00:02 - Stacey (Host)
Let's talk a chill badass.
00:06 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
That's how.
00:07 - Mark (Host)
I look at this guy.
00:07 - Stacey (Host)
Like he's a badass, but he's also helped so many people along the way.
00:11 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, it's funny and I'm reflecting on what you just said Chill, badass. He's a badass because of what he's gone through.
00:16 - Stacey (Host)
Yes.
00:17 - Mark (Host)
Like positive and negative, positive and negative Wild stories.
00:20 - Stacey (Host)
Stories of celebrities and the Playboy Mansion and gunfights and prison for 10 months, but it all makes sense when you listen.
00:30 - Mark (Host)
Yeah.
00:30 - Stacey (Host)
Just so you know, Like it seems very chaotic, but it all makes sense when you listen. Then he helps you reinvent yourself.
00:36 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, he helps you live your life because he's clearly experienced that he's a counselor. He followed he's got a world famous father who was in the world of psychology. He followed him into the, into the art, and he's legitimately works with people to help them reinvent their lives or deal with their current life if they're in a relationship.
00:56 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, I was. I was telling him that I felt like talking about myself way too much on this podcast with him, because he's one of those people that hold space for you, yeah it's a good way to put you know, and in a podcast you know, and and you know there's some silence, and then I'm like oh, let me just drop my life story with him, which is not what we're supposed to do here, by the way it's.
01:15 - Mark (Host)
It's a lot of fun to hear um both sides to this man well, not both. He's like a hexagon, there's so many sides to this guy. It's great. I think you're gonna enjoy it.
01:25
Um, this is mr mark boriosi hi, I'm stacy and I am mark, and this is the gurus at game changers podcast. Welcome to the show everybody. If you have been a fan of our show, you have heard some stories of some pretty amazing life experiences, from people like brandonShields, who chose a life that led him essentially to prison, to people like Nancy Hicks, who she chose to live a life very connected to God, very spiritual. We've reflected with Noorjahan Tort on what her world-famous father instilled in her that shapes her to this day. We have explored addiction in some of the most fascinating ways with like jk ameasy and brandon novak and paul vecchione.
02:11
We've heard crazy stories about legendary hollywood a-listers from nicky stanzione that's episode one. Go check it out and through it all we've heard a lot of stories of people that had it all, lost it all, and somehow managed to engineer some incredible comeback and re-engineer their lives. So a lot of inspirational stories about resilience, a lot about reinvention, and that everything I said is what makes this gentleman special today, because our guest today, mark Boriosi, has experienced everything I just listed and unbelievably more. You're not going to believe and I mean getting blessed by the Pope, chilling out with the Dalai Lama, going to Illuminati parties and rubbing elbows with gangsters partying at the Playboy Mansion, and along the way, he followed his father's calling and he himself became a counselor in the world of psychology and he's been helping others overcome their self-limiting thoughts so they can enjoy their best lives. He is a proven master of reinvention and he's going to help you tap into resourcefulness and and and a resiliency that you may not even know that you have so you can transform yourself, transform your life. That's what's happening in studio today with Mark Boriosi.
03:25
Mark, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. This is great. This is great.
03:28 - Stacey (Host)
Happy to have you. Thank you for coming, mark. I appreciate it. You've said, and I agree, my early life is crazier than fiction, like disconnected chapters of a book. Someone was asking you like will you write a book? And you got to know some of the world's most legendary political figures, like doctors, lawyers, celebrities. Why and how did you venture into that world? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
03:53 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Probably started when I was younger, going to New York. If you've been to New York you know, back in the late, you know 90s and 2000s, the velvet rope where you can't get into places. You know the bouncer checks you and says no. So I was young back then and I, you know, didn't really get into them and then had this thought of getting on the other side of the fence. So I started going to some charitable events and started meeting some celebrities and people of that nature, and it wasn't long after that that I started hosting parties. I hosted a cancer benefit for multiple myeloma, which my ex-wife's father passed away from, at a friend's loft in downtown New York. Philip Glass came to play.
04:39 - Stacey (Host)
Who were the celebrities who jumped into some of these parties? Did you start to get to know them?
04:45 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Sure, rich Voss was a common comedian there, colin Quinn, jim Norton, jeff Ross Wow, that's in New York. Stacey Pressman used to come out a lot. She's a comedian up in New York.
04:58 - Mark (Host)
Was there somebody that you really wanted to meet, that you had the opportunity to actually?
05:03 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
talk to and hang out with oh sure, Different than I am now, but probably Alice Cooper. Oh, nice yeah when I was a kid, I was a big Alice Cooper fan, ever since I saw him on the Muppet Show. So I grew up really just listening to Alice for a long time. And then when I had the opportunity to meet him backstage at an event, I was nervous as can be, because I'm thinking all right, I'm going to meet my childhood idol, and if he's a jerk, my youth is wasted.
05:29 - Stacey (Host)
They say never meet your heroes. Right, right, but this was different.
05:33 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
He turned out to be one of the nicest human beings on the planet.
05:36 - Stacey (Host)
What is the Illuminati and why and how did you get to amass?
05:40 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
the Illuminati. Okay, all right.
05:42 - Stacey (Host)
Honestly because really, this is like so.
05:44 - Mark (Host)
It's topical.
05:45 - Stacey (Host)
And it's nuanced and you don't really know. Is this going to happen to us if we talk about the Illuminati? Not even a little bit.
05:51 - Mark (Host)
Okay, tell me about it, it was an Illumin based party okay yeah so it's not the actual illuminati which you can, as far as you know.
06:01 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
As far as I know, I mean yeah it could have been yeah, you go to new york, um, you don't find out where you're gonna meet until the time, uh, that you have to meet. But you have to dress to, you know, like a tuxedo, or impress you know. And then, uh, and then so I get a text. I go to this corner of somewhere and somewhere in New York, a bus pulls up and there's other people there, we all get on, and then champagne is provided, and then we drive for two hours, so you know no mention of where we're going. The windows are blacked out, so you have no idea what direction we're going. Two hours later we get to our location and it's a giant mansion, it's a gorgeous mansion, in like an estate, it's like a movie script.
06:39 - Mark (Host)
Right.
06:40 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
And then, as you get out, there are like people dancing fire dancers, you know, some naked you know, and it was pretty surreal and it's like walking to a Salvador Dali painting, to be honest you know, and you get in and there's dinner provided and then everyone gets a mask different animals, there's people spinning on trapeze above dinner and then they do like a little.
07:14
There was a special mixologist there making special cocktails for people and they start this sort of like a show kind of thing and then they tell a story and then everyone gets up and you walk around the building and then you know different things happen in different rooms. In one room I know there was a girl in a cow costume in a bathtub of milk.
07:29 - Stacey (Host)
Hugh Hefner in the Playboy Mansion. What's it like and how did you get there and what you know? We've seen the movies, we've seen. You know like, what's it like to really be there?
07:38 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Hugh was at every event with his girlfriends, you know, and girlfriends were nice. You know a lot of celebrities. To me, the best thing about the mansion was the food. I mean they were, you know, they had amazing food. You know the grotto where you swim. I was in the grotto two years in a row, which is just ridiculous.
08:00 - Mark (Host)
The mansion was old.
08:01 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
There's a zoo and there's a game room and it's all old pinball machines. So I definitely needed some updating, but I think it was sold since then. Probably my favorite story there was inadvertently running into Jason Statham in the grotto and I was always a big fan of his.
08:16 - Stacey (Host)
You're a doppelganger running into Jason Statham in the grotto and you know I was always a big fan of his, your doppelganger.
08:20 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Thank you, and you know I was looking for somebody else and I just boom, there he is, and he was, you know, just enjoying the party.
08:29 - Mark (Host)
Do you miss that world? You're not in that world, sometimes Sure.
08:32 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Yeah, you know, the road less traveled, you know. You know, when you have kids, everything changes.
08:38 - Mark (Host)
Hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe, subscribe all those things, all those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helps shape the show.
08:53 - Stacey (Host)
So we would appreciate it, please, and back to the show. So where did you go after that? So, so, like, when did you decide to stop the whole hosting parties thing, and what was the next step for you?
09:01 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Stopped hosting parties when New York became more difficult to get to and get time off. I was going like for a while. I was going like every week.
09:11 - Stacey (Host)
So this is your side hustle. This wasn't even like your main Correct yes, what were you doing as a major, as your main job?
09:17 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
hustle. This wasn't even like your correct yes. What were you doing as a major, as your main job? Uh, back in those days, I was part of a third party administrator for workers compensation claims, which was the, the job and the business that got me in trouble oh you know um and the, you know the gentleman I did that with.
09:31
He's no longer with us. He, you know he, passed away while in prison. But um, I, he didn't even know I was doing the other thing, because I felt that if I brought the two worlds together he would find a way to ruin it. So there were times that I'd go to New York, I'd work at the office for workers' compensation claims until about 4 o'clock and I'd shoot to New York, which is about two hours, so 6 o'clock. Do what I'm going to do.
10:01 - Mark (Host)
And I'd hours, so six o'clock, do what I'm gonna do and be back by eight o'clock the next morning. Mmm, what was this guy? Your partner to start? Yes, it started. It was your company that works comp got it? Yeah, so essentially the two of you and you're doing this other thing. You want him involved, so you kept it from him. Right, you did something together that ended.
10:09 - Stacey (Host)
That landed you in trouble with the law exactly got it, and he died in prison, correct. Did you know, as it was happening, that it probably wasn't a good idea? Oh, absolutely. Oh, you knew it, yeah.
10:19 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Where it went south was when my partner kicked me out of the company because he got a little greedy. And then realized that he couldn't do the job on his own, kept me on to manage the business and to pay the claims, but paid me fraudulently.
10:36 - Stacey (Host)
But you had a feeling that was happening.
10:38 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Oh, it was like watching a slow car crash oh no it was, uh, there was, you know, it was only you know.
10:43 - Stacey (Host)
Went end one way yeah do you remember the day that?
10:47 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
oh very, what happened um went to the office, uh 15 fbi agents came blasting in and uh just like the movies it was I actually said that I that I said this is so surreal and they're like, even though we had this many agents in this area, I said no, and then I think I even asked are you going to handcuff me? And they're like no, and I thought that was a let down. But it was so like a movie and then everything was a whirlwind after that you were in for like 10 months 10 months.
11:17 - Mark (Host)
Is there something that it taught you?
11:19 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
More than taught me, because I think I knew it was like I wasn't being me for a while. So it brought me back to who I really was. But acceptance, which is amazing because I remember sitting in the holding cell before I went and I just got calm and what happened was acceptance of reality just overcome me and then I just breathed a sigh. I was like, all right, we're going to do this. Then, when I got out, I got into drug and alcohol treatment.
11:50 - Stacey (Host)
So drugs and alcohol were a part of your life heavily before you went in. No, I'm not in recovery, oh, okay. So what made you want to do that?
11:56 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Yeah, I used my experience quite a bit who I've become, who I am and it's no secret that you know. My father taught me everything that I know that I utilize, and it seems to resonate with a lot of clients.
12:08 - Mark (Host)
I want to talk about your work.
12:10 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Okay.
12:10 - Mark (Host)
Right, because you're helping a lot of people and a lot of people tune in to us to sort of reinvent themselves. Look, you get to a certain point where you've invented yourself and you get to a certain age and you're like maybe I don't want to be me anymore. Maybe I want to reinvent and explore a tenth of what you've experienced in your life. Right, I imagine you have a lot of people that you work with as a counselor that share that mindset.
12:33 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
What are you telling them? First, decide what you want to become what you want to become what you want to do. Then you have to look at the reason you're doing that. If you're not fully motivated internally to change, it's difficult to work to do so. Where I come from is I've reinvented myself so many times that it's almost second nature. I've had to sit there and go. God, who even am I?
12:54
Because at some point you say if you're divorced three times, the problem probably isn't them. I would say seek counseling if you need help to do that, to have a plan of attack, but I don't know why. In your question is there a reason why they're wanting to change or are they just tired of themselves? Your book, the Compass of Self, Navigating Life's Paths and Passages Tell me about this. What it does the best is there are things in there that sort of help you understand who you really are. There's one chapter in there called are you ego-driven or are you insecurity-driven? Are you doing things to be better, then, or are you doing things so people don't think you're less than?
13:40
Oh that's interesting, and it's a different way to look at that then, because you know, someone with a big ego is very, you know, flamboyant and all, but are they doing that to hide what they really feel about themselves, which I think is very common?
13:51 - Stacey (Host)
The first step in self-reinvention is.
13:54 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
I would say accepting or processing why you're doing so and what does that entail? I mean your life might change. Hopefully it does for the better. How is that going to affect other people?
14:08 - Stacey (Host)
Why do most people reinvent?
14:09 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Oh gosh, that's a good question. Why do they reinvent? Probably not satisfied with where they're at? Are you looking for an easy fix? Are you unhappy with your lot in life and how things are going that you think that suddenly reinventing yourself, if it's even possible at the time, is the answer? In my history, with my reinventing myself, it wasn't necessarily by choice, you know. I kind of was pushed into it, you know. Uh, you know, reinvent to survive in some aspects. You know, the only time I did reinvent myself from scratch out of choice was when I went from high school to college. High school I was terrified of of everybody, including, you know, women. I couldn't talk to girls, couldn't ask them out. I was very shy. Um, and then um, and that was what I was kind of known for, you know, um, when I went to college down in St Leo university in Florida, as soon as I got there I reinvented myself. I just said I don't want to be that anymore.
14:59 - Mark (Host)
How can we help you get the word out about your book, the Compass of Self, but also about your service.
15:07 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Well, you're showing the book, which helps. It's on Amazoncom. Other than that, I did change where I'm practicing. Now I practice at a facility called the Aaron Center in Scranton, pennsylvania, which keeps me very busy, thank God, and you just call there and make an appointment if you want to talk to me. I'm also doing things on the side now, specifically hypnosis, so I'll have an office for doing that on its own.
15:33 - Mark (Host)
I can't thank you enough for making the trip out here for us Thank you and spending this time with us and sharing all the insights with our audience.
15:39 - Marc Boriosi (Guest)
Thank you very much. I appreciate you.
15:40 - Mark (Host)
Thank you, mark, thank you.
15:47 - Stacey (Host)
You're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the Gurus and Game Changers podcast While you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might've helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, See you next week.