#76. From Pizza Shop to Marathon Runner: How Pete Ciotti Reset His Life at 45

Scott Hammond: Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, and friends of all ages and good neighbors, it's Scott Hammond with the 100% Humboldt Podcast, with my new very best friend, the amazing Pete Ciotti.

Pete Ciotti: Aw.

Scott Hammond: Did I say it right?

Pete Ciotti: We're besties. You did.

Scott Hammond: Ciotti.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, you nailed it.

Scott Hammond: Wait, is that Italian?

Pete Ciotti: I think so.

Scott Hammond: I think s- It's… Wait, go to 23andMe. No, you can't 'cause they're out of business. See, snuck a joke in right away. So, uh, you're, you're my first, as talking offline, uh, you're my first guy in my Regular Guy series. There's nothing regular about you. You're actually a pretty complex dude, so- … let's just get right into it. Tell us the, uh, the Pete Ciotti story. Uh, what do you, maybe what you do now, but where you f- came from, elementary school, junior high, wherever you wanna go.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, boy. That's a long story.

Scott Hammond: Go for it.

Pete Ciotti: We'll, we'll shorten that.

Scott Hammond: Hey, we got, we got all kinds of time.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, right now, uh, I am a father of four. Uh, the fourth baby just came five weeks ago.

Scott Hammond: Beautiful baby.

Pete Ciotti: So I think that's the biggest title I wanna hold in my life, is being a father. Um, four, four kids, one about to graduate high school, and a baby just came into the house, so we kind of reset.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, that's awesome, and that's going really well. Bring it closer.

Scott Hammond: There you go.

Pete Ciotti: And, uh, yeah, uh, other than that, I have a landscaping business called Ciotti Yard

Pete Ciotti: Maintenance.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I've had that for a few years. Um, I've been-

Scott Hammond: I saw your big truck. You got a killer diesel.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, it's out there hogging the parking lot.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you got a Humboldt Grototor.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Um, we, uh, we got two trucks on the road now. Um, started that business a few years ago with basically, uh, what, a weed whacker and my wife's car, and just taking work wherever I could. And then it just kinda, like, snowballed from there. But I've always been kind of, like, a serial entrepreneur since I was, like, 26. So I, when I was 26, I started a pizza shop called Big Pete's Pizza.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: It was running for 10 years in Arcata.

Scott Hammond: Arcata.

Pete Ciotti: And we had one in Eureka, too.

Scott Hammond: Oh, you had two?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, for a little bit. Um-

Scott Hammond: Let me use my prop real quick. Arcata's right up there on the top of the bay.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Humboldt Bay.

Pete Ciotti: Right.

Scott Hammond: And Eureka, California, which is all Northern California f- and don't, don't say by San Francisco 'cause that's more-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … central.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Right?

Pete Ciotti: Right.

Scott Hammond: So there's a… Where's the Big Pete's in Eureka?

Pete Ciotti: It was, do you know where, like, I think it's called Sammy's Barbecue is now-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Pete Ciotti: … and it was a Pizza Hut before that?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: So right when it was a Pizza Hut and they went out, we took over that building. We had it for just a few years.

Scott Hammond: Oh, wow.

Pete Ciotti: Um, it was a big endeavor for us. Um, it didn't work out.

Scott Hammond: It's a big building, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Um, just a high rent and a lot going on, a lot of overhead. And then I was just spread way too thin trying to run back and forth. But the Arcata store was open for 10 years. Uh, it was a staple in North Town Arcata. It was awesome. And when I left there, I, I, I'd gotten married in that timeframe, um, and my

Pete Ciotti: wife's, uh, sister and brother-in-law owned the Jambalaya, and they kinda want- were getting out of it or whatever, and it wasn't working out. And I kinda got involved-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … with my wife and her parents, and before we knew it, we were running the Jam. So we kinda tran- transitioned-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Pete Ciotti: … closed the pizza shop down, became the owners of the Jambalaya.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, called it the Jam. And I started booking all the bands. So that was my main thing there, was, uh, bringing entertainment. We built a new stage, put in a new sound system, started booking out-of-town bands. It was really fun. And we ran that all the way till the, basically right before the pandemic. We sold it three months before the pandemic hit.

Scott Hammond: Perfect timing.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Not for the guy who bought it, unfortunately.

Scott Hammond: Not… Yeah, sadly.

Pete Ciotti: I feel bad, but, uh, for-

Scott Hammond: Who were your best-

Pete Ciotti: … us, it worked out

Scott Hammond: … best bands that you've ever booked?

Pete Ciotti: Oh, man. We had-

Scott Hammond: Who was mem- memorable? Dylan?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, no. That would've been cool. We did have Rich Robinson from The Black Crowes came and did a solo show-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … with, with his band, and that was really, a really fun night. We had a lot of DJs, big name DJs.

Pete Ciotti: We had, um, we had everything. We had mu- so we had a venue that had music basically seven nights a week, and that was really hard to do, like-

Scott Hammond: It's hard

Pete Ciotti: … you know? And we, at one point, for a few years, we didn't even have food. We were just literally a nightclub, so, you know, we'd open the doors at 8:00, and there'd be music till 2:00, and that was it.

Scott Hammond: That was it.

Pete Ciotti: We would bartend, and-

Scott Hammond: That was it

Pete Ciotti: … it was, it was pretty fun. It was a good time, but, uh, as many things like that do, you just can't sustain your, that life, uh, just bartending till 3:00 in the morning-

Scott Hammond: Right

Pete Ciotti: … dealing with all the drunks on the plaza.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: It just became less about the music and the nightclub and more about the drama on downtown and-

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: Um, and-

Scott Hammond: So you're, you're sober now, right?

Pete Ciotti: I've been sober since I sold it.

Scott Hammond: You're sober, like, right here in the studio.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, yeah. I'm sober right now in the studio.

Scott Hammond: That's, that's kinda me, yeah, going.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, yep, believe it or not.

Scott Hammond: You've been… So how many years?

Pete Ciotti: So I haven't drank alcohol since the New Year's Eve

Pete Ciotti: 2019.

Scott Hammond: Crazy. Good for you.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, and I-

Scott Hammond: How's it feel?

Pete Ciotti: I'm done. Yeah, I don't dr- I don't, I don't mess with it at all.

Scott Hammond: Who needs it, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, I mean, whatever. To each his own.

Pete Ciotti: I just, uh-

Scott Hammond: That's fine

Pete Ciotti: … doesn't work for my life at all.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, yeah. My dad got sober when I was 13.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. I remember you telling me that.

Scott Hammond: Stayed, yeah, stayed sober 40, 40-plus years till he died.

Pete Ciotti: Wow, that's awesome.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. He always said, "I'm gonna drink that bottle of Johnnie Walker Red tomorrow. I'm gonna get hammered drunk."

Pete Ciotti: Oh, tomorrow.

Scott Hammond: And he goes, "Yep, tomorrow, that's gonna happen."

Pete Ciotti: Kept saying it?

Scott Hammond: Kept saying it.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Never happened.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He'd get stressed out. "Yeah, nah, I'm gonna get drunk."

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: "I'll, I'll get wasted tomorrow for sure."

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Never did. Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: I guess I just started seeing, as a bartender too, like, a lot of people, um, even my age and younger, whatever, just coming in and g- deteriorating over time, and just realized that alcohol is just, it's, there's nothing healthy about it. And, and I think a lot of people use it as a crutch, um, to socialize.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And then they just, before they know it, it's just taken over their lives.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And I've seen it taken over a lot of friends' lives, and I just, it's just not for me.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: I have a friend that said, "Don't let stuff… It's okay to have stuff, just don't let stuff have you."

Pete Ciotti: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: So that's kinda-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … reverse is true. So where'd you, uh, end up going to school? Where'd you… You were raised down south?

Pete Ciotti: Uh, so I, uh, yeah, okay. So I was born in Florida, moved to New York when I was, like, I don't know, a baby. I grew up in New York, Upstate New York, Eth- near the Ithaca area.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I went to school there, and my, my parents separated when I was nine years old, so my dad moved back down to Florida. So I kinda spend my time, grade school in New York, uh, middle school in New York, then I went to high school in Florida. Went back to high school and back again.

Pete Ciotti: So-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Pete Ciotti: … ended up graduating high school in Florida, but I kinda had friends in both

Pete Ciotti: states.

Scott Hammond: So upstate where it's frozen tundra-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … to Florida where it's, like-

Pete Ciotti: Hot

Scott Hammond: … s- crazy humid

Pete Ciotti: Way humid, hot, like, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, so you kinda get a little too much of one or the other and move

Pete Ciotti: around.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: But, uh, y- you know, it was cool, and then, uh, you know, I graduated high school and moved back to New York and lived there for a year, and just realized I wanted something completely different than, than the East Coast. And so my friends were all planning, we all worked together, we were all first year in college. My, my friends were planning to move to California. They didn't know exactly where, but they were like, "We don't wanna really be in a city like San Francisco. We wanna be around there."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: So when you were saying central and northern.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: They ended up finding out about what was Humboldt State at the time-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and so they moved out to Arcata, and-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Pete Ciotti: … um, I was gonna go with them, but I just kinda hesitated, and then two weeks had gone by and I was like, I looked around and I was like, "Oh, man. All my friends are gone."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Like, they just, they just up and went. So a other friend of, acquaintance friend of mine was like, "Hey, I'm gonna go out to Oregon for a little bit. Do you wanna h- do you wanna ride out to the West Coast and see what it's like? And I'm gonna come all the way back," you know?

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: So I was like, "Yeah, well, you're gonna come back. Cool." And, uh, I ended up not coming back. I ended up living in Oregon in Mount Hood for, like, about a year.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: And then I made my way to Humboldt and was with the rest of my friends.

Scott Hammond: That's east of Portland, right?

Pete Ciotti: East of Portland, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, it was pretty awesome. I literally, I got there in May, and I

Pete Ciotti: think I-

Scott Hammond: Beautiful

Pete Ciotti: … camped out, exclusively camped around the mountain until October, until I just couldn't anymore,

Pete Ciotti: and then I-

Scott Hammond: It was too cold

Pete Ciotti: … finally got a place. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: A lot of berries growing up there.

Pete Ciotti: Berries, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Berry territory.

Pete Ciotti: Salmon berries, I think maybe.

Scott Hammond: Berry, berry good.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, berry good.

Scott Hammond: So where'd you go to college?

Pete Ciotti: So went to college a little bit in New York, went to college a little bit at Mount Hood actually-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … community college, and then when I got here, went a little bit of college at

Pete Ciotti: CR. Got in a car wreck, um, pretty bad car wreck.

Pete Ciotti: Um, and l- I was fine, but, uh, the car I had that would get me to school and whatnot was totaled.

Scott Hammond: Didn't make it.

Pete Ciotti: And so I kinda dropped out at that point and joined a rock and roll band, and we toured around the country for years.

Scott Hammond: Makes perfect, perfect sense.

Pete Ciotti: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Didn't we all?

Pete Ciotti: Yep. Uh, it was funny 'cause, like, we had a, we're, we're coming home from the studio recording our first album, and all our gear was in the car, and I was on Union Ola Road, and I was driving.

Scott Hammond: Oh, no.

Pete Ciotti: It was in the afternoon, and, um, a drunk driver lost control of her car going about 90 miles an hour right at Three Corners

Pete Ciotti: Market-

Scott Hammond: No way

Pete Ciotti: … right there. And I, I had to just, like, kinda swerve a little bit or else we would hit head-on, and she flipped us up into a ditch, and my

Pete Ciotti: buddy-

Scott Hammond: Shoot

Pete Ciotti: … guitar player, also named Pete, was on the ground, and I was up in

Pete Ciotti: the air. And I pulled him out.

Scott Hammond: Like ejected?

Pete Ciotti: And we got out-

Scott Hammond: You were ejected?

Pete Ciotti: … and looked at each other and we were like…

Pete Ciotti: Not ejected.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Pete Ciotti: Our gear was ejected u- up on the hill-

Scott Hammond: I bet

Pete Ciotti: … and broken, except for his guitar was totally in tune. And I looked at him, he looked at me, and we were like, "How do we not have a scratch on us?"

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Like nothing.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: And that was one of the first times as an adult I realized that I had God on my side, that I was protected, and it was like, wow, like, I cannot believe I'm here.

Scott Hammond: Angels.

Pete Ciotti: You know? And yeah, I mean, literally our car was totaled. Her car was totaled. She was fine. The, she had a fi- we had a fire hydrant, and there was water s- going, spurting all over the road.

Scott Hammond: No way.

Pete Ciotti: We got checked out and the, they took us to the med- or to, um-

Scott Hammond: St. Joe's

Pete Ciotti: … St. Joe's just to check us out.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: We heard her screaming in the other room, then they arrested her. And the next day we had such bad whiplash, but other than that we were fine.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And then, uh, so anyway, when I got this settlement from the insurance and the money back, I should've just bought a car and go back to school, and my buddies were like, "We're gonna buy a van, and we're gonna go tour the country." And I was like-

Scott Hammond: Of course we are

Pete Ciotti: … "Let's do it."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: So there it is.

Scott Hammond: So you questioned?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. And that, that, that was my life in my 20s.

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Just, uh, we put out a- records and toured around the country and, uh, had a

Pete Ciotti: blast.

Scott Hammond: Reminds me of, I had a guest, Teri Vorm- Vormann, uh, she's, um-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … she was with the three g- the three gals that got hit by the-

Pete Ciotti: Right, we were talking about her the other day

Scott Hammond: … drunk driver and killed, killed their friend.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Pretty heavy deal.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, that was really heavy. I remember hearing about that.

Scott Hammond: Not, not terribly far from there, I think.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. No, it was on that road. It was on Bayside Road.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, we were talking about it the other day.

Scott Hammond: So you never did get a degree, although you're totally financially-

Pete Ciotti: No. In fact, I'm back in school now just chipping away little by little, online school at, with CR.

Scott Hammond: Sweet.

Pete Ciotti: Um, working on that psych degree that I should've got 25 years ago, but-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Pete Ciotti: … um, yeah, you know, whatever. College is always gonna be there, but-

Scott Hammond: It's not going anywhere

Pete Ciotti: … rock and roll maybe not, so I had to go for it.

Pete Ciotti: You know?

Scott Hammond: We watched, uh, Good Will Hunting last night with Matt Damon.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, yeah.

Scott Hammond: And he, uh, the end, the end scene is him leaving to go west. He goes, "I gotta go see about a girl."

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, I love that one.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: That's so good.

Scott Hammond: And he goes, "That," he goes, "That sucker stole my line."

Pete Ciotti: Man, Robin Williams, man.

Scott Hammond: Robin Williams, man. He thought he was funny. He's a great actor.

Pete Ciotti: That was a great, great loss. That was a huge loss. I mean, just-

Scott Hammond: Yeah, what an amazing-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … dude.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So, so you have this entrepreneurial thing going with, uh, with business. So you must be good at business. You're teaching the five Fs. So tell us about the five Fs.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, the five Fs.

Scott Hammond: Is it, is it four or five?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. It's five. Uh, so this is a like-

Scott Hammond: And we'll address them kind of in order if we-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, sure

Scott Hammond: … if you're-

Pete Ciotti: So this is kind of a, uh, it's a beginning of a sort of a live s- talk or webinar, if you will, that I'm putting on. Um, it's gonna be this Saturday. I don't know when this comes out, but it's gonna be on… I'll probably do it again a couple times, but I'm putting it out there, and it's just kind of like a theory. It's, it's, I mean, it's, it's not completely original, but I have this theory about being an expansive human.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And, um, and it's just, it, it's a th- it's more of a theory than it, it, it w- works for me. It works for my life. Um, being-

Scott Hammond: What's your, what's that?

Pete Ciotti: Like I said, I'm a father, so-

Scott Hammond: What's that mean?

Pete Ciotti: So here it is. The f- it's being, being expansive human is these five Fs that lead to the four Gs, okay?

Scott Hammond: Oh, okay.

Pete Ciotti: So you have these five Fs that lead to the four Gs. Here's the five Fs, and, uh, and then we can talk about them.

Pete Ciotti: It's family, right? Friendship.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Fitness Finance, and faith. So I feel like if you have those five Fs going in your life and working together, you get to the four Gs, which are gratitude,

Pete Ciotti: grace, grit, and the biggest one, God. So I think they all are in- interconnected, and I can break it down really quick for you how I feel like they're interconnected.

Scott Hammond: Absolutely.

Pete Ciotti: So if you can be, if you can have strengths in these f- in these five

Pete Ciotti: Fs, then you're gonna lead, live a life with purpose, with balance. And let's, let's, let's start over. Let's just start from the very beginning. The fact that you and I are sitting across from each other having this cool podcast and we're in this room and this space, right? Says that that's the miracle right there, and you can break it down however you want, but it's a miracle that you are who you are, and the DNA that you

Pete Ciotti: have-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Pete Ciotti: … the life that you're living right now.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: It's a complete m- it's a billions and billions and billions and billions of things had to happen for you to exist who you are, and for me to exist who I am.

Scott Hammond: And hey, the man, the myth, the legend, Nick Flores.

Pete Ciotti: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Nick.

Pete Ciotti: For us to all be here in this time and space, you know?

Scott Hammond: It's true. A lot of miracles involved.

Pete Ciotti: And so when I look at that, I go, "Why wouldn't I wanna live a life with purpose every day? Why wouldn't I wanna live God's plan for me? Why wouldn't I want to step out each day, wake up each morning with that enthusiasm and that purpose and that balance?" Um, you know, because I'm still here, and I have a lot of friends that aren't still here, and I live for them every day, too. So I just, you know, I look at that. So when I… So I have a family-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and, uh, it's now there's six of us in my immediate family, and-

Scott Hammond: And you're only what, 40?

Pete Ciotti: 47.

Scott Hammond: Oh, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: 40. We'll say 40.

Scott Hammond: 40.

Pete Ciotti: So, so yeah, so I, you know, it's like, for me, it's like, yeah, and it's starting over 'cause we just had a baby s- five weeks ago, so.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Um, and so with the family thing, I always say s- little things to people like, "Hey, if you have a, if you have a mom and dad, if you're lucky enough at your age to still have your mom and dad around, c- why are you not calling them every week-

Scott Hammond: Dude

Pete Ciotti: … and checking in with them?" Like, I wish I still had my grandparents around. I'm lucky to still have my parents around, so I call them every week. That's strengthening that family bond, you know? I, and, um, you wanna show me success in a human being? Let me look at their family and how strong and tied they are to their family.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And I'm not just saying their immediate family, their, their parents-

Scott Hammond: Their community

Pete Ciotti: … if they're around, anything. So it's, it's just so important to not let your parents be isolated and never talk to them, like… So I'm lucky to have my mom and dad around still.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And up until just a few years ago, I even had my grandma around, which was pretty

Pete Ciotti: special.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And my grandfather, he passed away in 2012, but I always, like, tried to get every story I could out of them, and I always had them repeat stories to me over and over again. Like, let them continue to tell their story over and over again-

Scott Hammond: Amen

Pete Ciotti: … because it's so important-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and it's so enriching.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: So having a fam- strong family, uh, bond, and with your kids, too. Like, your kids just wanna be with you, man.

Pete Ciotti: I mean-

Scott Hammond: They do

Pete Ciotti: … that's what they want more than anything. You, you- Everyone's so worried out here in this world about messing up their kids and like, "Am I gonna do something wrong? Am I gonna do this wrong?" They just wanna be with you. That's all they really want when they're-

Scott Hammond: Unless they're te-

Pete Ciotti: … when they're little kids, you know?

Scott Hammond: Wait, wait. I, I have to object.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. You think that, but they do. They, they just want-

Scott Hammond: They do

Pete Ciotti: … your time. They want your attention.

Scott Hammond: They want your presence.

Pete Ciotti: They want you not on a cell phone. They don't want you giving them an iPad even though they say they do. What they want is your attention, your, your, you in the moment, like, being with them now.

Scott Hammond: Right on.

Pete Ciotti: And not in the future.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Not, "I'll get around to it 'cause I'm really busy working." None of that. Just, uh, sacrifice everything you're doing for your family first. Family is first before a job, before anything.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: In the, in my theory of it being expansive community.

Scott Hammond: You ever heard this one? T- uh, love is spelled T-I-M-E.

Pete Ciotti: Mm.

Scott Hammond: I like that.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Anyway, so family's number one.

Pete Ciotti: That's good. Uh-

Scott Hammond: So family of all kinds. So we all have different-

Pete Ciotti: Family of all kinds, yeah

Scott Hammond: … different versions of family.

Pete Ciotti: Exactly.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Pete Ciotti: And then you got friendships, and people overlook this. They, as they get older, they kinda like, they let their friendships deteriorate. Maybe they're, because they have a spouse t- is their fr- only friend. And, and this happened for me. I mean, I, I, my wife's my best friend, of course, but, like, you know, I, I watched some of my friendships dissolve and, and I was like, "Oh, I really care about that person. I don't want that to dissolve."

Scott Hammond: Good.

Pete Ciotti: But on the other end of that also comes who are you surrounded with? Are, if, if you don't feel… If you feel miserable or you feel to- you feel like your life is full of toxicity or you feel like, "Why do I always feel down and out or negative or grumpy or whatever?" Take a look around what you surround yourself with.

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And I had to do this hard inventori- self-inventory with my friend list recently, and I hate to say it, but, like, a couple years ago, I realized there's some people around me that are bringing me down. Their influence on my life is not positive.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: It's actually the opposite. They're, they're, they've leveled out. This is as far as they wanna go-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and everything below that is misery. And so they want you to stay miserable so you, so they can be comfortable with their misery. And I had to just wish them well, tell them I love them, and say, you know, "I can't be in your life right now until-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … you can make some changes-

Scott Hammond: Boundaries

Pete Ciotti: … to be better." I, yeah, you have to have boundaries.

Pete Ciotti: So-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Pete Ciotti: … once I did that, and then all of a sudden, a year went by and I replaced a lot of that with positive influences, and I got these new friends about a year or so ago. I can, I mean, w- I can give you their names. They're, they're amazing local people.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And, uh, I started hanging out with them, and running was the biggest one. They were all runners. And I mean, their, their influence on me is powerful because they wanna go to places I wanna go. I can see them going where I wanna go, and they also could see w- they wanted to go places I wanna go, is I'm older than m- th- these friends. They're younger than me.

Scott Hammond: You go together.

Pete Ciotti: Not that age matters, but I'm just saying, like, I started to realize I wanna be the dumbest person in every room. So right now I'm the dumbest person in this room. There's no doubt about it.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: I mean, it's just amazing in here to see all this whole production.

Scott Hammond: It's a debate.

Pete Ciotti: It's cool. I'm, like, so overwhelmed by it. I'm like, "I wanna have a cool podcast like this," and you know, Scott, every time we're talking, I just, I soak it up. I mean, you have a book out. You have all these things going on. You've done so much for the community. So- I always wanna be in these rooms where I'm the dumbest person in the room, and I wanna just absorb, be a fly on the wall, just learn, and then when I feel like I've got something, you just take it to the next room and keep leveling up your life. So friendships- Sure … is networking. Friendship is- Mm-hmm … just so important in your life. But on top of that, I have older friends, p-people I grew up with since preschool, and I dial in with them once a week, just like I do with my parents. Yep. I have a buddy, and his name's Eric Caster, if he sees this. Mm-hmm. One of my best friends. I've known him since, um, since- Hey, Eric. What's up? … preschool. What's up, Caster? EC. He's EC, I'm PC. Um, yeah, and, like, w-we still talk, and man, when we c- we t- we b- we, we kinda rekindled over the last year, and every time we talk we're like, he's a dad- Awesome … and I'm a dad, and it's like we talk about that. Hmm. We talk about life. We talk about spiritualism. He's really into Buddhism. I'm r- I'm a Christian, but, like, we can really chop it up, and it's just amazing. Cool. Um, so, like, check in on your people. Mm-hmm. That's what friendship's about, checking in on your people- Mm-hmm … always making sure they're good, make, and hope that they check on you- Mm-hmm … when you're, when you need it. Yeah. You know? So friendship's empow- powerful, and then, uh, I'm looking at your list over- Friendship, and then, uh- My list. What else we got? Faith. Faith. Here's the thing. When I first started thinking about this five Fs, when someone told it to me-

Pete Ciotti: … the shakiest thing I had of all of them was faith. Mm. I didn't know how to, like, I was trying to write a couple paragraphs of each, and I had, like, a sentence for faith. I was like, "Well, God is mysterious." That's all I had. Wow. That's all I could think. Hmm. And it's because I had… My faith had fallen out a little bit. Um, I grew up Catholic. I'm Italian, you know? Yeah. It was kinda forced on you. Sure. It's like, it's like eating pasta on Sundays- Yeah … and making the gravy and- Part of the culture … yeah, it's just it. And, you know- That's not, that's not bad. It's just, it's. It's not bad. Yeah. Uh, I liked going, and I got some stuff out of it, but it just, it's so forced and so ingrained, and it, I just fell out of it. I just made religion seem, like, archaic, and- Hmm … I wanted a pathway to God and not all this, uh, not all these rituals and all this stuff. I just wanted to talk across the s- uh, the aisle with God. I wanted to be here at a table with God. That's what I want. Yeah. I want it to just be easy like that- Preach it, bro … without all the rules. Yeah. And so I fell out and explored other things. I explored Buddhism. I explored, uh, y- explored the Vedas, uh, you know, all different kinds of things. I took classes in religion, and I just kinda started to just believe in the quantum world and, and energy. You know? That was my belief that we all are energy. The Force. And I still believe that. Yeah. But, um, but recently I got back with this, like a year ago, and, um, I just started to really be in touch, and it, um, something really profound happened one day that it's, uh, it's kind of like Forrest Gump. It was, uh, this is the story. Basically, Black Friday, um… Or no, it was, I'm sorry, it was Thanksgiving night. We were eating Thanksgiving, and I went into my room, and I started feeling like cr- like, "Why am I always in the fog? Why can't I think clear?" And it, boom, just a m- out of nowhere, all of a sudden the, the fog lifted, and of… I don't know if it was a voice. I'm not gonna say it was a voice that came over me, but it was just like, "Why don't you try doing something radically crazy tomorrow and change your whole rhythm up, your whole schedule up?" Hmm. "Wake up at 5:00 in the morning and just walk into the gym. What would that be like?" Hmm. "To activate your, your whole body. You feel like you're in the fog. You feel like you got this, like, beer gut. You're not in shape, whatever, and you think that maybe that's gonna motivate you. Just do something crazy. Wake up at 5:00 in the morning." Right. So I went o- I was in, I lived in Eureka at the time. I bought a house in Eureka, and I'm living there. And I'm like, "Oh, I'm gonna go to this health spot I've never been to, but I'll go." And I walk in, and, um, I had a membership at the Arcata one, so it worked there, and, uh, but I never used it. And I walk in, and I was, like, totally intimidated, like anyone would be going to a gym for the first time in a long time, and- On a Black Friday? Yeah, on a… Yeah, yeah. And I went in, and I just started working out at 5:00 in the morning, and there's people in there, and they're doing their thing, and they're, they're really into it at 5:00 in the morning. That crowd is way into it. They're way into it. And I started just getting into it, like, oh, I'll get on the treadmill. I'll get in the sauna. I'll go over here and lift some weights, and that's the day. And then I did it, and I was like, "What would it be like if I did it again?" I did it again, and I did it again, and then it became, like, three weeks and a month and two months and three months, and I'm like, "Whoa, I'm a different person." I'm, I'm a 5:00 AM-er. Yeah. You know? I, how, how did I go two years ago from closing down a bar at 2:00 in the morning and sometimes a broken window or drunk fight or cleaning up the bar? By the time I got out, it was 5:00 in the morning. Crazy. I'd get home and fall asleep at 5:00 in the morning. Uh, you know, and then have to go take my kids to school at 7:00, so that's why that got old. But anyway, uh, now here I am waking up at 5:00 all the time and getting enough sleep to do that- Hmm … and working out. And so all of a sudden it was like, well, I'm working out. I'm gaining, I'm doing all this stuff, but what am I doing it for? And I was like, "Maybe I should do something crazy." Like, I've always wanted to run a marathon. So I… And this will take us right to fitness. We'll get back to faith 'cause I, we know we're gonna talk about that, but, um, but yeah. I, all this to say that, like, something was leading the way. Mm-hmm. And I had to be in touch with it, and then as I ran and I ran, I told Bethany this story, and this is how I ended up at church. I was running one day, and I literally felt God, like, right there running with me. I mean, I knew that's what it had to have been. It, it blew my mind, and I was like, wow, like, I'm not alone out here, you know? I'm running. This is really hard. This is difficult to get into, and I, I, I, like, called it out. I was in the middle of forest, nobody around. Right. So I didn't feel weird about doing it. I just said, "Are you here?" Oh, cool.

Pete Ciotti: You know? And I- Pretty honest prayer … there was no, no voice that came back or anything, but the presence, the energy thing- Yeah … real as could be. Looked up into the redwoods and knew- Right … that God was there. Palpable. And He, and He was saying, "Get your ass to church." Wow.

Pete Ciotti: You know? "Get your ass to church and go pray." Wow. And, uh, I don't know if I can say that on a podcast. I'm cool. Too late. Yeah. So- Yeah, I, I reached out to Bethany, and I said, I, you know, some- I don't remember what I said, but I ended up-

Scott Hammond: So you knew Be- Bethany and Jason already?

Pete Ciotti: I knew Bethany and Jason for years.

Scott Hammond: Oh, Catalyst Church.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Arcata, California

Pete Ciotti: They used to come into Big Pizza and the pizza shop and all that when their, when their kids were little.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Pete Ciotti: Little, little.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Pete Ciotti: Um, yeah, and, and I always knew them, the, the, as Blue Lakers, and I knew they had a church and everything, but I didn't know much about it and-

Scott Hammond: Just friends, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, we're just friends, just acquaintances, seen them, and then, but I said, "These are, like, the perfect people to help me rediscover my faith again," you know? And like, sure enough, you know, you start going to that church, and you're just like… And Wes went there, too, and he's my neighbor-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Pete Ciotti: … and all them, and so yeah, I just, um, found it right away. Man, I, I remem- I'll never forget, like, I think it was the second time I ever went to church there, and, you know, Ray, who does all the music there-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … was singing some songs, and I'm singing along, and I don't know if the wor- it was something to do with the way the song was or the words in it, but I was… the first time I had cried in church, like, ever. I never cried in a Catholic church-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Pete Ciotti: … ever. And these overwhelming feelings, and that whole

Pete Ciotti: summer went through a lot of things where it's just overwhelming feelings of God, and it made me be able to write more about my faith and get stronger in that F. And it also led me to fitness-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … which, uh, we just talked about, and, and I think that that's a, that's a huge

Pete Ciotti: awakening.

Scott Hammond: And now you lead the run, the running group at Catalyst Church.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, it's good.

Pete Ciotti: We have a run group at Catalyst on Tuesdays.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Joni loves that.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: She digs it.

Pete Ciotti: Super fun. Um, yep, Joni was out yesterday.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Or Tuesday, and we had a lot of fun. We just walk sometimes, but, um-

Scott Hammond: How many people showed up this week?

Pete Ciotti: Uh, this week was just me, Joni, and Paul, but-

Scott Hammond: Okay

Pete Ciotti: … a lot of times we'll g- we, we've gotten as many as, like, nine or 10 people

Pete Ciotti: there-

Scott Hammond: Right

Pete Ciotti: … which is really cool for a brand-new running club.

Pete Ciotti: Um-

Scott Hammond: Go down the marsh and run that, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, yeah, just loop the marsh.

Pete Ciotti: Super fun.

Scott Hammond: Arcata Marsh.

Pete Ciotti: Run club culture is a big thing for me.

Pete Ciotti: Um, it's, it's huge as far as, uh, checking off that fitness box because w- when you go running by yourself and you try to run, like, five or six miles, it can be really hard. Um, you're in your own thoughts. You're in your own mind. It's, you're just, you're just putting too much pressure on yourself. You're putting li- we were talking about limits earlier b- off air before we started. Like, you put all these limits on yourself, but what, uh, when you get out there with a group and you're talking and you're chatting and you're cruising and everyone's got, like I said, again, friends, right? Be in those rooms with people that are trying to go places. The run club culture is amazing.

Pete Ciotti: Everyone is-

Scott Hammond: Positive

Pete Ciotti: … for you

Pete Ciotti: winning.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: They're, everyone's a winner.

Scott Hammond: You have to walk, walk.

Pete Ciotti: Showing up is a win.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Right? So, like, you have to walk, you have to walk. Who cares? They just want you to finish. They just want you to finish what you started. Uh, they're so encouraging, and I mean, dang, if they didn't encourage and influence me to run ultras, which I never thought I would do-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … but here I am. I've run 10 marathons. I've run, uh, a couple ultras. I tried 100-miler back in February. I've got one coming up in September. These people will, will influence the heck out of you. Run club culture is amazing. So it started with Raccoon Run Club on Mondays with Thomas Nolan, who is one of my best friends. You talk about replacing your life with positive people, that's the na- name drop I'm gonna give you is Thomas Nolan.

Scott Hammond: Thomas Nolan. Hey, Tom. What's up?

Pete Ciotti: Thomas and Damien are, like, my two best friends now. Um, I hang out with them all the time. Yeah, they're a lot younger than me. They're, they're such influences in my life just because of just their story is just amazing what, what they've done.

Scott Hammond: You know the Nolans are two doors down from us, right?

Pete Ciotti: Right, I know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: That's so awesome.

Scott Hammond: Hey, Tom.

Pete Ciotti: You need to have Thomas on here.

Scott Hammond: Hey, fellas.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Tom. Hey, break, break. If you're just joining us, I better make this a smooth segue. If you're just joining us, I got my new best friend, Pete Ciotti, regular guy from Humboldt, talking to us about, uh, his life, his journey, and the five Fs, and then we're gonna get to the four Gs.

Pete Ciotti: Let's do it, yeah.

Scott Hammond: Then there's, I know, I think of three Gs, the, the hay and feed store, but that's not this. All right. Not, not that funny.

Pete Ciotti: Get that.

Scott Hammond: Okay, so went from faith to fitness, and it's interesting, those, those

Scott Hammond: collide.

Pete Ciotti: They do.

Scott Hammond: They cross over.

Pete Ciotti: For me anyway. I think for a lot of people. I think, like, when you do something hard-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … that's where grit shows up. Like, you do something hard, you do something challenging, there's pain involved.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: But it's temporary. But that's a good… But on the other side of pain is hope. On the other side of pain is grace, humility. On the other side of pain is God, um, faith, and everything you're gonna believe in, so-

Scott Hammond: Hmm

Pete Ciotti: … you just gotta stick, stick at it, stay at it. A lot of people wanna quit.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Pete Ciotti: And you just can't have quit in you. You can't have quit in you. Um, and I think the last

Pete Ciotti: F is-

Scott Hammond: Finance

Pete Ciotti: … finance. Interesting one, right? Um, this isn't, like, a get rich quick scheme. This isn't me trying to say everyone should be a millionaire or anything like that. For finance, what I mean is, like, if you have a household and you are, you're a father like me, you gotta provide and you gotta be smart about your money, and for years and years, I wasn't smart. Um, those businesses I mentioned before all went into debt. Uh, I owed IRS way more money than I wanna say. I've, I've had all different kinds of financial issues in my life, and what I've learned is you need to sit down, first of all, number one, sit down, create a budget. But number two is remember that your hard work is worth something and you have a value. A lot of people devalue themselves just to get work, just to do something. You know, they're like, "I gotta stay busy. I gotta stay active." Well, there's a lot of power in saying no.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And I learned that the hard way, and until I finally learned it and really put it into action, um, you know, some people just aren't right for you. They're not meant to be your clients, your customers, whatever.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And others definitely are. Uh, so you gotta be smart with that. And then, um, I, I really learned from this author called Mike Michalowicz, who put out a book called Profit First-

Scott Hammond: Good book

Pete Ciotti: … which is amazing book because if you're in a business, if you've been a business owner, I've been a business owner for 20 years, I've been an entrepreneur for 20

Pete Ciotti: years, um, if you start to recogn- look at your business as profit first

Pete Ciotti: literally-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … like, when money comes in, the profit needs to be there. You're not just running a clubhouse. And for years I felt like in the pizza world, that's what I was doing, just running the clubhouse. Oh, I want it to be fun, I wanna curate this thing. I want it to be really niche and cool, but, like, that's all well and good. Are you making money?

Pete Ciotti: Are you-

Scott Hammond: Right

Pete Ciotti: … supporting your family? Like, are you growing? Are you scaling your business, or are you just playing clubhouse?

Scott Hammond: Good one.

Pete Ciotti: And so I… That was a big slap in the face for me, and I started to learn that, like, whatever I'm gonna do moving forward has to move the needle every day in my life, and it has to definitely support my family, and you have to get real serious about it, and you have to be able to say no.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: Um, those are some really fine-tuned principles to the, the whole, uh, finance thing for me is just everybody's a yes guy. I gotta say yes. Everyone wants to be a people pleaser.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, um, everyone… Y- if you look around, every business is gonna say, "I have good customer service." You're… Really, what you're saying is, "I'm a people pleaser always. I have to please everybody."

Scott Hammond: Correct.

Pete Ciotti: But are you making money?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Are you profitable? Because sometimes you have to draw a hard line and say no to people, and that, that's hard. It's the same thing with, like, having toxic friends, that you have to be like, "I love you, but I have to move on from you."

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: Um, you have to do what's right for your business, and you have to look at it as business. And, um-

Scott Hammond: And your family, in this case-

Pete Ciotti: 'Cause people walk all over you.

Scott Hammond: Family budgets, yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, and family budgets are so important. Um, knowing where everybody's credit is at, you know, and, like-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Pete Ciotti: … how we're gonna grow, how we're gonna scale. It took us a long haul to buy our first house, but we did it, and I can't believe we did it. And it was mainly on the, the back of my wife, who was

Pete Ciotti: just complete badass. I mean, she went from taking care of our kids to getting a job at Costco to just saying… Uh, she already had a college degree, and she was like, "Oh, you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna go become an engineer." And I was like, "Wow." I mean, she has the brain for it. I'm like, "Yeah, do it."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: So she went back to, uh, Humboldt, got her degree as an engineer, interned for a while, worked for a company. Now she's all the way working for LAICO. She- By the way, when you're an engineer, you have to take, like, a series of these really ridiculously hard-

Scott Hammond: Super hard

Pete Ciotti: … it's like a foreign language, tests.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And you have to take them out, out of the area.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And they're like eight-hour tests. She's taken all of them and crushed them. A- and, like, she's just moving up the ladder, and she's so smart, and she works on projects that are just way over my head that I can't even, like-

Scott Hammond: Mm

Pete Ciotti: … fathom, you know?

Scott Hammond: Shout out to… What's-

Pete Ciotti: Belle

Scott Hammond: … Belle. Hey, Belle.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. And, uh-

Scott Hammond: Good job, Belle

Pete Ciotti: … so t- talk about just being so smart with all of it.

Scott Hammond: And beautiful babies.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, and she's a saver. She knows what she's doing. She… I mean, without her I'd be in the gutter. So, you know.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, you married up, like me.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, so make sure you keep your finances in order. I'm still learning about that. I can't say that I've have all this money in the bank and all these things.

Scott Hammond: How about, uh-

Pete Ciotti: I don't have any of that

Scott Hammond: … how about Dave Ramsey?

Pete Ciotti: Dave Ramsey's amazing. I took a cla- I think I told you that I took one of his

Pete Ciotti: classes.

Scott Hammond: Financial Peace University.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Oh, I've read that book too.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And Dave will talk about, uh, the rainy day fund, which is another big thing I would say about finances is, like, if you're starting out and you wanna save some money and get financially sound, and you wanna get to what Dave Ramsey's gonna say is financial freedom-

Scott Hammond: Which is being able to be a giver

Pete Ciotti: … eventually in your life, you wanna be able to be a giver.

Scott Hammond: Total giver.

Pete Ciotti: You can make so much money that you can give it away. Can you dream of that?

Scott Hammond: How about that?

Pete Ciotti: And do you limit yourself? Do you say, "Nah, I could never be that guy. There's no way. I'm too old to get there."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: "It's never gonna happen for me"? Or you can say, "Yeah, I wanna… I'm gonna make this happen."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I think it's important to speak life into everything.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: I think it's important to wake up every day and say, "I am rich."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I mean, Bob Marley s- what did he say? He said, "The richnesses of li-," uh, "I'm gonna have the richnesses of life."

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, you're a rich man because you have material goods.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Are you a rich man 'cause you have a richness of life?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: So for finance, the r- it's the richness of life. I wake up every day grateful that I have four children.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: They're all healthy.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Right? One, by the way, shout out to my son, Pete, who's Pete Ciotti V, I'm the fourth. He just yesterday, um, passed his biliteracy, uh, seal of approval, uh, from the Calif- state of California, so he's gonna graduate from Arcata High in six weeks with that seal, uh, biliteracy, 'cause he did Fuente Nueva in elementary school-

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's cool

Pete Ciotti: … in Spanish, and he did advanced Spanish, and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … he's one of only a few kids that did that, so shout out to him, so-

Scott Hammond: Mucho gusto, Pedro.

Pete Ciotti: Mucho gusto, Pedro. So, you know, it's like, yeah, man, I mean, finance is the richest of life, and people overlook that. Some people are just, like, running the rat race, running the nine to five, and they don't stop and see what, what we're gonna lead to is the four Gs, and the first one being gratitude.

Scott Hammond: Let's, let's do a break break.

Scott Hammond: Ready?

Pete Ciotti: Let's do a break.

Scott Hammond: So here, here we go. It was suggested we do this. Uh, hey, Dick Taylor. Oh, weird, I have a… So, uh, Dick Taylor's down here in Old Town Eureka-

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … which is right over there. They make this amazing chocolate. Have you ever had it?

Pete Ciotti: Oh, I had the quinoa one the other day. It was amazing.

Scott Hammond: Oh, that's a tr- yeah-

Pete Ciotti: That was a good one

Scott Hammond: … those are, like, the flavor of the month. This one's a ginger snap.

Pete Ciotti: Ooh.

Scott Hammond: And, you know, I've never done this where we actually, uh, showed how beautiful the envelope is.

Scott Hammond: So this chocolate, be it 10 bucks a bar, would be the equivalent to scotch that's 500 bucks- … a bottle.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Uh, talking to the sober guy about scotch.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Sorry. Um, but it's amazing. So you wanna try a piece?

Pete Ciotti: Absolutely.

Scott Hammond: Let's do it. This looks really good. I, I haven't had… Actually, it's been a while since I've had this one, and the whole idea behind this, I'll just throw it to you.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Here you go.

Pete Ciotti: Whoosh.

Scott Hammond: Is, uh, just savor it. So Pete's gonna demo. We're, we're breaking c- like communion.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Um, it's only two ingredients, right? Cacao and sugar.

Pete Ciotti: Mm.

Scott Hammond: That's the crazy part. And you could eat a, a whole bar of this, which I don't

Scott Hammond: recommend.

Pete Ciotti: Mm.

Scott Hammond: It's 140 calories or something crazy.

Pete Ciotti: Is that milk chocolate?

Scott Hammond: Huh?

Pete Ciotti: Is that milk chocolate or…

Pete Ciotti: Yeah?

Scott Hammond: No.

Pete Ciotti: No, dark chocolate.

Scott Hammond: It's dark chocolate.

Pete Ciotti: Wow.

Scott Hammond: I'm sorry. This does create… This one actually has a little bit of milk in it.

Pete Ciotti: A little bit of milk. That's really good.

Scott Hammond: Not too shabby.

Pete Ciotti: Mm.

Scott Hammond: Pretty good.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Can you believe that's, like, here, local?

Scott Hammond: I know.

Pete Ciotti: You know?

Scott Hammond: Oh, these guys, we're, we're at their places, airports, I think in Europe I saw these guys.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Belle got to do a chocolate- …

Pete Ciotti: tour

Scott Hammond: Of these guys?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, and she tried to get all the kids to go, and they're like, "No, we don't wanna

Pete Ciotti: do it."

Scott Hammond: We don't wanna do that.

Pete Ciotti: And she's like, "What are you talking about? It's a chocolate tour." She had a great

Pete Ciotti: time.

Scott Hammond: Fun, fun part about this show, at halftime we do the quiz. Ready?

Pete Ciotti: All right.

Scott Hammond: For the Dick Taylor chocolate bar and other prizes. So where do you… If you could go anywhere today and go for a, a run, hike all day, woods, whatever, where, where would you go?

Pete Ciotti: I would to the Mont Blanc.

Scott Hammond: Where's that?

Pete Ciotti: So it's in Paris. So it's a, it's a race that is 100-miler, I believe, or maybe a little more. Uh, it goes from Par- from France. I know it's not f- not Paris, sorry.

Pete Ciotti: France, uh, into the mountains of Italy, into Switzerland, and back to

Pete Ciotti: France.

Scott Hammond: Rad.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: So if you could run in Humboldt, where would you go?

Pete Ciotti: If I could run in Humboldt-

Scott Hammond: Or a hike

Pete Ciotti: … my f- my favorite spots-

Scott Hammond: Just to put a day on

Pete Ciotti: … are either doing Grasshopper Peak-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … which I love, but I really wanna run the Lost Coast Trail at some point.

Scott Hammond: Really? Where-

Pete Ciotti: Point to, point to point to point, so I wanna run fr- all the way to Black Sands and back, so it'd be 50 so- 52 miles.

Scott Hammond: So, so Black Sands to mouth of the Pa-

Pete Ciotti: Or the opposite

Scott Hammond: … Petrolia? Petrolia?

Pete Ciotti: To start. So you start from, yeah, Mattole to Black Sands-

Scott Hammond: Got it

Pete Ciotti: … and then go Black Sands back, but you kinda gotta time the-

Scott Hammond: The tides, yeah

Pete Ciotti: … the tides, yeah.

Scott Hammond: But it's really hilly too, right?

Pete Ciotti: Oh, it's everything.

Scott Hammond: So-

Pete Ciotti: Sand hill. I've hiked it once. I hiked it when my wife was five months pregnant with our first kid.

Scott Hammond: Of course. Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, many years ago.

Scott Hammond: Just ever sleep in the lighthouse?

Pete Ciotti: No. That'd be cool.

Scott Hammond: That's really cool. Back in the day you could.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Oh, really?

Scott Hammond: It's all redone now, and it's-

Pete Ciotti: Oh, wow

Scott Hammond: … I think it's off-limits. Question two. You and Belle get to go to dinner. It's on us. Uh, where you, where you gonna go tonight?

Pete Ciotti: Tonight. Where are we gonna go?

Scott Hammond: Babies, we got the babies. We'll take them with-

Pete Ciotti: You got the babies?

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Where would you go?

Pete Ciotti: Oh, boy. In Humboldt, right?

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, it's on the spot, 'cause I like… I'm a restaurant guy, so I should-

Scott Hammond: You should

Pete Ciotti: … like a lot of them.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, the pressures.

Pete Ciotti: I don't wanna, I don't wanna let anybody down-

Scott Hammond: Pressure's on for the restaurant

Pete Ciotti: … for not staying in their place, but-

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Uh, top three

Pete Ciotti: … um, top, well-

Scott Hammond: If you have to name them

Pete Ciotti: … my top restaurant ever is no longer. That was Foley Deuce. It's gone.

Scott Hammond: Foley Deuce was amazing.

Pete Ciotti: I used to love that place. Uh, maybe like Larrupin or, uh, maybe that new Cuban place. What's it called? The new Cuban one.

Scott Hammond: Cubano?

Pete Ciotti: Cubano, yeah. That, that, that-

Scott Hammond: Is that good? I haven't eaten there.

Pete Ciotti: We went once and it was really good.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Okay.

Pete Ciotti: Um-

Scott Hammond: That's the Jacoby Storehouse upstairs in Arcata.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. We're more of like a lunchy brunchy kinda thing. We like, uh, The Farmstand in Bayside.

Scott Hammond: Uh-huh. Heard that's great.

Pete Ciotti: And the Beachcomber.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Those are really good spots.

Scott Hammond: Beachcomber's delicious.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Trinidad.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, Trinidad.

Scott Hammond: Nice.

Pete Ciotti: Yep.

Scott Hammond: All right. Good ones. Last question. Cup of coffee. Where do you… Are you a coffee guy?

Pete Ciotti: I am.

Scott Hammond: Right. Where would you go for a cup of coffee?

Pete Ciotti: Ooh, man. For like a coffee shop-

Scott Hammond: Sure

Pete Ciotti: … or like s- a actual like-

Scott Hammond: Anywhere

Pete Ciotti: … local coffee?

Scott Hammond: Whatever.

Pete Ciotti: 'Cause they're kinda two different things.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, they… Well, yeah, could be.

Pete Ciotti: I- my favorite coffee shop probably is Northtown Coffee-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … 'cause shout out to Holly, who owns Northtown Coffee now.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Um, I've been just going there back when it was even Muddy Waters-

Scott Hammond: I think-

Pete Ciotti: … which is probably my favorite coffee place

Scott Hammond: … I think they roast up by where at in Duns Prairie.

Pete Ciotti: Muddy Waters?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. And back when it, back when Northtown was even Muddy Waters and they roasted-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … at there in Northtown. I've just been a Northtown guy forever 'cause my pizza shop was there.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: But I mean, you throw a rock and you're gonna hit a good coffee shop in Humboldt. I mean, there really is not a bad one. Brio's good. Uh-

Scott Hammond: Brio, yeah

Pete Ciotti: … yeah, they're all good. Um, actually my buddies just started a coffee company like two years ago, uh, called Fog Line, which is really good too.

Scott Hammond: That's really good coffee there.

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm. So-

Scott Hammond: I've heard of it.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah, Northtown, all the guys, uh, the bike shop guys. Went and visited Dave back in the day.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And then you got, uh, Scott Winfield at Redwood Yogurt.

Pete Ciotti: Okay, yeah, Scott, yeah.

Scott Hammond: What's up, Scott? Scotty.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Yeah, I knew all that, all those people.

Scott Hammond: He's a legendary guy.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, he's legend, yeah.

Scott Hammond: He's a great guy.

Pete Ciotti: Oh, he's the coolest guy. Just walk in, just get cheesies cream.

Scott Hammond: Oh, his poetry reading and all. So, uh, we'll, we'll come back to the, the Gs here. So review the five. Family-

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … friendships-

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … faith-

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … fitness, and finance.

Pete Ciotti: You got it.

Scott Hammond: Gosh, you know, good, good foundation.

Pete Ciotti: Good foundation. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. And it's not, the love of money's not the root of all evil.

Pete Ciotti: No. No.

Scott Hammond: I'm sorry, it is. Money's not the root of-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, yeah, yeah

Scott Hammond: … but still, it's, it's loving money.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's okay to have money, just don't let money-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, don't let it run your life

Scott Hammond: … have you.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Don't let it run your life, but let it, let, you know… You obviously need it for security and foundations and things, but, like, don't let it run your life. And

Pete Ciotti: I think-

Scott Hammond: Right

Pete Ciotti: … you know, one interesting is every time I go through these five Fs, I think about adding a sub F, and that's forgiveness.

Scott Hammond: Ah, good one.

Pete Ciotti: And I think bec- after we had that speech at-

Scott Hammond: For Sunday

Pete Ciotti: … church on Sunday-

Scott Hammond: Jeff Woodke, shout out

Pete Ciotti: … I wanted to add it as a sixth F almost.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Shout out to Jeff.

Pete Ciotti: Because it… Yeah. That was an amazing speech, and his last time talking to church was great, too, but, um, you really start to f- you kind of forget about forgiveness and how crucial it is. A lot of people hold onto trauma.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: A lot of people hold onto things that, um, just don't serve them anymore, but they keep telling that story.

Scott Hammond: Oh, boy.

Pete Ciotti: You know what I mean? And it's just like, man, just forgive and move on.

Pete Ciotti: And like-

Scott Hammond: Let, let it go, man

Pete Ciotti: … you'll both feel better. You know? Like, you'll open up, and it just, like, it… I feel like forgive- if you don't forgive, there's energy that's blocked, and you can't receive, and you can't give it.

Scott Hammond: It's terrible.

Pete Ciotti: And the more you forgive, until you completely forgive everything in your life and forgive everyone, and they forgive you, and, and, you know, we just move

Pete Ciotti: on-

Scott Hammond: Hey

Pete Ciotti: … then the energy's able to flow again, and sometimes that energy's been blocked for 15, 20 years. It could be between family members.

Scott Hammond: Oh my God.

Pete Ciotti: Right? I've seen that firsthand, and-

Scott Hammond: Tragic

Pete Ciotti: … all of a sudden you lift it, and it's like you get a rush of energy, and you're like, "Oh my God."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: You know? So forgiveness is huge, you know? It's just so important.

Scott Hammond: The big, the big one for me is forgive, forgive yourself.

Pete Ciotti: Yep, absolutely. Please do.

Scott Hammond: Don't look at that mirror at that person and forgive them, because you're pretty hard on them most days.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: And that's not okay.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Not okay.

Scott Hammond: It's not, it's not godly, it's not biblical, it's not cool.

Pete Ciotti: No.

Scott Hammond: It's, it's, it's a form of retaining that toxicity.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. Love yourself. Always love yourself.

Scott Hammond: And just a quick note, Jeff Woodke, um, six and a half years in the, uh, in Al-Qaeda, uh, captivity in Northern Africa.

Pete Ciotti: Unbelievable.

Scott Hammond: Uh, basically chained to a tree every day and,

Scott Hammond: um-

Pete Ciotti: And he's talked about being in a box for like four months.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm. Four by four by four box.

Pete Ciotti: Jeez.

Scott Hammond: Crazy, man. So, uh, if you ever get to see that, it's, uh, Catalyst Church, Jeff Woodke last Sunday, uh, here in, um, late March of

Pete Ciotti: 2025 already. Hey, the five, the 5Gs, 4Gs. 4Gs. What are the 4Gs? So we'll start with gratitude. If you do the f- four, five and a half Fs- Yeah … you'll get the 4Gs. 4Gs. If you, yeah, if you- Gratitude … run through these Fs, and by the way, we're not just going through these Fs, we're making these Fs stronger. It's, it's a work in progress every day, so you, it's never perfect. It's an imperfect world, so, like, you continuously to work on these Fs so that you can get to, get to these Gs. And these Gs are super important 'cause these Gs are what's gonna fill up your life with joy. And so we start with, um, gratitude, right? Gratitude can be an exercise. Honestly- Mm-hmm … you can wake up and start thinking about things you're grateful for. Yeah. Now, here's, here's the thing. Gratitude is not going, "Oh, I'm grateful for the sports car I drive, and I'm grateful for the jet ski that's parked in the driveway, and I'm grateful for all

Pete Ciotti: this, all these material things I have that's n- or in spite of the person who has nothing." No, that's not gratitude. Gratitude is simple, simple, simple. Get as simple and refined- Mm … as you possibly can. I'm grateful that I got to breathe air this

Pete Ciotti: morning. I'm grateful that I took a br- yes, I took a breath in, I took a breath out.

Pete Ciotti: Mm. You know? Everybody take a deep breath. Like, like my shirt says, Yahweh, right? Yep. So I, I, I'm happy to take a breath. And then from there, you know, I'm happy that I can stand up upright on my two

Pete Ciotti: feet and walk to the kitchen and get a glass of water. Yeah. Or I'm happy, I'm grateful that my wife is sleeping next to me. Blue sky, fresh air. I, I, yeah, fresh air, uh, you know, sunshine, even liquid sunshine. Rain's okay. Yep. I'm grateful that I have children in the other rooms- Mm-hmm … that are breathing, that are healthy. I'm grateful that I get to take my dog for a walk. It's just simple, simple stuff. Mm. And you start to see that like, yeah, I truly am. I feel it. I feel the energy of being grateful for these things. They really bring… They, they give me energy. I'm watching them every morning fill me up with energy- Powerful … positive, powerful energy. It's p- it's actual power. And I'm able to get through my day. Mm-hmm. I don't need a cup of coffee now. I'm set. I'm ready to go. Yeah. So gratitude is huge. Grateful for everything, and y- you remind yourself to be grateful when you're down and out, when something- Mm … frustrating happens, or things didn't go your way today, or like yesterday, I was working and my mower got stuck, and I actually had to call a tow truck company to tow me out. And, uh, and it was like 125 bucks, and then I, then it got to the next lawn and my, uh, my, the belt on my mower broke. Oh, geez. It was just… But, and then, like, I tried to do that webinar, and I was going in and out 'cause the internet wouldn't work. It became so frustrating that it was kind of comical. It was like- Yeah … there's a reason for this, right? It's just not my day. Not your day. You know, like it, God is saying, "Uh, maybe you're gonna send your message another day." And l- hey, I'll, uh, no problem. Huh. But I still st- I still managed to go put some gratitude on that, like, like, like some hot sauce on a burrito. Put a little gratitude on that. Sure. Yeah, it doesn't taste well today, huh? Yeah. Today doesn't taste good to you. Today doesn't feel right for you. I like that. Let's, let's splash a little gratitude on there and see what happens. Change your whole mood. I got a bad burrito day, dude. Yeah. We all know stress is a killer. Sure. We all know stress can kill us. We all know we hold stress in our bellies. Mm-hmm. We hold it in our bodies. You get a little gratitude going- Eh … stress melts away. So gra- so with these five Fs, you get to the gratitude. That's huge. Mm-hmm. Um, then from there we got grace. Mm-hmm. Give… You just said it, right? Love yourself. Forgive yourself. Give yourself some grace. Mm-hmm. Give yourself some s- grace is space. Mm-hmm. They rhyme, right? Give yourself some opportunity. Give yourself a little bit of space to breathe- Mm … to digest, to take it in. Like, don't be so hard on yourself every day. Everybody wants to win every day. Everybody wants to have all these ac- Ah … everyone wants to have this money in the bank account and these big things right now. They, we live in an instant society. We live in a society that wants fast food. They w- and I'm not talking about the actual food, I'm talking like everything to be fast food, from the information we get- Mm-hmm … to the love we receive, to energy. Everything's timed. Everything's fast. Give yourself some grace and explore and, like, space out and just, like, be, be okay with it. Like, you know, move in your body and be in the moment. Too many people are just future traveling- Be here now … in their brains. Yeah. I mean, I think I heard Jim Carrey say that on an interview once. He's like, "The problem is, is you're all, everyone is just trav- future traveling." Yeah, future surfing. You're stressed out and you're- Yeah … freaking out in this world because you're thinking about what's happening in a time that doesn't exist. Right. That has, it, it has no, it has no reference to anything. You don't know what the future holds. Yeah. So you place all this value in the future, or you place all these things in the future that are just not realistic. So stay centered, stay here now, and have grace. Super important. And then, uh- Good … the other one that, of the s- uh, three out of four of the Gs is grit. Ooh, good one. Grit, grit is the way you get to everything. Everyone wants everything to be simple. Nothing should be hard. Everyth- again, it's, it's the whole fast food culture. Everything should just be handed to me. I shouldn't have to work hard for anything. Never gonna happen. Never gonna happen. You can do all things th- through Him, right? Grit. You have to do. You have to activate. You have to get into the world- Grind … and move it around and grind it out. Gotta grind, dude. And sometimes it can be a situation as you get older where you start to realize, all the grinding I did in my 20s and 30s or whatever- Mm-hmm … I'm buying back my time right now. You know? I'm buying back my time by getting gritty. You know? So, uh, you just gotta get in it, and, and, and with grit comes this whole… We have this… I feel like more now than ever we have this culture has a fear of failure. Oh, boy. Like, they're just like, "If I fail, that's it. I'm done. I'm never gonna try that again." And you gotta get some grit 'cause failure is just part of the process. Everyone, anyone that's ever been successful in life has failed. Big time. Millions of times. And anyone that has failed has taken probably two different r- avenues. They either said, "I'm never doing that again. I quit. I'm just gonna punch a clock the rest of my life, or do this the rest of my life, or just let somebody else

Pete Ciotti: … dictate my life, or they said, "I'm gonna try it another way. I'm gonna try another way." Because you only have to be successful once.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: You taste it one time, bam. I mean-

Scott Hammond: Let's, let's name some gritty pe- people. Abraham Lincoln, go.

Pete Ciotti: Abraham Lincoln, gritty. This is gonna be a silly one. This is the one I always say.

Scott Hammond: Go.

Pete Ciotti: Colonel Sanders didn't get famous till he was-

Scott Hammond: Really?

Pete Ciotti: … almost 70.

Scott Hammond: Colonel Sanders.

Pete Ciotti: I mean, I don't care for KFC or anything like that-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … but it's just the, uh, the, the idea is true-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … that, like, he kept throwing recipes out-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and throwing recipes out until someone finally hit, and he, you know, the rest

Pete Ciotti: is history.

Scott Hammond: I got one. Les Schwab.

Pete Ciotti: Les Schwab.

Scott Hammond: Les Schwab. He, he, he put the tire business on the map.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: The West Coast.

Pete Ciotti: And I got the biggest gritty person of all time, and that's Jesus Christ.

Scott Hammond: He's totally gritty.

Pete Ciotti: What did he face?

Scott Hammond: Death.

Pete Ciotti: Everything.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: He faced death. He knew he was gonna die.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: And he carried. He, he, he knew he was gonna die. He, he, he had followers. He went through it. He knew what he was facing, and he still spread the message. He had the Romans against him. He, he had everybody. He had the Pharisees against him.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Did you watch The Chosen yet?

Pete Ciotti: I did, yeah. I've watched it all.

Scott Hammond: Pretty good.

Pete Ciotti: It's amazing.

Scott Hammond: Watch The Chosen. It's on everything, uh-

Pete Ciotti: I think the movie's out now. The season five is a movie.

Scott Hammond: Correct. It's two-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … it's the first two episodes.

Pete Ciotti: Right? So amazing.

Scott Hammond: My buddy just saw it up in, uh, Idaho. It was, all of Boise, Idaho, was sold out.

Pete Ciotti: Really?

Scott Hammond: Got two tickets.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: He said it was great. It's, it-

Pete Ciotti: I think-

Scott Hammond: It's chunky though. It's broke up in two episodes and-

Pete Ciotti: I don't know what I- I was gonna share with you. Well, you know it 'cause, but, uh, uh, Philippi- what, what is it? 4:13 is, like, Steph, Steph Curry's, uh, favorite Bible verse, right?

Scott Hammond: Steph Curry, he's got grit.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, and it's, it's a, it's a Bible verse about grit.

Scott Hammond: Patrick Mahomes, he's got grit.

Pete Ciotti: 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

Scott Hammond: Wow.

Pete Ciotti: Right? So that's grit. To me, that's like saying, "I can do all things. I can do all hard things."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: You want me to sit in an ice bath for five minutes because I know it sucks?

Pete Ciotti: I'll do it.

Scott Hammond: Sure.

Pete Ciotti: And I did it for 90 days. I sat in… Last year, I sat in an ice bath every day after work for 90 days, knowing it was the most incredibly hard thing, and I hated every bit of it.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And it was just ugh.

Scott Hammond: That's it.

Pete Ciotti: But it, like, it started to just slowly change the mindset to say, "You don't like… This is un- this is you getting comfortable being uncomfortable."

Scott Hammond: Hmm.

Pete Ciotti: "And this is how you're gonna get grit."

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: You know? "This is how we're gonna change. This is one little hack of changing our mindset." Running is another one.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, just doing things that you don't really like to do, but-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … so you gotta do them anyway.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Now, that's our f- that's our plight as fathers.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I mean, there's a lot of times, you know-

Scott Hammond: Gotta grind with grit

Pete Ciotti: … we gotta grind, and we gotta grind, and so you're never gonna grow if you don't do hard things, if you don't get gritty. So gritty is huge, and then that gets us all the way through it to the final thing, which is God, finding God in your life. Through all these things, you get balance. You find God, and you realize that you're not walking alone. You realize that when you're out on a run-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and you think you're alone in the woods and you're scared-

Scott Hammond: Right

Pete Ciotti: … that God's right there.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And, and you realize that, uh, when your baby come, your first kid is born, and you don't know what it's gonna be like being a father. I mean, I, when my first kid was born, I almost passed out. I was so much anxiety, like this is changing, bro. 29 years old, here comes a kid.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I was just in a rock band and touring around and-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Pete Ciotti: … got a girl pregnant, and all of a sudden I'm like-

Scott Hammond: What? What?

Pete Ciotti: … "What is this gonna be like?" And I almost passed out as he was born. I was just worried. I, I just wasn't used to it, and he was born at home, and-

Scott Hammond: Nice

Pete Ciotti: … you know, there it is. There, God shows up in that moment with-

Scott Hammond: There's a Humboldt thing. Hum- Humboldt.

Pete Ciotti: I mean, the whole, the whole room became white light.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And, and it just overtook me, and it happened again when my daughter was born.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, just amazing, and it happened this last time when my baby was born. I saw, I saw a sunrise as my baby came out-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Pete Ciotti: … six, five weeks ago, and it was just like, God shows up.

Scott Hammond: Power of moment.

Pete Ciotti: God shows up. If you work on these things, and you believe, and of course, if you have faith, and you get gritty with it, and you know… And faith is interesting because, you know, there's times when you're asked to believe in something that you can't

Pete Ciotti: see.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: That you don't know what truth is behind it. This seems like scientifically it could never happen, that He could rise from the dead, that He could heal-

Scott Hammond: Wow

Pete Ciotti: … the sick. Where's the science in any of that?

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: That, that's where you have to believe, and that's where you gotta have your faith, and, like, you're a- you're being asked to believe in something that shouldn't be real. It sounds like magic.

Scott Hammond: I heard today at lunch, when Jesus left, He said, "I have to go away 'cause you'll never get the power of the Holy Spirit-

Pete Ciotti: Mm

Scott Hammond: … until I go." We're not talking information. We're not talking about indoctrination. We're talking about the power that you're inferring and referring to-

Pete Ciotti: Hmm

Scott Hammond: … specifically, and I would call that the Holy Spirit in

Scott Hammond: terms of you're a believer. He, He's Imago Dei, or image of God. He's, He's entwined like the scripture uses, uh, uh, rope, that we could be like with, rope with the Holy Spirit, and that's the power of God, and that's… I think God gives those images, those, those thoughts, the, the gratitude thing. I love it.

Scott Hammond: Tie it-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Look at me tying it together.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, it's cool.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: See, right? Yeah, you start to get… And then we all start tying it together, this whole thing that we're talking about here, and we just start to go, "All right. Now I can, I can live a life with purpose. Now I can take something I'm laser focused on and put it into immediate

Pete Ciotti: action-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and watch my life grow." And by the way, you can do this when you're 45. You can do this when you're 55. You can do this when-

Scott Hammond: Yep

Pete Ciotti: … you're 65. It's endless. It doesn't matter.

Scott Hammond: Yep.

Pete Ciotti: You're, nobody's too old to do this. It- nobody's too stuck in their ways.

Scott Hammond: Colonel, Colonel Sanders.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, Colonel Sanders. Nobody's too old. So, like, y- you can continue to do this and continue to reset every day. That's the gift. The real power in this gift that we were given here is every day we can reset it and re-challenge ourselves and refocus ourselves. So there's really no fear of failure anymore.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: It's just like keep going for it. Like, this next chapter that I'm moving into is coaching, which a lot I've, I've gotten some hate on. People are like, "That's just silly. Why would you do that? Why would you try something totally-

Scott Hammond: Why wouldn't you?

Pete Ciotti: … weird like that? Like, why are you go-" And it's like, well, it's, it's just a calling that I have. I, I have a passion for it.

Scott Hammond: Do it, man.

Pete Ciotti: And I wanna live my best life.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: I wanna believe, and now I do, 'cause at first I, I put it in action. I said, "Do I c- I asked myself, could the best years at you're 40, this was when I was 45, I'm 47 now. I asked myself two years ago, I said, "Could the best years of your life be, still be ahead of you?"

Scott Hammond: Absolutely.

Pete Ciotti: After all you've done, been in a rock band, right? Traveled the country, uh, you know, all these things you've done-

Scott Hammond: Of course

Pete Ciotti: … had kids. Could, could your best years still be ahead of you? Nah, couldn't be, right?

Scott Hammond: How could that be?

Pete Ciotti: You've already done it all.

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: And then you start to live like this with this blueprint that we put out here, and you go, "Oh, yeah."

Scott Hammond: Huh.

Pete Ciotti: There's definitely some… I'm not gonna future travel too much, but there's definitely gonna be some really good stuff coming up, some real meat on the bone coming up, and I'm just super excited for it.

Pete Ciotti: I'm like-

Scott Hammond: I think it's cool-

Pete Ciotti: … that's what drives me and gives me purpose right now.

Scott Hammond: So there is future travel in the sense of dreaming.

Pete Ciotti: Little bit.

Scott Hammond: Dream big.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Dream with detail.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, a little bit you go there.

Scott Hammond: Got an imagination, sure.

Pete Ciotti: But you just recenter yourself-

Scott Hammond: And let, what's, what's today?

Pete Ciotti: … take some deep breaths. Yeah.

Scott Hammond: What am I gonna grind today? I, uh, I like the coach approach-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah

Scott Hammond: … uh, idea, and I think you'd be… You are a great coach. Tell me, uh, h- so if somebody wanted to get ahold of you

Scott Hammond: right away-

Pete Ciotti: Mm-hmm

Scott Hammond: … and say, "Hey, Pete, coach me up." Uh-

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, sure

Scott Hammond: … I, I don't know, but I'm sure you would come up with a business model if you don't have one already instantly.

Pete Ciotti: Well, I'm working on it. I ha-

Scott Hammond: Yeah

Pete Ciotti: … I'm gonna launch a business that's gonna be sort of, um, endurance coaching, like coaching running and-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … and nutrition stuff, uh, at the end of the year, but I'm also gonna get my s- I'm cert- gonna be a certified life coach, if you will, um, and whatever that means, and, uh, and start coaching and helping people get unstuck, uh, by the end of the year. That's my plan.

Scott Hammond: Cool. How would, how would we get ahold of you?

Pete Ciotti: Um, well-

Scott Hammond: Just-

Pete Ciotti: … all the usual ways. I have a, I have an Instagram page, @peteciottiiv, which is four, 'cause I'm the fourth Pete Ciotti.

Scott Hammond: How do you spell Ciotti?

Pete Ciotti: C-I-O-T-T-I.

Scott Hammond: Just like it sounds.

Pete Ciotti: Just like it sounds.

Scott Hammond: Pete Ciotti IV?

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, yeah, like the IV, the Roman numeral.

Scott Hammond: Oh.

Pete Ciotti: Right?

Scott Hammond: IV.

Pete Ciotti: Right, right, 'cause I'm the fourth.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Pete Ciotti: Um, you can find me on Instagram pretty easily. I'm on there a lot. I post content a lot. The, a lot of what we were just talking about, um, that content's on Instagram a

Pete Ciotti: lot.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: And, uh, sh- I should have a website up pretty soon for the coaching thing.

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm.

Pete Ciotti: Um-

Scott Hammond: TikTok, Facebook?

Pete Ciotti: No TikTok.

Scott Hammond: Like-

Pete Ciotti: I have a Facebook, same thing.

Pete Ciotti: Same, um-

Scott Hammond: Pete Ciotti-

Pete Ciotti: … username

Scott Hammond: … Humboldt County.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Find you.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, the fourth or whatever.

Scott Hammond: Right.

Pete Ciotti: Um, yeah, I mean-

Scott Hammond: You have a website

Pete Ciotti: … I'm, I'm onto social media. Uh, I have a business website for my landscaping and lawn care-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … ciottiyardmaintenance.com.

Scott Hammond: Gotcha.

Pete Ciotti: If you, if you need a, your lawn done or you need some landscaping-

Scott Hammond: Hey, call it up

Pete Ciotti: … you can call me up too.

Scott Hammond: Hey, call, call it up. You know, Nick, I w- was gonna ask you about your lawn real quick. It's kind, kinda long out there.

Pete Ciotti: Looking long out there?

Scott Hammond: Yeah.

Pete Ciotti: Uh-oh.

Scott Hammond: Just kid- lookin'- Just kidding, man. Uh-

Pete Ciotti: I gotta go door to door right now 'cause it's the spring rush and get everybody-

Scott Hammond: Oh, dude

Pete Ciotti: … signed up, so.

Scott Hammond: Our, our backyard is just like a des- it's like a jungle-

Pete Ciotti: Oh, man

Scott Hammond: … in McKinleyville.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Just so crazy.

Pete Ciotti: It's wild.

Scott Hammond: Well, hey, um, thank you, man.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Thank you for coming.

Pete Ciotti: For sure. Thanks for having me.

Scott Hammond: What a great story.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Parting shots.

Scott Hammond: Uh-

Pete Ciotti: Um-

Scott Hammond: My, my office mate hates that. It's parting shots. What is that?

Scott Hammond: Um, it's when you have something else to say.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah. I don't have a whole lot to s- well, I have way too much to say probably.

Pete Ciotti: Um-

Scott Hammond: So the five, five Fs.

Pete Ciotti: Five Fs.

Scott Hammond: Just review. Family, friendships, faith, fitness, and finance.

Pete Ciotti: Yep.

Scott Hammond: Which if practiced with regularity and, uh, and-

Pete Ciotti: And strength

Scott Hammond: … and strength and consistency lead to the five, four Gs.

Pete Ciotti: Four Gs.

Scott Hammond: Which is?

Pete Ciotti: Gratitude-

Scott Hammond: Mm-hmm

Pete Ciotti: … grace, grit, and God.

Scott Hammond: God. Like the God part.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, me too.

Scott Hammond: Thanks, Pete. Appreciate it.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: Hey, uh, thanks for joining us, everybody. This will be my sign-off. This is where it's really c- I'm very smooth and clever

Scott Hammond: here.

Pete Ciotti: Can't wait.

Scott Hammond: Yeah. Hey, everybody. Scott Hammond, 100% Humboldt. Thanks for joining us. Thanks, Pete, my new best friend. And, uh, you know, follow us, review me. Uh, come on, come on board. Uh, YouTube, um,

Scott Hammond: Instagram, all the socials. Of course, uh, all the podcast platforms. And watch us on, uh, local, uh, Humboldt, um, Access TV.

Pete Ciotti: Cool.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate it. Yeah, and, uh, like us, love us, uh, write a rev- review, and win one of these bad boys along with one of these, the Dutch. You know how big Dutch Bros is in Santa Rosa?

Pete Ciotti: Huge.

Scott Hammond: There's one store.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's like Chick-fil-A, like everybody goes there.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah.

Scott Hammond: It's crazy.

Pete Ciotti: Didn't they start in Grants Pass too?

Scott Hammond: Grants Pass, two brothers.

Pete Ciotti: Wow.

Scott Hammond: Yep. They were, uh, they re- started roasting up there and, uh, they're literally on every corner in Medford, I think.

Pete Ciotti: Sometime you have to check out YouTube, the Dutch Brothers parody. It's really funny.

Scott Hammond: It's pretty funny.

Pete Ciotti: Uh, yeah, it's all about… You just gotta see it.

Scott Hammond: They're great guys. They really supported the mountain bike community up there.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, that's cool.

Scott Hammond: Um, there, there's a young lad that would d- ended up dying of cancer. They did, uh, they did a ride for him every year and they're just really community

Scott Hammond: guys and-

Pete Ciotti: Good

Scott Hammond: … these guys here locally are great. Well, hey, thanks Pete.

Pete Ciotti: Thank you.

Scott Hammond: Appreciate it.

Pete Ciotti: Yeah, Scott, appreciate it.

Scott Hammond: See you again.

Pete Ciotti: All right.