Speaking
Bring the work into the room.
Talks about performance, character, and the habits we carry into our families and teams.
Book Guy to speak Speaker sheet (PDF, 1 page)
I bring stories from Waiʻanae, Ramadi, ministry, fatherhood, and the gym. I examine my own choices first. Then we look at the habits success can conceal, the effect our behavior has on the people around us, and the work of repair.
The three talks below approach that work from different directions: achievement, inheritance, and rebuilding. Each has a defined audience and a practical takeaway.
How I hold a room
I take the work seriously. I do not take myself that seriously. I’ve met me.
Most rooms full of people who are very good at looking fine need both.
I tell stories. Including the one about a cat named Moses and the night I was absolutely certain I was saving him. I was not.
Moses lived. He deserves most of the credit. He has declined to endorse my methods.
Everybody makes the boneheaded move. Some of us just make it with tremendous confidence.
The point is to stop giving other people’s opinions—and your own imperfections—unlimited microphone time. Laugh at yourself. Learn what needs learning. Then do the next honest thing.
There are laughs. Mostly at my expense. Then the room gets quieter.
That is the job.
Arnold Classic, 2018
Arnold Classic, 2018. On stage. Watch on YouTube
Clever Talks San Diego, 2018
Clever Talks San Diego, 2018. Panel.
What audiences take home
- The Alibi of Achievement. A way to tell discipline from hiding, in themselves and their teams.
- The Fumes We Pass Forward. How damage moves through families and teams without anyone naming it, and what it looks like when someone decides this goes no further.
- The Practice After the Ashes. Practical habits of repair: telling the truth, staying in the room, and rebuilding without pretending nothing burned.
Seen on national TV
The Alibi of Achievement
When performance becomes the hiding place.
I built achievement into a respectable form of escape. Most high performers do not call it escape. They call it discipline.
There is a difference between a record and a life.
The Fumes We Pass Forward
Nobody wakes up hoping to hand their damage to their children, marriage, team, or community. We are usually more civilized about it. We pass it along without naming it.
Like secondhand smoke, nobody remembers lighting the thing, but everybody in the room is breathing it.
The Practice After the Ashes
Responsibility. Repentance. Rebuilding. The work after the apology.
Just the quieter work of staying in the room, telling the truth, repairing what can be repaired, grieving what cannot, and building something different from what burned.
Formats
| Format | Length |
|---|---|
| Keynote | 45–60 min |
| Workshop | 90 min to half day |
| Fireside chat or interview | 30–45 min |
| Virtual | Any of the above |
Hear me first
Side A: my voice.
Side A · The Introduction
An invitation from the man behind the stories.
Transcript
Hey.
I’m Guy Valentino.
I once did 5,862 pull-ups in twenty-four hours.
Took me years to admit why.
The record was not an achievement. It was an alibi.
I fought in Ramadi. I owned a gym. I’m a father of two daughters.
And for a long time, I was a man very good at looking fine.
Then I wrote it down. All of it.
The book is called Ashes Still Sing: A Marine’s Reckoning.
The songs came out of the same fire. So did the coaching.
I’m not on the other side of this story. I’m still in it.
Look around.
Stay a while.
Who’s talking
- U.S. Marine Corps, July 1996 to June 2006. Infantry sergeant and platoon guide, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines.
- Led patrols in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2005.
- Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “V.” Combat Action Ribbon.
- Youth pastor, Calvary Chapel Dallas, 2006 to 2011.
- Navy Reserve Chaplain Candidate Program, 2006 to 2012. Graduate study at Dallas Theological Seminary.
- Founded and coached CrossFit Rev40, Farmers Branch, Texas, March 2019 to January 2025. Led more than 20 workshops and events there on mind, body, and soul, including fitness, mental health, faith, meditation, and breathing.
- University of Oklahoma, 2003: addressed the graduating class of Navy midshipmen commissioning as Navy and Marine Corps officers. Congressman Tom Cole attended.
- Former Guinness World Record holder, most pull-ups in 24 hours. Times Square, Veterans Day 2015. The record has since been broken. The Guinness certificate was presented live on Fox & Friends, November 12, 2015. The coverage.
- Spike TV Veterans Operation Wellness, beginning with a Gold’s Gym segment and including a 2016 Firestone commercial.
- Arnold Classic, 2018: a talk on depression, and on helping veterans get active to overcome it.
- Appeared in three national TV commercials for Firestone and Spike TV’s Veterans Operation Wellness (VOW).
- Panel speaker, Clever Talks 2018: Made in America, San Diego Marriott Marquis. Shared the bill with Jocko Willink and Tim Kennedy.
- Hosted my own podcast on Podbean. Host of “Overcoming PTSD,” a seven-episode series on the CrossFit Rev40 podcast, 2020.
- Author of the memoir Ashes Still Sing: A Marine’s Reckoning, complete and seeking a publisher. Songwriter. Father of two daughters.
- Coaching in person in Dallas, Texas, and online.
Short bio for the emcee
Guy Valentino served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1996 to 2006 as an infantry sergeant with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines, and led patrols in Ramadi in 2005. He holds the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal with Combat “V.” He later served as a youth pastor, studied at Dallas Theological Seminary, and founded CrossFit Rev40. A former Guinness World Record holder, he has written the memoir Ashes Still Sing: A Marine’s Reckoning.
Book a talk
Starting at $4,000 plus travel.
Tell me the organization, the date if known, the city, and whether it is in person or virtual.
I will write back.
Arnold Classic 2018. Shared the bill with Jocko Willink and Tim Kennedy at Clever Talks San Diego 2018.
Sent. I will write back.
That did not go through. Write me at speaking@theguyvalentino.com and I will answer there.
Or write directly: speaking@theguyvalentino.com