listen to music before games okay and i need to listen to like celine dion or like really slow stuff lean beyond oh yeah she's great or like hardcore dubstep okay so i would be like skrillex or celine yeah kind of okay and it would be one of the other and so your playlist is essentially skrilleen skrilleen yeah skrilleen dion um if you could play any other sport what would it be uh probably golf that's so boring okay i'll pick a better answer i'm sorry you would literally snap a golf club in half every day like be so for real yeah well the the other thing is uh also didn't logan's dad say you're trash yeah he did that was his speech at my wedding he was already drunk and he said his golf game is dog shit like and he got the crowd of my wedding to say dog shit at my golf game which is unbelievable he'll never he'll never live that down i'll never live that down oh the disrespect yeah right damn all right last one if you blank yeah you're a bad teammate if hmm i don't know i guess cheering would be one but also if like you just never communicate yeah i would say you're like that's pretty or you blame everyone else yes if you're a gaslighter oh my gosh if you don't take any accountability for your own shit oh my god i can't yeah because you and i feel like are very similar and like we're very self-critical and we always take accountability if anything sometimes too much yeah and so it's like what are we doing yeah yeah if you're like it's not my fault it's not my fault it's not my fault it's not my fault it's like oh yeah that that's a good one you're like now i'm cringed now i have to go jump off the balcony which you did at your wedding at my wedding i did that into a pool and now a band now a band yes we are all right well that's all i have for you can you catch this no yeah she caught it she found it yay she caught she'll lose you baby claps yes coming on dude thanks for having me so fun it was a blessing and uh it was awesome yay i'm so happy be sure to follow him on everything he's doing great shit and i'm so stoked to see all the stuff that you do and all the fun things it's in the future maybe la we'll see we'll keep our fingers crossed and we'll be there love it well thank you i love you guys so so much thank you for watching and i'll see you next wednesday you