Digital Social Hour
From Collapsed Lung to Crushing It: A CEO's Journey | Zachary Del Monaco DSH #1072
Wed, 08 Jan 2025
From a collapsed lung and near-death experience to becoming a purpose-driven CEO - Zachary Del Monaco shares his incredible transformation story. 🏥 After battling severe scoliosis that collapsed his lung and left him unable to walk, Zach discovered his true calling in helping others live healthier, more powerful lives. In this raw and inspiring conversation, you'll discover how a devastating spinal surgery during COVID became the catalyst for complete life transformation. Learn how Zach rebuilt himself physically and mentally, transitioning from construction industry work to founding Delmonico Events with a mission to prevent suicide and transform lives through health education. Watch as Zach opens up about his journey from rock bottom - including relearning to walk, hitting financial struggles, and ultimately finding his life's purpose in speaking and event production. He shares powerful insights on everything from healing protocols and business pivots to building genuine relationships and overcoming life's biggest challenges. This conversation is packed with valuable lessons on resilience, finding your purpose, and transforming pain into power. Perfect for entrepreneurs, health enthusiasts, and anyone seeking inspiration to overcome their own obstacles. Follow Zach's journey: Instagram & TikTok: @zachdelmonaco #businessdevelopment #selfimprovement #businesscoaching #kickstartyourentrepreneurjourney #discomfortleadstogrowth CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:29 - Zachary's Recent Travels 01:22 - Zachary's Career Developments 05:01 - Today's Sponsor: Prolon 07:19 - Party Phase 08:58 - Sparked Your Health Journey 13:11 - Gary Knows Your Story? 17:17 - Was Surgery the Right Move? 19:00 - Your Surgery Experience 22:25 - Support in Low Moments 23:10 - Your Lowest Moments 33:11 - What's Next for Zachary 33:19 - Delmonico Events 40:48 - Where to Find Zachary APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [email protected] GUEST: Zachary Del Monaco https://www.instagram.com/zachdelmonaco https://elanvital.club/zach SPONSORS: Prolon: http://prolonlife.com/DSH LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/
Chapter 1: What was Zachary's recent travel experience?
It was when the nurses came in and she's like, what can I do for you? Can I give you more medicine? And I was just so pissed off, so fed up that I was in this pain and that no one knew what the hell they were doing. Plus it was during COVID, so no one really could be in the room. So I remember just looking up and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to go through this anymore. Just take me away.
I just, I'm done. Just take me. If this is going to be like this.
All right, guys. Got Zachary here today from Long Island. Thanks for coming in today, man. No worries, mate. Thank you. What you been up to lately?
Came on, when did we come? We came in Saturday and leaving today. But yesterday we did a flight to Grand Canyon back. So just been chilling, relaxing.
I haven't been there yet. How was it? It was beautiful. Did you go like all the way in or?
Yeah, we took helicopter. Went straight down. I think we stayed there for like 15 minutes. But just so insane.
Was it quiet? How was it down there? Yeah, really quiet. Yeah, I'd imagine it's like super quiet. And was there any animals?
Now, apparently they said there's a lot of wild horses. Wild horses? Yeah. Wild horses, different animals, but we didn't see anything. Damn. Yeah.
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Chapter 2: How did Zachary's health journey begin?
Yeah, I'm big on nature, so I got to make that a trip.
It was so beautiful. You should go, definitely. It's about a two-hour trip. So you have to fly there? Yeah. You can fly there. It's about an hour trip there, and then you stay probably 15 minutes, come back another hour. Nice. It's so nice. It's beautiful. You've been traveling a lot lately? No, actually. Really?
So like two, a year and a half, two years ago, I was traveling a lot with different events. But recently in the past couple of six months, I've been in New York just working with my dad on his construction company. Okay.
So Delmonico Events is kind of put to the side a little bit?
Well, Delmonico Events now is up and running. Got it. So I was basically... Traveling a lot, and then I basically put all that on pause to come back. My dad owns a construction company called Red Rock Industries. We build car dealerships, recycling facilities. So I basically said that I want to go all in and focus on Red Rock to help me blow it up, social media and everything.
That was my game plan, to go all in. And then that fell through, actually. Something happened. We were posting some amazing videos. I was doing amazing with the content, really creating brand. And a couple of videos went up. A couple of clients didn't like it. Things left and right. So I basically had to put that on pause. And then my attention switched to Delmonico events. Got it. Yeah.
Red Rock like the casino here or different Red Rock?
Red Rock like the Grand Canyon.
Oh, Grand Canyon. Got it. Because there's a Red Rock by my house out here. Know what? Yeah. That's where all the Nelk boys stay and stuff.
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Chapter 3: What challenges did Zachary face during surgery?
Yeah. The team's persuading me on moving here. Oh, yeah? Yeah. I was supposed to be moving to Florida, like Brickell area.
Okay.
In the next month. But... I think they sold me. Damn. What was the selling point? They're telling me about all the events that happen here, like every single week. And then also the weather, the pricing over here is just insane.
You'll get a lot more bang for your buck here than Brickell. Brickell, you're not going to get a house. You're going to get an apartment.
That's what we're looking at right now. But apparently what they were saying, half the price, if that.
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Chapter 4: How did Zachary overcome his lowest moments?
And you get a four-bedroom house for the same price as a brick apartment. It's ridiculous. Plus, you're close to LA. You're close to Mexico. And the food's great. Nightlife's good. Always events here. Always conferences. F1's next week. I heard about that. That's going to be a big event. I'm sure a lot of your clientele will be at that event.
That's crazy.
Yeah. And then UFC's always here. Do you watch UFC? Yeah. Dana White? Yeah. He lives here, right? Yep. A lot of big... Mark Wahlberg lives here. Yeah. Networking's good out here, man. I think you'd like it.
I can see.
Yeah. New York's dope, but I feel like it's older money, you know? It's getting way overpriced. Out here, it's younger, and it's more energy.
We landed here on Saturday, and I get off the plane, and I start smiling, and I looked at my dad, and I told him, I don't know what it is, but I think I'm beginning to like this place a lot more.
Does your dad like it here? Is he moving too? He...
I think he likes it here. He's just very used to New York lifestyle. Yeah. The fast-paced. I think we're definitely going to bring Red Rock down here for construction, but I'm pretty sure the family is going to move down to Florida somewhere around Palm Beach or something like that.
That's where everyone retires.
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Chapter 5: What is the mission of Delmonico Events?
Yeah.
New York's probably top five, but yeah, I don't know. City life is a little, I get over that.
Me too. I've been, I think I told you my sister, I have a twin sister. So she moved to Kips Bay and now I've been going back and forth. So usually on Thursdays or Fridays, I'd go in for the city, stay over, enjoy, get some brunch. So I'm liking it, but I don't think I could ever live there.
Yeah. So you're super close with your sister?
Yeah.
Yeah. That's cool. Sometimes the twin stuff doesn't work out.
It actually did it when we were younger. Oh yeah. We went to, we went to the same school all the way up.
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Chapter 6: How did Zachary transform his pain into purpose?
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I was so close with her like this. And I think, I'm pretty sure that that made her aggravated. Like she pushed away from me. So she didn't want to talk to me. She didn't want to really hang around with me, or at least that's how it felt. So then pretty sure it was during high school and college, we went our different ways and I kind of split up.
And it's kind of the funny saying, you know, if you let someone go and they're met, they'll come back. So now our relationship's much closer, but it's rocky at times.
Were you overprotective, you think? Classic brother-sister relationship.
There was this one time we were in Aruba, and we were out. She still mocks me to this day for it. We were out at a club, and this guy came up to her, and without even thinking, I instantly was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, like, bye. And she had so aggravated at me, again, because, like, the protector. But I've been working on that, so things are getting better.
I think it's human nature, right? Protect your family. 100%. Yeah. I'm an only child, but I can relate with that. If I had a sister, I'd want the best for her. Aruba hookup's probably not the move. No. No, definitely not.
That sounds dangerous, actually. It's crazy. We haven't been there for like three, four years, actually. We used to go every single year. Damn. February break. But yeah, it was crazy. I didn't really like it that much. Aruba?
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Chapter 7: What health protocols did Zachary adopt?
What sparked that health journey for you? Because you're pretty young, so.
Yeah, so I had a spinal surgery about, I think it was three years ago. Whoa. Where it was major. So I was playing soccer in middle school. That was like my escape because, again, I was shy. I couldn't even talk to anyone. Like right now, us doing this, About five years ago, six years ago, I would have been bright red, sweating. It was horrible. I could not talk to a single person.
So my escape was fitness, was sports, specifically soccer and surfing. So I would play all the time. That's 24-7 because it was my escape. And then... From there, I basically got really, really into looking like a king, like six-pack abs built, and then I figured out who this guy Gary Brekka was.
And I dove all into him, and it was just beginning to blow my mind on the different types of protocols that you could do, the different types of routines that you could do on a daily basis to make yourself feel absolutely amazing. So I got really interested in that, dove into that, and then the scoliosis, the spinal surgery, I had 48% curve. Whoa. So it was literally, it was like a hunchback.
It was crazy. When I was at the beach or at the pool or on the field taking my shirt off, so many people would look because it's like. Damn. You're just, it was bad. I have a 15% curve.
You do? Yeah. I just found out last week.
Damn.
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Chapter 8: What are Zachary's future plans?
To the left. How are you feeling with that? Now that I know about it, they told me I had it growing up. I never knew the degree. 15 is like not too bad, I guess. So I do want to fix it though. Yeah.
48% was hard because of how it looked. But at the same time, when I was running for soccer and I was doing activities, I couldn't breathe because it was collapsing part of my lung.
Whoa.
So I was going to yell that by my coach saying, why aren't you putting in more effort? You're not running at all in the field, taking me on and off, yelling at me. And then I went in for the x-ray and I realized that it was collapsing half of my lung. Jeez. So... Spent like six months building up all my muscles that I could, and then surgery hit.
And I was going into the surgery like, I got this, man. I'm going to beat the surgery. People are talking about like three to six months recovery. Give me one month, I'll be done with it. That was not the case at all. I spent a week in the hospital not even being able to move at all. I remember the second night, the pills that they gave me couldn't even last forever.
So I was feeling the pain of like a thousand knives and just fire right at your back. And I remember there was one of the nurses came in and she's like, what can I do for you? Can I give you more medicine? And I was just so pissed off, so fed up that I was in this pain and that no one knew what the hell they were doing. Plus it was during COVID. So no one really could be in the room.
So I remember just looking up and I'm like, Lord, I don't want to go through this anymore. Just take me away. I'm done. Just take me if this is going to be like this. And then it's crazy. I'm pretty sure I blacked out right after that. Don't remember a single thing. Blacked out, fell asleep, woke up the next morning. And ever since that day, I've just been working on myself every single day.
I was wondering when the next time I'd be able to do one pushup was. So from that moment forward, every single morning, whether it was at college or now, wherever I am, I always try and get in the gym. I always try and get a lift in, get some weights in, go for a run, go for a walk.
And then, like I said, with Gary Brekka, just been learning how to be the most healthy human possible that I can be because I hate feeling like shit. I used to get headaches every single day. I used to have IBS is what they told me. learned that none of that was true, basically, because I went down the deep rabbit hole, but
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