Wrestling icon Diamond Dallas Page talks DDP Yoga, Tony Robbins, productivity and more

Diamond Dallas Page — born Page Joseph Falkinburg — first came into prominence as a professional wrestler, holding the high honor of being WCW World Champion more than once. Unlike many champion wrestlers, however, life didn't peak for DDP. He has managed to stay busy in his post-wrestling life not only as an actor and producer, but as an entreprenuer.

A fitness program derived from yoga, “>Shark Tank, DDPY recently expanded from being a DVD-based series into being an app with a “freemium” business model. Further differentiating itself from other yoga-based programs is that DDPY also incorporates cooking and fun videos into the app, making it very lifestyle-oriented.

DDP, who was accompanied to our interview by his wife (and business partner) Brenda, is as encouraging as they come. The two were in town for a series of workshops at “>DDP Yoga Performance Center in Georgia. Never low on energy or entertaining anecdotes, a chat with Mr. Page is bound to leave you feeling inspiring. This section of our chat — a link to the first installation is below — focuses on the positivity that drives DDP and everything he works on.

Was it Tony Robbins that instilled the power of the affirmation in you? Or was it someone from your upbringing? Were you this positive when you were growing up?

Diamond Dallas Page: I think it's the power of people telling me what I can't do, that was my biggest motivator. In my book Positively Page, at the end of the pictures is the picture of me holding up the world title. It said, “This goes out to all of you who said I never could, never would, because nothing could have motivated me more.” People can go, “Oh god, I can't do that, everyone says that I can't do that.” My favorite story of proving everybody wrong is Branda and Diamond Dallas Page

B: And he also uses “>Netflix, they're just keep going. There's no way you're ever gonna get bored doing the same workouts. What I do live, it's never the same…This probably would've cost $2 million dollars because we did it on Droid, Pamphlet, iPhone, iPad…

There are so many kids doing my workouts right now, they love it. In our main room right now, at our 6,000-square foot Performance Center, down here is where we work out, about 2,300 square feet. Staging, cameras, all that, there's the kitchen, down here's the 30-foot green screen. So eventually we're going to do DDP Yoga on the moon, DDP Yoga with kids with superheroes. I'm going to dress like this superhero that I'm playing in a movie…They're going to get to be superheroes working out. When you get to the end of the workout, you've been to arcades before, there'll be bells and whistles.

[DDP resumes demonstrating the app] If you want to do a custom workout, say you're hiking, say you're going to play basketball, I don't care what you do, it picks up your heart rate…Even if you don't do my program, this is the best fitness app out there. Other apps charge you like $3 to track your heart-rate, I don't charge anything. I charge you a subscription, you get pulled in, then it works…Anybody who originally got the program, we charge you $8.99 a month, which is unbelievable. All that content in your pocket, you don't have to go anywhere.

That's cheaper than