To the ocean water podcast I have with me today
Cory live a little bit of a background about my buddy Cory
Cory's done warm-up and DJ work for over 15 years
He's worked with Dancing with the Stars America's Got Talent
American Idol he's done some stuff at the Super Bowl Cory's done a lot and
That's kind of a professional background. I know Cory on a personal note
I know Cory live as Cory and he's my friend and we've been a part of the same guys group
For a couple of years now, and I just want to say thank you so much brother for
Coming on and chatting with us today man. Absolutely, dude. Good to be here. Good to see you in the midst of this crazy time
It's still good to connect as closely as we can. So thanks for having me man. I'm excited. Yeah, I meet you brother
So when you're at home these days as we've all been and you go to order some food
Where do you go and what do you get?
Man, you know, it's crazy. I have been cooking
non-stop
Since I kind of have gone the opposite like there are a lot of people doing Postmates and Grubhub and Uber Eats and I am
Uber Eats to my household. So so here's the deal. I got an instant pot, which is kind of cheating but
I've become the master at the instant pot and and I've kind of really
I've done chicken pad thai in the instant pot. I've done chicken tortilla soup. I've done baked potato soup
but the ribs and
the wings
Wings are kind of my go-to
comfort food
Anywhere in the world like if I really need to feel good. I'm a wing guy. I'm from the East Coast
So it's like that's what we do. We have wings and watch sports. So
So yeah, but I've become an instant pot crazy person
I've also been watching a lot of like Gordon Ramsay and kind of trying to trying to do what he does
Which is nearly impossible, but I made a good fish and chips from scratch
Which was pretty cool. So yes, I've actually probably cooked
I think maybe one time we got like a Baja fresh burrito at one point
But for the most part I've been stirring it up man, but wings are my go-to wings are for sure my go-to
Well, we've been we've been we've been meaning to have a party at your house
For a while, bro. So I'm gonna hold you up to those ribs, dude. Yeah, they're they fall off the bone, dude
They fall off the bone. Just don't tell anybody they're instant pot
I want dude. I want they sound so good. So so what do you um, what are you doing these days?
And how did you get into it?
um
pre
BC before COVID. Yeah
So
Exactly. So yeah, I you know what? I I
I kind of always I've always been a performer so it's kind of always just been in my blood and and like I said
I'm from the east coast. I went to college in
Boston and then came out here and started working in a theme park as a dancer because I came out here with an acting degree
Wanted to be a serious actor, but then I started doing I was just I love dance. I love music
So I started dancing and I was a theme park
Dancer for a Nickelodeon show then ended up hosting that show
um
Took me a lot of cool spots got to do some really cool things threw a lot of pies in people's faces and slimed people
And did all of that did the theme park circuit for a while
and then that kind of transitioned to auditioning for a uh to host a tv show which I ended up booking
For fox family and did 15 episodes of that one whole summer, which was really cool
It's called the high-fi room. And um, I mean that was like I was interviewing christina
Aguilera when she was genie in a bottle like it was like first days of these folks, which was crazy
And getting to like interview boys to men which was nuts to me
Just like grew up loving them and getting to interview them was insane
So that show then got split because abc family bought fox family
So they lost some of their newer shows that production team split up
They started a new show called american idol called me and asked if I would want to come in and warm up a crowd
And i'm not really a stand-up comic, but I love to talk and have fun
so
Uh, yeah
I went and did this holiday special for idol with kelly clarkson and rubin and clay and justin and
Then they were like we want to come on and do the season. So I started season three at idol
and ended up doing
Um idol for 14 seasons
And then dancing with the star like so then once I started doing that other shows started to see me
So like dancing with this I did 22 seasons of dancing with the stars because they did two a year
Yeah, I did 22 seasons of dancing with stars america's got talent the boys smarter than a fifth grader
Then it just kind of like became a crazy thing. So
Then that transitioned to a lot of these companies who sponsored those shows like at&t ford coke
They were like this guy's great. How do we get them at our national summit or our regional?
President president's club so then then they found out I was a dj so that it was a two for one
I would come in and host their summits. I would get their
1500 2000 summit winners fired up I dj their big
Events and then started touring the world doing a lot of djing for
artists I would open for non-ticket headliners, so a company like bmw or
Porsche they would they would do a an event for their company and hire maroon five
But they would need a dj to warm up and kind of be their kind of opener
So they'd hire me on as the opener
so that's how I got to open for some great acts like john mayer and maroon five and just some cool cats and some
Really really good people and now the transition is taking another turn and I'm taking all of that the 15 years of warm-up
putting it in a book turning that into a motivational speaking platform and
That's what I've kind of like, you know
Post covid or during covid i've been in it
Kind of creating my vlogs and creating material and just coming up with content for writing the book and
Just this motivational speaking platform that I want to take virtual now and because I I lost every gig through the end of the year
Yep, so every gig went away
So, you know, it's all about the pivot and how you do it
So sorry that was a little bit long, but that's kind of the story in a nutshell
I love it, man
I've been friends with you for a long time now and i'm really excited to read
What you're going to put out and I do think you have something to say and I think you're going to do
extremely
Extremely well, i'm really excited. I'm really excited to see this this next chapter for you bro
I think it's going to be really cool. So like if if current if current corey could talk to like
20 year old corey, what are what are the things what are a few things you might say?
I think the biggest thing that uh
Uh current corey would say to past corey is that you're not going to perfect anything
um
I'm a perfectionist
So I there's a lot of times I would hesitate
on doing things
because I
I gotta wait till it's just right
You know, um, and I was listening to a speaker. I forget who it was
but um
You know, they they said start now like don't wait till you're ready start now
Uh, so I think that would kind of be it and honestly when I look back at the trajectory of my life. I know that
God purposed it for a reason. I know
That the 15 years of warm-up. I I mean
You know, it's really hard being the second person being the person that nobody sees but everybody kind of feels
Your work because I'm getting 800 people 1500 people fired up and then ccrest comes on stage or carlson daily or tom burgeon
And they get all the credit
and so
Everyone knows my work. So i'm probably you know, the most popular person that nobody knows
Um, because they know everyone else's work. That's a that's a great life goal. Yeah
So it's it's which is okay because you know, there's a lot of pressure that comes along with sure, you know
Being in everyone's feet 24 7. So it's okay with me. Um
I think yeah, that's what I would tell my younger self is it's okay to to just dive in and don't worry
Don't let don't wait for everything to be perfect
because
You know, there's there's
There's not really any anything good that can come if you have something completely perfect that the the real work and the real
um
uh satisfaction comes in the process of trying to perfect something and as you know
You know, we never really perfect anything. No
No, we don't
So yeah, it's good, man. It's really good
so a lot of a lot of uh growing and
Keeping life interesting is staying, you know curious about things
It's like one of my favorite questions to ask, you know, what are you what are you interested in these days?
What are you what are you curious about?
Gosh, you know what honestly like I have
I've never been a big reader
Um, which is crazy because like hosting and doing all of that and doing all this stuff for corporate events
I'm reading teleprompter all the time
But i've never been one to be able to sit and read because I get so distracted but I have been so
just
interested in absorbing
um
just just taking in as much as I can from
leaders and
uh
legacy builders in the world, so i've already i've read five books during quarantine and
I
You know, i'm not a reader, but I can't get enough of it and and part of that is also
My time with god. I I I have really I have really you know, uh
I've dove into scripture really i'm not the best at my script my scripture
So I really want to you know, just have that time with god and what does god want in my life?
Especially because i'm at the point where I want to build legacy. I want to build my own legacy
So where where does god how do I fit in?
With that what does god's plan look like in my legacy building?
So that is that has got me like on a whole other trip. I i've really like i've picked up
videography and photography i'm i'm i'm
Super curious of telling stories through the lens now and editing
um
so it's just
I've spent hours just trying to again
Like that was one of the things that was like no this this vlog is not perfect
But i'm going to publish it anyways
It's like because i because i'll look back after 100 vlogs and i'll be like wow
I was really bad when I started but you see how far you've come, you know
So yeah, so those are the things that really piqued my curiosity or what are leaders doing right now?
How are leaders still influencing the world?
um and then
You know consuming books
And picking up these new habits, you know because
I listened to a great sermon this weekend and it was you know, and he said practice doesn't make perfect practice makes permanent
so
What are we trying to make permanent in our life?
You know, and so I I kind of had to shift priorities a little bit in that but
Yeah, i'm that's that's kind of where i'm at is is telling a different story here in the second half of my life
That I told in the first half of my life. I think the first half of my life the story was all about me
I was the main character, you know, I think we all get kind of caught up in that we tell we want because
You spend that part of your life trying to accomplish these goals. You want to check mark those boxes for you?
But now i'm at the point where i'm like
I've i've checked off enough boxes who who can I help check off their boxes?
So that's the second half and that's kind of where my focus is now
That's great, man, I mean just listen to you talk I can you got a lot to say dude
And it's good, you know, there's a difference between
saying something
And having something to say
Yeah, I agree, you know and you've got something to say so it's cool. It's cool to watch it come out. This is like
This is no, this is great, man
So good, uh, so
You know, what are what are one or two things that that you've you know, maybe failed out along the way that stand out?
You're like, whoa, I wish I wish that hadn't happened any anything big, you know a lot of
Passing on, you know, like advice is is sharing things we we blew it at
Exactly exactly
I would say you didn't stand out
I would say I mean everything i'm successful at I failed at so like I like that's the thing is that
You know, and if if you fail at something
that
you like
Put it this way if you end up becoming successful at something chances are you fail at something
Successful at something chances are you failed at it?
But you were passionate enough about it to learn from that failure and to move on so like for me
um
I I I mean, I can't like think of like specific instances, but I know when I started as warm-up
That there I didn't know what I was doing. I had no clue what I was doing
Like there were times I got caught
in
the background of shots
Going like this telling an audience to make like just waving my arms like a crazy person to get people to clap
And i've had, you know directors yell at me. Um
Actually, I could I could give you a specific
um
I I was doing early on I was doing this show called
Uh rock star it was rock star in excess. So dave navarro was the host
And brook burke was the co-host
and
in excess
Yeah, and in excess was looking for a new band member
So it was basically it was that it was the idol slash voice slash agt version
But it was like they're looking for a rock star. So they they were looking for that new
that new uh
front man for in excess
And it was my buddy's show. So I was just helping him out
And I came in and they shot on a sunday morning
Which like for that crowd like think of like, you know, you're like
It's a crowd like, you know that would
Gather on sunset boulevard
Like underground like you're talking about the whiskey a go-go or I can't think of the other place on um
sunset but like
Rock people, you know what I mean? You've got like in excess dave navarro like stone temple pilots like these folks
So first of all when I came out on stage the the smell of alcohol in the room
Because of the hangovers that were happening. This was sunday morning. I swear some of those people in the audience did not go home
After their saturday night, they went straight to the studio. So now i've got to get a studio to scream
At nine thirty ten in the morning after they're been out all night going crazy. So
This is my first day doing this doing the show for my friend and i'm filling in for my friend
and
Um, it was I was trying to a lot of these shows are shot 360. So it's almost impossible
For you to not be in the shot
But I have to be in the shot
I have to be in eyesight of the audience so then for them to see me get them going
So they know when to clap and when to bring it down and all that stuff
And then not in the eyesight of the camera so they don't see me manipulating the audience in any way
And so i'm trying to hide in the crowd. I'm trying to get them going and it was just a tough crowd
And at one point i'm i'm running through the through it and one of the producers came up to up to me during the show
And just he just laid into me like what the hell are you doing? You are the worst
You're absolutely terrible like like letting me have it like I can't I mean he was swearing at me and I mean, I'm like
Nice to meet you. Like i'm corey. This isn't even my real name
This isn't even my regular gig like to the point where if it was my gig, I would have walked out
I would have walked out right there because no one deserves to be treated like that and i'm working my butt off to make your show work
so
um
But it was my buddy's show
And I didn't want to to walk. I was like, you know what? I gotta stay here
I gotta just you know, I gotta take it on the chin. I gotta be I gotta
So that was at the beginning of the show so that I had to do two hours of a show after I just got ripped
By the producer of the show completely annihilated and it was a mark bernett show
So it's it's his whole crew his whole team and mark bernett does everything
um, so I you know what I just I went and I did it I did it the best I could and
You know, I just turned it around. I'm like I can't
And so my buddy went to the show
It really that one threw me off because then I was like, I don't why am I even here?
I'm trying to get your people excited and I should be on stage hosting this show
Like i'm a better host than dave navarro. You know what I mean? I could be up there hosting the show
So it was a lot of pride involved and that kind of rocked me for a few months
My buddy went back to do the show and even like one of the producers came up and said what was up with your buddy?
Was he high on drugs? Was he drunk?
And my friend was was like that's funny that you would say that because he's never done a drug in his life
And I I know he didn't show up drunk and then all of a sudden
Like the cameraman that knew me from idol the cameraman that knew me from so you think you could dance
The the sound guy they all were like no, that's no cori doesn't so immediately like they were all on my side
I didn't even know that I just was like
That's you know what I mean, but
That is a long story to say that like there's sometimes even in the midst of your failure. You have to just continue
to trudge through it because it's icky and disgusting
But man, I I mean after that mark bernett called me to do the voice mark bernett like it's crazy the turnaround on that
When all of a sudden he's calling you to do shows and i'm like, yeah, i'm the guy you thought was high and drunk
But you can't hold on to that right if you it's just like it's like a quarterback
You have to you have to have amnesia because the second you throw a throw a pick
You've got to be thinking about the next touchdown you're going to throw you think about the pick you're going to throw another one
You're going to throw another one. So that's the quickest thing you can do is assess the failure. Why did it happen?
How can you prevent it from happening in the future? Should you want to continue down this path and then hit the delete button?
Right get rid of it. So you pull those pull the nuggets and get the get rid of the rest you sift through it
You know you sift it you grab the gold you get rid of the rest and it it'll apply
It applies to anywhere if you're in corporate america if you're in the entertainment industry sports
It's just it you sift for the gold and you get rid of the rest
I love it, man. It's so good
Yeah, we've all gotten our butt kicked a few times. Let's get the look back and
Yeah, try to figure it out. Oh, it's it's good. I haven't thought of that one in a minute, man. It's been a couple
Yes, we've all you know, we've all been I like what you said about being thrown off. I've had that
I've had that happen to me many times. It's like you're yeah
So it's uh, it's good to be reminded that we can um, we can get thrown off and not but not thrown out. It's good
Yeah, yeah, absolutely
We want to hang out like a little bit of a little bit of a right and um
Let's talk a little bit about kind of the world of water for a minute and yeah, what's your
Thank you so much by the way for sharing a lot of your background. So interesting
Absolutely all the different people you've met along the way and all the different
Circles, you've had a chance to interact with it's really really fun to listen to
So what what would be kind of your understanding of like what's
What's happening in the world in in with with regards to water would be like your understanding of that
Well, I know that like I mean, obviously we've chatted since you know
We're friends we hang. I mean, we haven't talked
into super crazy depths about it. So um, it's not that so my opinion isn't
like a like supersuade by our conversations, but just knowing that
A
Water takes up the majority of our globe
right, so
um
And and i'm sure you could speak to this but
There's a large percentage of that
That is inadequate for people. Um, it's not it's not adequate inadequate water supply
So while it makes up the majority of our planet
It probably
um lacks
the
Uh, you know the health element that it needs all over the world
I know that there are spots all over the globe that are struggling and
to me
especially like I mean, I love working out and I love staying fit and that that kind of thing, but
In the middle of all of this water is the water is the great reset button
Right water is the ultimate reset button
Like if you're it it'll you're not sleeping at night drink more water
You're sleeping too much drink more water your I mean water is the great reset button and and there are so many
countries that don't have access
to
Water that will reset their body the water that they have access to actually makes it worse. So
And I think it's hard. I think it's hard because
Obviously, what do you see on tv? You see people starving. They don't have enough food. You see disease outbreak, but
Water you can you can you can survive on water
But for some reason it doesn't get the headlines
Like, you know, let's feed the homeless. Let's shelter these it and all of it's important
But I feel like water doesn't get the headlines it deserves
Yeah, if that makes sense
Yeah, it does make sense and you hit you hit the nail on the head. You know, the the earth is covered with three
three quarters of water and
You know and also the
the
Water that we have in the world is
Only about three percent of it's what we call potable and what that means is that it's
In the state that it exists in
and so and for the most part those those
The places in the world where that water is available. It's it's what it's already tapped as we can say
It's it's already sort of tapped and taken
and uh and
The problem is is so right now in the world, you know, there's about eight billion people
Right now the the water problems that about a billion person problem
If you look at population projections, so like in the next 30 years
We're going to add another another billion people supposed to be at nine billion people by
By 2015 and the majority of the population
Growth is going to occur in the areas of the world where right now we have the most of the
Water problems, so
for for for example, I was I was contacted, uh
Just a few days ago from a girl in singapore
My wife and I set up a zoom call with her and we interviewed her. She's a girl named Candice
She's 25 and she had taken a trip to Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea
Few people know this actually has the greatest kind of water
Access problem on the planet right now. Wow little known fact
So we're kind of working with her and her about how we can be a part of that
solution because
Kind of the paradox or kind of the big problem water is that
The people who need it the most
Actually pay the most money for it
Mm-hmm. So and it's yeah, you know it as someone who
Loves god and is trying to love people
You know, we're trying to love people
you know, we're really excited to step into
Uh places and problems where we can solve people's, you know access to water
and
Yeah
as a surfer
Right my dad started me surfing when I was 12 and then as I started to do my
My doctoral work. I started to understand. Wait a second. We actually have all the water that we need in the world. It's in the ocean
So how can we make
that water available to
To people that need it
And then and then as you start to study water, there's really two schools of thought there's there's people that believe you should you should charge
Uh money for water. We want to people view water as a commodity
Yeah, and uh, and then there's other people that view water as a fundamental human right. That's kind of my view
Yeah, so
One of the exciting things, uh
One of the reasons i'm so committed to these conversations is because
you know
Water is something that that's a solvable problem. It's also something people understand
You know, and it's really easy for people to understand. Oh, wow. We actually have all the water we need in the ocean
How do we how do we do projects that can make ocean water available to people where they need it?
so
Thank you for like chatting with this because you know
Change happens when we change the way that we think yeah and and first
First we have to raise minds. We have to change the way that we think about things and
Helping people to understand that you know water is a human right helping people to
To understand we actually have all the water we need it's in the ocean and then helping people to understand
How do we view water is it not as a commodity?
But as a but as a human right? Yeah, and then and then how do we view water?
Yeah, and then and then how do we you know, so for example in El Salvador, we've installed a system
That turns 360 gallons of ocean water every day into into clean drinking water and what that does that system provides
water for 38 families
In palmercito and as you start to do the research in the world
You start to understand that really the people in the cities in the suburbs are doing well
But it's but it's kind of these pockets of the forgotten
It's like these rural areas and these these villages and these beach towns that are kind of off the track that
That really need our help. Yeah. Yeah, that's so it's really really
Interesting when you start to look at it's amazing. Yeah
That's amazing
Yeah, it's cool. It's cool, too
How I love having these conversations because every every good thing that's happened in my life has always come out of a relationship
With someone and it's always come out of a conversation. Yeah, you know and and I I
Really passionate
Passionate about that and I love god because god always gives us a perspective for others. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely, dude
Yeah, that's cool
It's really awesome. That is awesome. Yeah, thank you, dude
It's really fun to have these conversations and I appreciate um, you just taking a little bit of time with us today, dude
You've um, you've
Done a lot. Um, i'm i'm excited about
Your your next chapter
You you you at some point told me that I could call in a favor and you'd come dj something for uh,
So as soon as I find um, dude, i'm on it. I think I know I know I know you are you're you're bro
And as soon as we can find a date
For our for our one year party for ocean water. Yeah, i'm in the dj. That'll be a lot of fun
We'll get jesson who's whose photo you left up there in the background. We'll get him down
Yeah, exactly
Um, yeah, you know and and yeah fundraisers whatever, you know, it's it's it's however I could contribute and you know, hopefully
You know some people start
Getting on the uh the track to wellness and getting healthier so that we could start bringing groups together because
that I I mean
Like with everything this this this only hurts the progress of your clean water project because
Yeah, without having the opportunity to come together with groups to to to brainstorm to build to create to produce to brand it
You know, I mean zoom is cool, but you you need physical you need to physically put these things in places
Yeah, you're right. I've already had to cancel two trips to el salvador
I might have to cancel. I don't know. We're we have a trip to bangladesh. We want to do in december
We have a site we have a group of people we want to install a system. We want to help people
Start a church there. So, you know, yeah, i'm i'm along with you man. I hope that we're able to get together soon and um,
But dude, are there any um, there any last words we need to hear from hear from corey today brother? What do you got for us?
What do we need to hear? What do we need to hear on the way out dude?
Well, you know what it's it's been a uh, it's it's been an interesting time since march
But I really feel that the past couple weeks have been a little more
Taxing on people I think in march people were like, okay, this isn't fun. But by july will be good
And now it's like
Yeah, we're we're not even done with wave one and we're going backwards again
So there's a lot of that. Um, just that unrest that's beneath the surface and that's just
I'm i'm just talking about covet. I'm not even talking about
Race relations. I'm not even talking about an election. I'm not even like that like
So to me, especially like what i've been thinking on like for this week is
Um, don't talk about it be about it
Right. So that's kind of my that's kind of my mantra for the week right now. It's kind of what i'm i'm kind of marinating on which is
Uh, it's okay to talk about it. But you know
We all know action speaks louder than words. So it's it's
It's it's okay to talk about it, but don't just talk about it be about it. How can you be about it? So
Um, don't just talk about change be about change. Don't just talk about
You know
Living a healthy lifestyle be about a healthy lifestyle, you know
If it means that you have to abide by certain rules if it means you got to put a mask on if it means you have to stay six feet apart
If it means
You know, you can't hang out with people for another month
You can't do it, but don't talk about being healthy if you're not trying to be
That that way so that's it man, you know, and it's for everything
It's for everything you want to do right for all of your goals
It's like you could talk about your goals and it's good and vision boards are great, but it's it's not until you start being
About it that they start to all of a sudden become tangible and you can you know, you can touch them
You can feel them you can hold on to them. So that's it man. Don't just be about it
Don't just talk about it be about it and and you're like a you're a huge example of that
Because this was this was the brainchild that you had years ago and you said you know what?
I'm good, man. I I got a chill gig here. I'm like i'm in a good spot
I'm at one of the best places in the world
um
But you know what like you it wasn't for you. You're you had to be about it
You had to be about this water movement
So you left that dude and you got into a super uncomfortable place where nothing is guaranteed
Nothing is guaranteed and going to these places these spots that don't have water
They don't have a lot of things so you're going to places that yeah, you're bringing water
But like the resources to be able to build these these filters and these divide like you don't have a lot of that
So you have to really rely on god. So for you
Like you are an example of being about it. So um, so just keep doing what you're doing
And for those those who are watching, you know jump in and be a part of this because all of this stuff
all of it needs to be addressed and you know, we need to we need to
Start start remembering our neighbors and lifting up humanity instead of just you know, one-upping our
You know our garage and in the cars in our driveway and that kind of stuff. So
So there you go. That's it. Don't talk about it be about it
Thank you brother. Hey, Cory. Love you brother. Thank you, man. Love you too, man
Okay. Have a good one, bro. All right. Thanks, man. Take care. Thank you, too