How Mr. Olympia Became a Global Fitness Empire... | Dan Solomon| DSH #2074

**Dan Solomon** (0:00)
If you pursue this lifestyle responsibly, and you have the right people around you giving you the right advice, and you approach it with a prudent sense of health and longevity, it will create a level of efficiency in your processes, it will optimize your health, you potentially will live longer, you will be less stressed, you will be a better partner in your relationship, you will be a better parent. Most people, when they feel that burning, uncomfortable vibe in their stomach, they're being triggered to move away, or do something else and run for safety. But I think when you start to learn how to channel fear and understand that feeling in the pit of your stomach, that feels like fear, to be able to recognize that that's the gateway to the other side and to some really intensely successful shit, right?

**Sean Kelly** (0:47)
All right, guys, got the president of Mr. Olympia, one of my favorite events in Vegas, man. We got Dan in the building, let's go.

**Dan Solomon** (0:53)
Sean, it's good to do this, brother. You know, I see the guests that you bring on this show every day, every week, and there's always some connective tissue between that world and what we do on the bodybuilding and fitness side. So it's fun to finally make my way here and talk to you.

**Sean Kelly** (1:05)
Yeah, bridging the two worlds together, right?

**Dan Solomon** (1:06)
For sure.

**Sean Kelly** (1:07)
Yeah, because you're on the business side, but there's a whole other side, right?

**Dan Solomon** (1:09)
That's right.

**Sean Kelly** (1:10)
Yeah, so you focus primarily on growing the business.

**Dan Solomon** (1:12)
Yeah, so the Olympia, for those who don't know, is the Super Bowl of the Global Fitness Movement. It brings together all corners of the economic boom, that is fitness and nutrition and supplementation and equipment and apparel and all that stuff, that comes together as part of the Olympia. So the commerce of fitness and bodybuilding has become massive.
And then there's the big stage production, the event that Arnold Schwarzenegger won seven times and made him iconic. And of course, what he did with that title speaks for itself. But yeah, there's many layers of the Olympia, there's many layers of the fitness movement, and the central artery of all of it kind of lives right with the Olympia. And then it just kind of goes from there.

**Sean Kelly** (1:48)
Yeah, yeah. When I thought of Olympia prior to attending last year, I actually thought of only the competition side. But seeing all the exhibitors and the health and the wellness and the weights, there's more to it than just that.

**Dan Solomon** (1:58)
And it's not just that, it's sensory overload, right? Like you go there in the collection of people that gather. There's everybody, all the content you see online today, it's inspiration, it's motivation, but there is no community that more embodies the idea of motivation and inspiration, the way the fitness and bodybuilding movement. And everybody wakes up every day and they're looking for that one thing to kind of push them through it. And it's really gratifying to see the way people are finally recognizing it.

**Sean Kelly** (2:21)
Absolutely.

**Dan Solomon** (2:21)
Because there was a time when muscle was taboo, right? There was no leading man in Hollywood that had muscle. There was none of that stuff. And it's gotten to a place where you go and you see what Mark Zuckerberg is doing. I mean, these guys are training. Jeff Bezos is training. I was at a thing the other day watching some guys speak at an event called Aspiring for the first time. Kevin O'Leary was there, Mr. Wonderful, from Shark Tank. And he got up there and he spent 15 minutes of his presentation just talking about eating protein every day and spending 30 minutes just moving his body and getting in shape. And how central that is to the success conversation now.

**Sean Kelly** (2:56)
I mean, Kevin is looking a lot better than he used to.

**Dan Solomon** (2:57)
Yeah.

**Sean Kelly** (2:58)
I remember the early seasons of Shark Tank. He had some weight on it for sure. And now he's acting in a, what's that, Ping Pong movie. He just got an award for it.

**Dan Solomon** (3:04)
Right. He did. He's and he was good in it too. He was good.

**Sean Kelly** (3:08)
Mick Bride or Marty something? Marty Supreme.

**Dan Solomon** (3:11)
And it was that movie about the Ping Pong player. And he was a formidable actor. He was.

**Sean Kelly** (3:17)
Yeah. Shout out to Kevin, man. But yeah, now everyone's got this money and they just want to get their health right. Turned spy back to Tom.