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 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