Pete Koch - Diamonds Giving Santa Every Life is Made Better with Koch

Pete Koch - Diamonds Giving Santa Every Life is Made Better with Koch - Pete Koch is a professional actor, voice actor, former NFL player, and a fitness guru.

Want Pete Koch to train you? Head to his website and get started. 

Pete A. Turner and Pete Koch #ThePetes have a chat at Q's on Wilshire, their favorite haunt to discuss what's new with Koch.  They discuss what an actor needs to become professional. Also, how tiny details of professionalism make all the difference on set. Getting a SAG card is a critical hurdle for any actor...Pete got his by crashing and booking a truck ad.

Koch describes how the discipline of an NFL football player and provides qualities that translate into acting. Pete Koch also inspires us to get and stay fit.  

#PeteKoch #athlete #fitness #guru #nfl #football #actor #acting #voiceactor #teacher #health #professional #competition

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Executive Producer/Intro/: Pete A. Turner
Producer: Damjan Gjorgjiev
Writer: Bojan Spasovski

Transcription

Pete Turner  0:00  
Hey everybody Pete a Turner, executive producer and host of the break it down Show. Hey, today's episode features Well, a co host of the show and friend. And someone that we've met along the way and a fellow Pete, it'll be Pete Koch today who's a former NFL player who played for the chiefs, the Raiders, the Bengals for a little bit. And here's why I brought Pete back on the show. One, he does incredible things. If you're not following him on Instagram, you should do it. Pete Koch co CH, getting better. 30 seconds at a time we post videos on Facebook, you post videos on LinkedIn, you can find him all over the place. ​

And what I find inspiration about Pete is, here's a guy in his late 50s, who's just absolutely fantastic shape is so knowledgeable about Training and Fitness and diet, that you absolutely can be inspired to do those things that we're all trying to commit to do in January 1, we're going to get back to it. Of course, Pete would say, you know the best day to start working out was 20 years ago, but if not then then today, right? Now go get to work and do things. And you really can, in small steps become truly more fit more healthy. We all need more muscle in our bodies, not to the creative to beach, but to survive the atrophy that comes later in life. So P is a great source for that thing. And then also, if you haven't noticed, he's got this fantastic commercial from Kay Jewelers. He's been the Santa Claus that gives a gift to Mrs. Claus and I just love the heck out of that. He's he's been a KTM model, both visually and his voiceover work selling cape teams internationally. He had an apple ad that ran for about a month that's about how long Apple runs ads. He was the silver haired devil laying on a chaise with his dog who looks up at his iPhone with one eye and iPhone recognizes him. Look, Pete such a great guy, and I want to make sure we all support him. He does train people remote. So if you're interested in getting a trainer, you actually can have Coach train you and he has got some world class clients but he also trains regular folks. So, Hey, I know you're going to enjoy that and all of you I want to wish you happy Hanukkah. We're a couple days into that of Kwanzaa is coming up in a couple of days. Obviously it's Christmas Eve today and Christmas tomorrow. The epiphany is coming up in about two weeks New Year's is coming up. It's a fantastic time of the year and again, I'm thankful for all of you. Hey, if you need a last minute gift and you're not sure or there's that person like I didn't have everything, I don't know what to get them. Let me encourage you to get a charity on top gift card go to charity of top.org I don't get paid to say this. This is because I truly think this is a good gift. Go to charity on top.org and you can donate an amount of money let's say you donate $25 and he's not sure what you know what to give the person you give them that $25 gift card. And the other thing a cherry on top does is they let the gifter absorb the cost the 3% Trump processing Which if you know to the top, they do not take anything more than they have. So they have to process these these transactions. So you get a cherry on top gift card and send it to your friend and then they can then redeem it whatever charity they want. So let's say you're going to give me a gift card like hey, Bonnie, get Peter nice gift. Send me a $10 charity, accept gift card charity on top.org. Send that and it's such a fantastic way to give this time of year or really any time of year. You show up. You're like, Hey, I didn't bring you a candle and it bring you that damn toaster. I brought you some charity. Here you go. And then whatever charity that person is into bam, they can drop that card on them. And that charity will then out of the blue receive $10 or 20 whatever the amount was, they'll receive that amount. Speaking of charity, save the brave.org always representing them because I believe in what they do and I am what they do. So if you want to help veterans with PTSD, we want to help us want to all stay alive then this is what you do go to save the brave.org pick them out. Either donate one time it is here in giving season. Or just do the monthly donation where just comes out each month, just a little small amount. All of these things stack up. There's already been a bunch of you that have done it. Thank you so much for doing that. It really does make a difference. Okay, enough about that. Not going to plug the show today. I'm just going to say thank you to all of you. Merry Christmas. And here's my buddy Pete couch. Lions rock productions.

Unknown Speaker  4:24  
This is Jay

Unknown Speaker  4:25  
Mohr and this is Jordan. Dexter from the offspring naked me Sebastian

Unknown Speaker  4:28  
youngsters, Rick

Unknown Speaker  4:30  
maronna Stewart Copeland.

Unknown Speaker  4:32  
Scott Baxter, Gabby Reese, Rob belly, 

Jon Leon Guerrero  4:35  
this is john Leon gray

Pete Turner  4:35  
and this is Pete a Turner.

Pete Koch  4:40  
Hey, this is Pete Koch. Welcome to the break it down show.

Pete Turner  4:46  
Voice Actor, commercial actor, movie actor, fitness guru, former NFL player Pete Koch and across from me Q's all unfilter

Pete Koch  4:55  
and I am excited. Good to be here with you, Pete Turner. I am excited. Tongue squarely in, in, in cheek is I, but I booked my first professional voice acting gig haven't even officially recorded it yet, but it's kind of one of those fun Hollywood stories, you know? I mean, I'm a professional actor and I got a SAG card in 19 is dates me, but But no, I got a SAG card in 1985. So people say, Well, you want to meet these two kinds of actors, right? So people say, Oh, I'm an actor, or I want to be an actor. But if you're not in Screen Actors Guild, you could be doing some form of acting but by not by any particular measurement. Are you a professional actor? I mean, you can actor Yeah, do do listen, I think people that do equity waiver and do community Playhouse stuff. Great. Go ahead and do it. But if you want to come to Hollywood in New York, and be a professional actor, you've got to be a member of the Screen Actors Guild. And that's a trick that's a trick because You can't get in. You can't do something professionally until you're in the guild. And yet they don't just take your submission, you've got to work on a professional union job to get in. So it's like a catch 22. So I got into the into the union.

Pete Turner  6:16  
Hey, this is Dave Turner from the breakdown Show checking in real quick to ask you this. JOHN Scott and I all support save the brave with our time, our location, our effort and our money. Each month, we give a small amount. Do the same with us go to save the brave.org click on the donate tab, pick an amount that you want to come out each month and they will handle all the rest. I stand behind these folks. Thank you so much. Let's get back to the show.

Pete Koch  6:39  
So I got into the into the union in 1985 when I crashed an audition for a Ford truck commercial and booked it really yeah, against all odds and I had the help of my friend God, rest his soul, Perry Rosen, and he was a pretty big guy. Not quite as big as me, but he was big guy and they were looking for A professional wrestler to pick up a truck the front of a truck and that was that was the that was the comedy kind of thing. And it was me and my buddy was pretty big so his casting his agent rather had said go on his call dress up like a pro wrestler and go over to this address in this casting office. And my buddy Perry is six feet three you wouldn't 25 pounds pretty big guy. Yeah, fit. And and he just want to come with me Come with me. And we went and he knew the casting director and he he said, Hey, Sheila, could you do me a favor? That's my buddy Pete. Could he come in and audition for this? And at the time, six feet six 280 pounds at the time. Wow. And she looks me up and down. And she goes, Yeah, even though you're not union will bend the rules. Come on, you can audition and I and I did and I and I booked it. Once that happens, the producer is obligated. Because it's a union commercial of the producer is obligated to Give me what's called Taft Hartley status, which is a fancy name for saying, this was a legal paperwork, they actually had to pay a little bit of extra money to use me on the job. Because I was not already in the Union, but they liked me and they should fund and that gave me the paperwork and a positioning within the Screen Actors Guild to go ahead and get from that. From that moment. I have one year to pay my dues. And if I don't, I missed this window of opportunity. Let's say it was a one off and I didn't want to be an actor and didn't have been in the Screen Actors Guild anyway, I wouldn't have paid the money. Because it was it was was considerable amount of money was over $1,000 at the time. Yeah, much more now. But I went ahead and paid and I was from that moment on. forevermore, I'm a member of the Screen Actors Guild. Do you have to pay every year? Yeah, you do. You pay, you pay dues based on a formula that has to do with how much money you've earned, historically.

Pete Turner  8:59  
Okay. And then I know someone wants me to ask, did you pick up the front end of a truck? I can't. I could.

Pete Koch  9:05  
I mean, maybe a Ford Ranger. I wish that I wish I could find that commercial. And no, no, I didn't actually pick it up. But yeah, it was. It was great fun. I remember driving down to a Ford dealership in Torrance early in the morning, and we spent the day filming the commercial. And that was that but where I'm kind of, you know, kind of went round about with that I got my first voiceover gig very recently. And again, it's such a relationship business because I've got a friend that's a film producer. He's really more than that. And it's what I love his story because he's a writer. He's a camera operator. He's a director. And he does a number of different can effectively and professionally performing a number of different roles in Hollywood and that's really valuable. Yeah. So he's working on a film he just come which they completed Principal photography. And they've even gone as far as they've got a 92nd trailer for this film, which hopefully will be in theaters in 2020. And it's a kid's film that's fun. And they were looking for someone to voiceover the trailer. And he asked me if I would be interested because he goes, Hey, you got a great voice. I know you're a long time you got a great voice. And I didn't need I don't have I'm gonna shortly but I didn't have a professional voice actor, which is V A voice acting that's what they call it. I didn't have a professional voice acting real. But he still gave me the chance to submit a demo for the role and I got it. Yeah, yeah. So good for me. And that's how you can kind of but that's how you you know it always looking to expand your circle of influence. Sure, like many many different businesses at the end of the day It's a People to People business

Pete Turner  11:03  
you you have work all the time you just showed me your Kay Jewelers commercial which is fantastic. By the way Santa Claus. Thank you But also you had your Apple commercial, you know you've got all these things. How hard Do you have to work on a day to day basis? How hard do i mean you have an NFL pension? And I'm not trying to say you're on Easy Street by any means but you go out and you work. Do you Are you too comfortable to be like a big success and try to be a big success?

Pete Koch  11:28  
You know, I i've always you know, the, the the football thing, the NFL football thing aside, there's, there's a timeline you cannot get away from if you're going to be a professional athlete, and it's going to be you. You're going to go through college, and then you're going to have your opportunity if you're lucky enough and you played well enough in college and that your resume to make it to the NFL is white doing college. The days of somebody not playing any college football making it to the NFL or over Yeah, and long shots. Are you going to go to college? You're going to play and you can develop your your talent, and then get showcase it and get an education along the way, hopefully, and then you'll go ahead and play in the NFL and then and that's it and then you just get beat up. And in my case was six seasons not was spent. Yeah, bunch of surgeries and I was done that aside, everything else, it very much, many, many things I hate to say always or never but many, many things in my life. I consider myself a late bloomer. And I do an acting too. And I although I did have some breaks early on, and people saw me in movies like, you know, Heartbreak Ridge and Loverboy in the 80s. I couldn't sustain that momentum. And, and I've thought, and then I took a clean break for 12 years I didn't know acting at all for 12 years, and then I got back into the game five years ago. And I've thought and it's them building momentum. Again, that includes the voice acting, and I think it's a tale. I mean, it's my personal story, but I think at age, you know, I'm 57. So if I can, if I can kind of regenerate resurrect an acting career, which is pretty much what I'm in the middle of doing right now at this age. I think anybody can accomplish anything at any age. Yeah, you just the pros and cons to it could sit there and discuss that stuff all day. But the reality is for, at my age, the overwhelming majority of acting competition that I had when I was, let's say, 27 versus 57. Those guys are gone. They quit. I mean, everybody, everybody, you know, 98% of people get run off by the business because of a lack of success. They can't sustain it. They get sidetracked, they get into something else, they find a regular job, and that's fine. That's how life works. So there's like literally like 2% of those guys around And then maybe a handful of other guys that got into the business, you know, later in life. I mean, that does happen occasionally where somebody in their 30s or 40s before they ever start acting, but that's pretty rare. Yeah, mostly it's people get into it early on, and then just try to, you know, go with it, run with it as long as they can. And I'm a guy that, you know, took a big chunk of time off in the middle. And it's probably the best thing because I wasn't it wasn't going my way I needed to accomplish some other things in my life. But I'm back in that in the game and it's, it's, it's much more fun. It's more fun for me now and to your original question. It's Yeah, it's something you know, acting is one of those rare professions where you, your obligation is to find work every single day as opposed to working every single day, right? This thing is flipped on its head. So you say, Well, one of the one of the components to finding work every single day. Yeah, that's that's part of the, that's part of the riddle that includes things like making sure your resume is up to speed that your online presence, right is is accurate that that's, that's headshots. And that's demo reel. That's, you know, depending on where you stand, it might be an acting class, it might be just just working. You know, I read some years ago, I read an article about written article and interview with Chris Pratt. He's one of the biggest stars in the world right now. Right? And whether it's, you know, from Guardians of the Galaxy, or the office or

Jurassic World, I mean, wow, what a giant what a career. And this is just a few years ago, and it was sort of an interesting kind of maybe maybe silly or naive question, but the the interviewer asked Chris Pratt, hey, do you um, do you ever take acting class anymore? Right, yeah. And he said, You know, it I don't, I loved his answer. He wasn't at all offended by the question. He said, You know, I really don't have the time to drive into Hollywood and take a class as much as I love doing that for those many years that I did do that. However, yeah, what I do is I go and study acting all the time. And he says, Well, how do you how do you do that? He goes, I go on YouTube. Wow. It's an amazing resource

Pete Turner  16:31  
is if we had this conversation before we even started recording this, you know, all the the people just doing it for the give back to the community that people offering a service so much of it.

Pete Koch  16:43  
Yeah. And it's, it's, it's free there. And I and once I heard that I began studying acting and just checking out what was available. It's really, it's really unlimited. And we don't want to had a couple of opportunities. One of the things that an opportunity that sort of stimulated my thinking about really, really seriously pursuing the voiceover acting is that I shot a series of commercials for a German motorcycle company several months ago they flew me to Germany and his company KTM motorcycles and you can go to go to YouTube and just Google in KTM motorcycles and yeah, my commercials will come up just all kinds of commercials there for KTM beautiful bikes in a beautiful company and interesting company. And and I'm just the part of their their campaign which proved to be very successful. So this was the my commercials are filmed in black and white straight into camera. very edgy. And then always and that led to you know, talk about unintended consequences sometimes can be pretty nice. Two months after I shot those commercials. The marketing company in Austria reached out to my representation in Hollywood and said, you know, while Pete was on a set with Some still photos of him which I had completely forgotten about. Yeah, one of the producers came around with a you know, a professional camera took some pictures of me and he said that you know, we decided that we're all you know looking at the images we really really love the way we love his look. The commercial campaign is as effective and things are things are really good so what we'd like to do is make Pete the face of KTM motorcycles by using his image yeah and and we so we ended up doing a it's a print deal separate and distinct from the commercials. And I ended up making five times more money on the print deal than I made for shooting the marshals. Yeah, yeah. So do

Pete Turner  18:48  
you stand next because you're a tall dude. And like I got I got I have short legs tall. I'm, I'm tall this way but a short leg. So if I have to stand a certain way on a motorcycle to like, look like I fit on it.

Pete Koch  18:59  
Well Let's true truth in Well, the fact of the matter is that men my commercials, they have I'm not on a motorcycle, okay. Yeah. And they make a actually make big motorcycles and they're beautiful, but they, it's clever. So they're using me as a person to talk to the audience okay about the motorcycle. And then they slam cut two pros ripping around a corner on the motorcycle competing as the the world champion in one category of motorcycle racing, that I cannot recall the exact category that style racing is is KTM ATM bike and he's a he rides for Red Bull and it's a KTM and it's an so when they slim CUT TO HIM ripping around a corner at 160 miles an hour. It's in full color. And it's amazing. So yeah, but but just to just to add, you know, put a fine point on, on those that experience with my commercial. So that was two months after I filmed the commercials and got back from Homburg too much later they they they asked me to which I had already done I didn't even have to do two separate photoshoot so I, I get a print campaign out of it. And then last month, sold another seven months had gone by they said we made another commercial that we are going to which is a commercial. It's more than a commercial. It's two minute video to debut the new 2020 KTM motorcycles at the biggest Motorcycle Show in Europe. Wow, which is in Spain. And we'd like Pete to narrate to do the voiceover because although he's not won't be in the in this two minute video. It's only shown one time at that the motorcycle Expo. But we know that folks will recognize his voice because I've been looking at his commercials for a year. Yeah. And so they hired me to do the voiceover which I was able to do from a studio in Hollywood. Right What I The was a little bit tricky so I did it at I don't know what time was pretty early in the morning and the the producer of the spot in Austria was late at night at his end, but he called me up and we, we just did this on the we had the phone in the in a voiceover studio. And he would give me instruction of how he wanted me to do it was quite a bit fair amount is like three pages of copy. And and so he coached me along there how he wanted that to sound and we had the we had the sound engineer and and so we delivered to them what they want. We send an audio file to Austria they they edited that into the two minute reel and everybody's happy.

Pete Turner  21:47  
Wow. And what a neat thing to be able to pull that off and to be at least for now the face of a campaign for entire brand. That's how many, how many peak coaches are there in Hollywood. I mean, you've got a certain role that you'll fill, you know, whatever it is. Maybe it's Santa Claus and a diamond commercial. But you know, maybe it's something else in a movie. When you show up in the casting room, are there three other people that do what you do? Or?

Pete Koch  22:12  
Well, that's such a great question. And an actors can sometimes spend a lot of time making, you know, considering, yeah, where they fit in. Yeah, and how not only where they fit in, but if they're not working as much, and trying to figure out what do I need to do to work? And you know, you need just undeniably, actors are competitive people, the people that I know and so you're going to know different when I was playing defensive end for the Kansas City Chiefs and I was I was constantly saying, How can I be a better pass rusher? How can I be more effective at playing the run? You know, can I How can I in that, that's everything very technical stuff. In terms from my stance, my alignment, that's film study. That's You know, having a greater knowledge of my opponent from game to game. There's a lot that goes into that there's a lot of variables out there and I apply that same sort of strategic thinking to being an actor. And one thing, quite honestly was two years ago I wasn't satisfied It was not satisfied with how much how much I was working and I was really the guy getting a lot of callbacks and never just barely booking a job and almost out of a bit of frustration I almost it seems almost, you know, petulant, but I stopped cutting my hair and shaving. Yeah, and I and I not much happened for about six weeks except people saying, Hey, you got a beard now. Yeah, really different. Looks good. I had never, never gone with the facial hair ever in my entire life. And at the same moment than it was it was really Bye. Bye. Really, it was fate looking back on it. But my my commercial agent I had a conversation with him that I didn't appreciate. I didn't appreciate him because he was he failed to appreciate or respect me. And if you don't, if you don't establish where you stand with somebody in life that especially somebody that you have a relationship words that should be mutually beneficial, yeah, symbiotic and he wasn't respectful to me. And I called him on and I fired him and I and that was about a month into this process of just not shaving any longer. So I told my manager I said, I probably should have run this by you first. But remember my commercial agent I fired him and he said to me without missing a beat That's okay. I don't know like, I'm not much anyway, we'll get you better one. And in three days, he introduced me to a new agency, the Robertson Taylor agency, and I had a meeting, they thought I had potential to make a difference make an impact. And they they signed me. That day, they got me an audition that day. I didn't book it, but then I got me a number of several auditions within three weeks and I booked a job and I was on my way and I did more I needed to do new headshots, and this is the importance of, of staying on top of your career managing your career because I had a new look. And I went ahead and did the headshots, I was referred to an excellent headshot photographer, and all a difference. Be you know, all that difference was, it was becoming clear to me that making the adjustments to my look And capitalizing on that with really good photography was making an impact in in how people not only perceived me, but they put their desire to hire me, right? Because I'm in, I'm not in the business of making people happy. I'm in the business of working. I'm in the business of being the best professional that I can be. Yeah. And,

frankly, monetizing that I'm a capitalist, I believe in it. And when I walked into a casting situation, my job and my mindset is to make the casting people happy, which is to say, hey, there's the guy. There's the guy and there's a few things that go into that above and beyond how I look. It starts with, get there 10 minutes early. Okay, it starts with if you have dialogue, be prepared. It starts with have a good attitude. It starts with manners being impolite. Thank you for seeing me on the way out. Thank you for your time this afternoon. Yeah, show you those little details. That's my job. That's not something I do casually. That's what I do for a living.

Pete Turner  27:16  
There's even a level of sub detail but when you say to someone, like the person who sits at the don't walk past this point, checkpoint at the airport, that Guard has a thankless job. And so I always try to make sure that they are thanked. And I say I appreciate you sitting here and keeping us all safe. I really appreciate it you know, I really don't say appreciate you and walk by like I when I say those words, I remind myself make this genuine slow down long enough to go. You know, Pete, I appreciate you driving here from across town to come here and hang out with me for a couple hours. Your time is that you know, and those those things are differentiators. A friend of mine who's a real estate agent in Newport. He broke his career by sold a house And the lady was on the road trying to get the family all set up, you know, she was the one doing everything and she had a crypto setup. He's like, well, I'll throw your crib together. He didn't do it for any other reason. And that's just how he is. And that turned into her going, you're the best realtor ever. I'm going to tell all my friends and he sold, you know, millions of dollars with the homeless because of that one moment where he did what he does, but it made such an impact on her life. And you don't get to pick those moments. So you just kind of pack them in that that I appreciate you is huge.

Pete Koch  28:30  
Yeah, no, I, I love that story. And I think my success in the last couple of years has been a byproduct of consistency. It's, it's, you know, Ellie's got the worst traffic in the world. About you just about never going to get to an audition without a frustrating drive to get there. And there's a whole bunch of other stuff that can be, you know, really irritating. I've just, you know, frankly discipline myself to get to these auditions really early and just compose myself. There's nothing more stressful to me than being in a rush. I don't know anybody who operates more effectively while they're rushing or feel like they're late. It's not good. And so why not do something about it as much as you can without your control? Yeah, and the beauty most of the time as an actor's I can, I can make my schedule. And so I just find that that's one of the the keys and I do some, some breathing and relaxation stuff. When I used to do it when I got into the lobby, and the waiting area and I've learned that You know, once out of every four or five auditions, by the time when you walk in there and you sign in, they say, Hey, come on back. We're ready for you. Yeah. So Well, I didn't have a chance to read that. Well, that's on me. I didn't have a chance to relax. But that's on me. So if I take just two, three minutes in the car, even if I get slammed right into the audition, I'm still prepared for it. And it's, it's, it's, it's very, very competitive business. And you are judged from the moment you walk into the room. And that's, you haven't said anything yet. So the the walk, the way you walk in how you're part of your preparation is how you're dressed, how you're groomed. Just walk in the room, you just made that appearance, and what kind of mood you're in now, they don't care that you had an hour's worth of traffic that you weren't in, you know, expecting nobody, nobody cares. Any assumption that people care care about that. I mean, I was on the phone recently with somebody that is said to me, unrelated to acting a woman that I've known for a couple of years and she says, Hey, this is Pete a Turner from lions rock productions. We create podcasts around here. And if you your brand or your company want to figure out

Pete Turner  31:17  
how to do a podcast, just talk to me. I'll give you the advice on the right gear. The best plan is show you how to take a podcast that makes sense for you that's sustainable, that scalable and fun. Hit me up at Pete at breakdown show com Let me help I want to hear about him.

Pete Koch  31:32  
unrelated to acting and a woman that I've known for a couple of years and she says, If I can ever help you in this one area, I work with a doctor blah, blah. I hate to call in no favors on these things. But I had something I said I wish you could help me with this. Would you just make this one intro it's very very simple. Ask a very listen I know a complex ask for a simple one. The simple ask and she I called the three times and text her before she called me back. So this is a woman look she wasn't doing charity work is what she does for a living is to return calls from people like me. And then when I finally got her on the phone, the first thing she said was, I've been very busy. Now, I'm not here to get into a negative conversation, but anybody who thinks that I've got any wisdom at all, let me just understand something. Nobody cares. Nobody ever cares that you're busy. Yeah. Nobody ever it never ever works. So I, I've taken that phrase, and he radical it. I have scrubbed it from my vocabulary. Never, ever say sorry, I'm busy. Nobody cares. What do you say? How can I help you? Okay, move straight on. Yeah, look, I'm human. I make mistakes. I'm not always perfect and getting back with you, but I just get right to business.

Pete Turner  32:55  
Fair enough. Let's do it. Yeah, that's interesting. It was so good. 19 85 new sag card. Pete. Did he have that knowledge of like, Look, I mean in the NFL sure he's gonna watch film but not an actor. He probably don't know these things. Did you have that ability? Well, you

Pete Koch  33:10  
know what I've heard? You've heard it's been said many It's been said that athletes in particular football players more so for some reason than basketball or baseball or other athletes tend to make good actors and it goes all the way back to Alex Charisse and Fred dryer and just a whole litany of and I'm blanking on some of the some of the big names of some some football NFL players that have done very well in the acting business. And the Dwayne The Rock Johnson played division one college football, these types of things. And I think one of the reasons for that is has zero to do with the technical part of acting to get into the character preparation or the The technique, the various techniques, the Meisner technique of the various techniques, you could talk about sense memory these types of Strasburg and you know sort of has nothing to do with that because football plays the couldn't know anything about that. That's a very it's a very specific acting as a very specific, you know, art form of its own. However, what act what football players do know is how to show up to a meeting five minutes early every time without fail, right? And to keep your mouth shut to chew with your mouth closed to pay attention and take notes. You learn how to take notes. Will the it's so complex, especially the NFL, it will fly past you. And you'll get quiz like why you lined up there. What are you thinking and that doesn't last long. Yeah, there's just just no room for that. And it's embarrassing anyway. And if you don't think your peers know when you don't know what the hell you're doing, because you weren't paying attention in a meeting, they know. Yeah, they know. Yeah. Very, very competitive, most competitive creatures on the planet are sitting there in those meeting rooms. And they're just chomping at the bit in the meeting room to get the equipment on and go get to it. And if you're lined up in the wrong place, there's no you know, everybody wants to get their stuff off. Yeah, and want to show how good they are. And if you start out, the first thing you gotta do to make a play the order of operations in football, right, come out of the huddle. What's the first thing you got to do? Let me tell you line up in the right place. Yeah. Now look at 11 men lined up against 11 men on a football field, let's 53 and a quarter yards with 53 and a half yards wide, hundred yards long. 11 lined up against 11. You understand how many mathematical variables there are into alignment. And then that's the net that's not even getting into multiple. We'll talk about the offense for a second multiple formations, and then motion right there. I don't I don't know that anybody's able to count. culated how many incredibly number of permutations of alignment tests and as a defensive player, so the offensive players dictate where the defensive players are going to line up by, you know, by mulk by changing the alignment, or using motion. So if you don't know Where in the hell to line up, you are never going to be an outstanding player. You're handicapping your yourself right away. So you got to know what you're doing, you must be paying attention. And you have all gets done in these meeting rooms, and he's film sessions and these these chalkboard or whiteboard sessions, and that's what football players know how to do. And so, actors, the football players know how to get to their audition on time. They know how to be prepared. And from there, there's a shift, you know, in that audition room, to the real art of acting and if you think it's easy, just go ahead online, you can go to a theater Different million different websites and pull up scripts or little portions of scripts that actors audition with recall sides. Yeah, and go take a look at sides, and then just print it out. Or look at it on your phone and go get a scene partner and try it for yourself. Yeah, see how good it comes out. See how good it sounds? Go ahead and set up a little camera phone. And, and and do a scene with a friend or do it door or do a monologue. If you buy yours. Go ahead, do a monologue or do a scene do do quinte. Sitting at the, at the at the, at the the table. On and in the boat in jaws. Yeah, you can find that very easily by googling that scene from the original jaws and quince monologue about the USS Indianapolis. Go ahead and give it a shot. Yeah, good luck. By

Pete Turner  37:53  
the way. Robert shot had to do that scene twice because the first time he's like, I may as well do it drunk. And he's like that was garbage. Yeah. Begin. Yeah. The other thing too about the football thing. And all of all, when you're at this level and you're at, you're in the big leagues, this is this is LA. He was talking about what he goes to hit a hole. This is Jerome Bettis, right. He's not looking at what the defense is doing. He's looking at the back of the offensive lineman his legs, because he infer from that where he needs to go, and you know, his style of running was to hit the line hard as far ahead as he could, and then either bounce out and break it or just fall ahead for three yards. And I'm not trying to minimize his role, but he knew how to do that. And he could look at the leg orientation and go, that's my soft spot right there. That guy's gotta push. And then that will that will give create my opportunity, but he knew specifically what to do. And this is in one kind of play, obviously to running off tackler off guard wherever. But um, that's how detailed and where his focus was. It wasn't on where the safety was. It wasn't you know, all these things. And that has to correlate to acting too. Like were you just Trying to focus in on like, I'm doing a commercial that is this thing.

Pete Koch  39:04  
I call that paying attention to your environment. And I would call that reacting. So there's action and reaction and in, in a sort of global consideration of the game of football, the offenses is acting and the defense is reacting is undeniably Yeah, there's, there's much truth to that. And, in acting, most acting is is a matter of exchanging. Normally two actors, but it can be a group of people sitting there talking to each other. And then of course, there's even quince great monologue is, is understand that he's certainly what his it's actionable, what he's doing, but he's certainly reacting in fact, it's seared into my mind, and it's good it's the brilliance of Spielberg and the blocking with the blocking is the positioning of the Actors within a scene. And so you you had Sheriff and then you had Richard Dreyfuss character and they were listening. And Quint had a stillness as he's delivering the lines within his action. But his, his eyes were moving to his audience, which was the sheriff and Richard Dreyfus. And he was, I could feel him reacting to them reacting to him. And that's the energy that we all have. I, one of the things that I think works in my favor as an actor, is, I'm empathetic. And so there's a thing you i would i would call myself empathic and I feel people that is a something that I think I was Think it's part nature important nurture. I can't explain it. But I've always I've always been that way. And I think that's, that's helpful. And I don't know if you're not someone in terms of empathy that you can develop that and might be the domain of the psychologist to tell us that. But the but I know that everybody can listen and is listening is comes in all different levels. There's not just one type of listening. And there shouldn't be by the way, if if you're part of a meeting where a lot of people are sort of chattering you want to listen on a certain level there but if if someone dear to you just says, Oh my God, my mother just died. You need to listen in a very, very different way, under if you care at all about the person. I'm not I'm stating that this is someone that's close to you that that so there's all different kinds of listening and it's very inner listening is reflected in your reaction so there's the reaction and football would be on the defensive side but there's no sport me know, although I do think acting is a bit of a sport and there's some great actor friends that I know and work with Benicio del Toro, who's been a friend for a decade. He's very competitive. And you know, he's even said to me, that you can be he can be in a scene sharing in a scene with another person. And you know, when that other person is really on their game and he feels feels the competition that he wants to. It's not like he's looking to wipe anybody out but he wants his game to be so strong and he knows that part of what's going to make an ISIS sometimes been easier not to blow smoke up your butt, but I watch you sometimes I analyze a movie I can't get my eyes off of you but heesu del Toro from won the Academy Award for traffic and he's Star sicario and Sal Dotto and most recently nominated for a Golden Globe Award for an or an Emmy, I'm sorry, an Emmy Award for us escape from dannemora which is a Showtime limited series. And I said I can't get my eyes off of you. And he didn't like you just listen then I. I said, You know, I find myself sometimes when I see you other actors too, but doing something really powerful. I find my I find myself physically leaning into the screen, physically moving. And he says, I certainly like to hear that. And I'm certainly looking to elicit a response from people and it would be the the opposite of that would be you weren't you weren't interested. Did in what I was saying or what I'm doing. And I want you to want to be interesting.

Pete Turner  44:05  
Yeah, I always talk about in terms of like combat and how to get people to do things, it's an effect over effect. And if my performance causes you to lean towards me, that may not be the effect I wanted, but I got one. And now I can adjust from there. If you don't care, it doesn't matter how much acting I'm doing ain't working. You know, it's, it's a powerful thing. Let me change gears because I do want to talk a little bit about your fitness thing that you do. For those that don't watch your videos, you put them on Instagram, and they also go up on Facebook and everything, getting better 30 seconds at a time. Imagine what the hell out of it. I mean, you without leaning forward, you get me to realize that I need because, you know, my jobs require sitting a lot and reading and, you know, not moving and so I have to force myself to get up and go do things and so when I'm feeling like man, whatever, I'm just, you get enough, not in a funk but you're just in that groove of sitting still. I'll pull up one of your videos. And I'm like, Yeah, okay, I don't have a kettlebell. But I can get up, I can move, I can grab these weights, I can do something, I move a little bit. So first off, thanks for doing that. It helps me, you know, you don't even realize you're doing it. But you know, by design, you are doing it, you're getting me to take care of me a little better. But I want folks to realize what it is that drives you to do that. I mean, obviously, you're passionate about fitness, you've been in shape forever, and you don't stay in shape that long at the level you are, if it's just a job, that's just not not real. So talking a little bit about your inspiration for these things. And then what you get back from all of us out there, as we say, hey, Pete, thanks for doing this.

Pete Koch  45:42  
So I've been interested in physical fitness and strength training my entire life. And I was and it started when I was 15 years old and I was went to high school, new Hyde Park Memorial High School. I'm from Long Island and we had a football coach. There. very fortunate that we had co head coaches and one of the one of these the two head coaches, they were both outstanding and one of them john kalo had played his college football at the Naval Academy. He was a center. john was the center and his quarterback was Roger Staubach. Okay, one when the Outland trophy that served in the Navy and then and then one, I believe two Super Bowl championships Cowboys, right? So I was very fortunate in john Kalos in his center, and it was an excellent coach. And he had said to me, I'm saying I was very tall and very, very thin, painfully thin, self conscious, and frankly, physically weak. But I was fast and I psychologically, I love to compete. And I was just I had a competitive nature. So my dad enrolled me in football, baseball. Basketball depending on the season since I was seven years old, and I was always running around and competing, but I was really weak. And he said to me, Coach, you got a chance, but you got to get stronger. We got a weight room in the basement of this high school and you got to find it, you got to use it, and I'm going to help you. And I said, I'm, I'm good at taking instruction. You know, I probably didn't say it in so many words then. But I was I was just wired that way to be better because I wanted to compete. And he says you can compete at a really high level, but only if you've got a chance, but you got to get stronger. And that started me on my journey. I really embraced the strength training. And I added a lot of size and muscle and strength by the time and I finished high school and I was captain of the high school football team and then I went on the captain football team at the University of Maryland. And then I went to the NFL but during that time, beginning from beginning as a teenager, I was interested in the process. Hey how how to muscles grow? How in the world is it you can pick up a barbell or a dumbbell and if you press it over your head or you or you do curls or you do pull ups, how can you squat this weight? Like a deep knee bend up and down? How if I do that 10 times, or do three or four sets of the how in the world was that changed? But I knew it worked. Yeah. And I was really interested in that process. So when I got done with football, and I knew I wanted to be an actor, I decided that I wasn't interested in you know, I wanted a job I wanted a career in helping something where I was helping people but in in service to people in a sense, and I knew what I love, but I needed I thought I'd be a trainer, not a strength coach because strength coach sort of, and I do have a lot of education and the most certified strength conditioning specialist but um, but that's, that's, that denotes more of a team environment and I really was looking. I wanted the Freedom and the autonomy to be a personal trainer and coach. And that's what I did. I went about and began, I knew I needed more formal education. I went and studied that I actually went back to school and took free medical studies at UCLA so I could bone up on what I wanted to the underpinnings of making somebody more physically fit with exercise, the underpinnings would be your natural sciences, chemistry and physiology and biology. So I studied that and added that to what I was doing and and I've been, I've been helping people ever since. And that's that's been my steady livelihood, which is good everybody needs that and something I feel good about and the passion Yeah. And when it comes to my, the the third videos that I make to help people some couple of couple of years ago, I thought to myself, well, how can I you know, just sort of give back like how do I just like we all need to make money. If somebody wants me to train them, I need I need to charge them money and everybody sort of understands that. But boy, boy, you know, every personal trainer listening knows that how many people I've met that say, Well, I'd love you to help me, but I don't have the money. And so I thought that but that's I wasn't so much concerned with, with hearing that but I thought I thought around that same time, I'd read a quote, it said,

try not to be so much a man of wealth, but rather a man of value. Yeah. Okay. And that's Albert Einstein, trying to so much to be a man of wealth, but rather a man of value. So I thought, How can I deliver value to people? no cost, no obligation. I have a head full of this stuff and a heart full of it passionately. And so I decided to make a video where I just gave some some pointers on how they can increase safely their level of physical fitness through strength training. And sometimes cardiovascular training can be stretching even sometimes. And I using social media as my platform. I thought I would deliver these bits of information 30 seconds at a time. So I call it making it better 30 seconds at a time. Yeah. And I offer it to people on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. And so that's been something I've been doing a couple years. I place 30 seconds at a time videos. Two, three a week, get out there and circulate. And I hope it does. A few different things. I hope that it It educates people, I hope that it motivates people. And I hope that it really animates people to look at themselves and to make some adjustments, possibly some decisions towards bettering themselves from are a couple of reasons at least. And that is to make themselves personally better. Because you're not good. You're not going to be much good to anybody else if you are not in good health. And then secondly, in a more globally I want people to understand and acknowledge and embrace the fact that society as a whole is better when everybody is is more physically fit and healthier.

Pete Turner  52:23  
Yeah, that's, that's a lot and as a great answer to the whole concept, like the show, I pack value into it, you know, with with, I don't need anything back necessarily, because that stuff will come back. It's a big leap of faith to go spend all the time because it's not easy to put videos up every day. It's not hard, but it's a thing you have to do every day to make it valuable. If that's the first step like can you do this every day actually be there and remind like, Oh, yeah, that's right. I'm not feeling like doing anything. I mean, watch a video and I'll get up and I'll do it. I get I know that that you've created value for me, and that regard. And if you're valuable, then you will, I think this Pete would say, you will have value returned to you, people will come to you and say, Hey, listen, I want more of that, you know, I have a budget, you know, I want to feel better and, and then then you get, you might get some fight, but there's so many other things that are valuable to it could be that someone discovers you for a KTM and you're like, hey, you're exactly what we want to do this and it's, it's just feeding value into the blind. Knowing that by being full of value, someone's gonna want to trade value for your value. I I don't think that's a young person's mindset. I think it takes some time to trust that I don't need $5 exchange for me every time I see you, you know, there's, there's so much more. There's so many things that yes, we all have to make money. But if you just focus on that you will deny yourself all the other things that are valuable, you know,

Pete Koch  53:53  
I think that's right. I think that you know what, not not, not to disparage a younger generation but I but rather to observe, I follow like many other people particularly I'm interested because of my interest in in physical fitness for some reason it's fitness, where I see a lot of young fitness enthusiasts or fitness professionals and trainers that I follow that many of them are offering their version of philosophy, their version of much more so than how to a practical implementation of a physical fitness program they're offering. And it's, for some reason, it's more times than not it's women, and they're offering their philosophy about life. I don't need your philosophy. I read the stoics.

Pete Turner  54:55  
Right.

Unknown Speaker  54:56  
Yeah. Problem the popularity Probably is that nobody reads the stoics anymore. Nobody under the age of 50 probably. So it but if you if you just spent 10 minutes perusing what

Pete Turner  55:17  
Hippocrates or or Plato, or Aristotle, or kilis had to say.

Pete Koch  55:26  
You would put in perspective, the tripe that other people are putting. I mean, I don't know about you, but I when I was 20 something I couldn't find my ass with two hands. No less was I offer like how presumptuous of me to offer you philosophy on your life. Yeah, you gotta be kidding me. And then I have still yet to meet a 20 something or that that can offer me anything that way they just not personal it's just doesn't work that way.

Pete Turner  55:54  
I'm trying not to say anything negative about a younger generation cuz I don't want to be the angry old man either. Yeah, it set us on that path but you're right. I have laughed out loud at a 20 something young 20 something year old fitness model like that to me like yes that's soft porn. And and look maybe you're going to be but if you're going to be Fit, Be Fit Let's just be young you know and then yeah not talking to me apparently with your wisdom you know the person I'm looking at but learn something first you know spend some time you know it's Yeah, it's a anyhow I love your videos I love that you're out there creating this valuable moment and like I said, he definitely changed how I see things. What a what a people who want to take the next step and they want your advice on eating on being fit, and stoicism How do they How do they reach you? What's the best way?

Pete Koch  56:46  
Well, I encourage people to find me on Instagram. It's pretty simple Pete Koch PT Ek o ch or LinkedIn and I'm also on Facebook, but I'm I'm just about maxed out on that all the time. So Would that would be like a third option for you? Yeah, just just take a look at what I'm doing. If it resonates with you, I'm easy to get ahold of you through either one of the any of the social media platforms make it easy to get ahold of, or I've got a website. You know, it's funny websites is sort of going away, but they still hang around a they have a function. Yeah, and mine does, too. But you can. I'm pretty good at it. You know, if you send me a message that is rational. Yeah. It has a question. odd to me why some people will write paragraph after paragraph about themselves, but there's no question in it. I'm not sure. I don't normally respond to those who without a question, but if you have a question for me, yeah, glad to answer it. More times than not it will get you get get back to you on that. And I also help people with their physical fitness and nutrition from a distance through on that's what online training is for. Yeah. That's the beauty of it, I can I can, we can talk on the phone, we can exchange emails, I can understand. Think of it in these terms. easiest example is the from a physical fitness standpoint, a lot of people go to the gym, and, you know, chronically, and they don't see the results that we're looking for. This is a ubiquitous problem. Probably 80% of everybody that is at your local gym is not seeing the results that they had hoped for. There's a reason for that, more times than not, there's a reason for that. And that is, there's a flaw in your programming, programming move, just condensed this very simply, that these are the decisions that you're making when you go to the gym. Let's take the big category of strength training, which is particularly important to women. Because they're at a greater risk for us you'll process and other debilitating diseases as they get older and there and they fail to keep the strength of their muscles and their bones. And so you would would and then the other growth category would be cardiovascular exercise something that makes us breathe heavy and sweat. So the programming is so this is starts with a what exercises by the way are you doing you've my gosh you walk into a big commercial gym there's hundreds of machines Not to mention the hundreds of exercises that you could choose to do with barbells and dumbbells or should I use the cables or what about the heard the exercise bands are good? What should I do? And then you say, how many sets should I do? And how many once I've decided that how many repetitions should I do? Should I do fast or slow? I heard that to do them fast on the way up or slow on the way to or how much time should I rest in between the sets these are collectively called acute exercise variables. And these are in a this is once you've decided what exercises by the way what order should do them in how many days week should you work out right? All this stuff. This is all a matter of public granting. And if you think you've got your programming down good for you. Yeah, I applaud you. If you think you might have a problem with your program, if I, if I've highlighted something for you, I'll put a microscope on something that maybe you're not quite Can you? You know, I'm asking you can you have? Do you have the rationale for what if I sit if I challenged you in a polite way to say, why are you doing that exercise? And why are you doing it for that many repetitions or sets? If you have an answer, if you have an answer you feel comfortable with and it's working for you. You're home free. Yeah. If it's not working for you, and you don't even know why anyway, right? I can help you.

Pete Turner  1:00:38  
Yeah, okay. I love it, man. I love it. And just in general, thanks for doing these with me. I I just get a kick out of times when we get to hang out and people we get to meet and it's just again value, right? Like this is valuable time. So I appreciate you and I add I appreciate all you doing for everybody with the working out. It's it's marvelous. I just think it's great.

Pete Koch  1:01:00  
Appreciate you, Pete Turner. We're breaking it down, you know? And it's been my pleasure. I appreciate you