The Short Version
Someone who knows Tony Petrozza well has repeatedly described him as someone who “sucks the marrow out of the bones of life.” They meant it as a compliment.
Tony says, “This is a guy who gets me.”
Creative. Offbeat. Non-conformist.
Tony believes that the greatest gift we all have is our own lives. Moreover, in that present, perhaps the most awesome thing is our own potential.
He is on a mission to live up to his and to help the world do the same. He says that the secret of success has been revealed to him.
It is not just persistence and learning. It’s purpose.
Tony Petrozza’s full story is at the bottom of this page – but first, enjoy a little trivia about him!
Happy b-day!
Tony claims he is the guy who coined the term ‘b-day’ in replacement of the whole word ‘birthday’. It is commonly used today.
He says, “I started saying it in the early and mid-90s and never heard a single person say it. I never saw it written or heard it from anyone else. Then after some years, I heard someone I didn’t know say it. I was like “Hey!’ As time went on, I heard it used more and more. Now it’s everywhere. Yeah I can’t do anything with it but it’s nice. It does show me how language works though. It starts with one person. One person can begin things.”
He also says jokingly, “The person who came up with ‘PDA’, the acronym for ‘public displays of affection’ is just a hack.”
What’s For Lunch?
Tony and his brother were partners in a proprietary business called ‘What’s For Lunch?’. It was a faxing service that promoted primarily lunches from 1996-98. It’s area was downtown Brooklyn. All night the computer would fax to its list so that the service would be there for the people, for the next business day. The brothers were developing the system and it was not perfected.
Most of the recipients were business and government offices. However, some recipients were home offices. The primary complaint that Tony got was over-faxing. Sometimes there was a mess-up in the computer, and in error, it would repeatedly fax a single recipient. It might send a bunch of the same fax or continuously call the same number. People were greatly annoyed and Tony took some angry calls about it.
A favorite TV show of Tony’s was ‘Seinfeld’. Imagine how he felt when watching the episode entitled ‘The Maid’ and a comedy device they used was the mocking of a food faxing service! In it, the character Kramer subscribes to the faxing service called ‘Now We’re Cooking’. He doesn’t have a fax machine so he gives them high-strung Elaine’s phone number. She got fax called all night! The episode is hilarious.
That wasn’t the only time ‘What’s For Lunch?’ made ripples. An image of Tony’s face was on the corner of the fax. So thousands of people saw it every business day. One night Tony walked into the famous NYC tavern, the Stonewall Inn. A mildly drunk woman turned to him and said, “Hey I know you! You’re the guy on that fax!”
Kramer/Tony
Comedy is most important to Tony.
He once fell in love with a woman and she asked him to describe himself. He replied that he was “a combination of Kramer (character of Seinfeld), Jerry Maguire (character from the movie) and Sid Vicious (punk rocker from the Sex Pistols).”
Fortunately, when Tony got into recovery the Sid Vicious side was removed more and more.
Numerous people have confirmed the Kramer resemblance.
Coney Island Parachute Tower
The iconic 250 foot Parachute Tower at Coney Island used to be a working parachute tower.
Although the parachutes did not descend freely but were guided by a line.
Tony’s father Frank was among the last people to take this ride.
Operation ceased in the early 60s.
Coincidentally, the same company that made it, also made the parachute towers at the US Army Airborne School at Fort Benning.
Tony graduated from it in 1983.
Empire State Building
In the 1920s, Tony’s maternal grandfather Carmine emigrated from Italy.
He was welcomed by his brother Benny.
Later, he got Carmine a job as a laborer constructing the Empire State Building.
They worked there together.
Unfortunately, during a blasting accident; a brick struck Benny in the head.
He died in Carmine’s arms.
The Tollgate Tavern
Tony’s paternal grandfather Frank Sr, owned a bar restaurant in Flatbush called the Tollgate Tavern. During the Prohibition, it was a speakeasy. Though Frank most probably did not own it then. The Brooklyn Dodgers were not just the toast of Brooklyn but were one of the best teams of their day. Their stadium Ebbets Field was right nearby. Tony’s mother even lived on the same street; Sullivan Place.
The Dodgers loved the Tollgate Tavern and it was their unofficial hangout. Numerous interviews by sports journalists were conducted there. Pictures of the Dodgers hanging out in the bar covered its walls. The Petrozza family ran the place and lived right above it. Tony has a few memories of visiting it in the 60s/70s, just before Frank Sr sold it and retired. It is hard to forget, there is literally a train station in the backyard. Today, the B and Q trains run on that track, adjacent to Flatbush Avenue.
Tony and his brother were given all sorts of Dodger memorabilia. There were some baseballs covered by autographs of the likes of Sandy Koufax and Don Newcombe. Imagine the anguish of Tony’s father and grandfather when they learned that the boys played with the baseballs on concrete ballparks ruining the baseballs.
The Ramones Cool
When asked what was the coolest thing about himself, Tony replied;
“I’ve seen The Ramones five times. I even hung out with them!”
The Ramones are the fathers of Punk Rock.
The Long Version
As much as Tony Petrozza loves entrepreneurialism, he identifies even more as an artist. He sees life as art. Even as a personal development coach he was not interested in convention but results. In his adult life, he’s always been rather unusual. Perhaps it was inherited. His father, Frank was a lover of liberty. He idolized Benjamin Franklin and did things his way. Frank introduced Self-Help to both his sons.
Tony enlisted at sixteen years of age. He was a combat paratrooper in the US Army. He served four years in its famous 82nd Airborne Division 1983-87. His very first job as a civilian was as a private investigator. That wasn’t for him. He went to college and majored in drama and media production. When he partnered with his brother in a video production company he became interested in business and psychology. They created a show in the early 90s called ‘Island View’. It set new standards in video journalism for Staten Island cablecasting on its leased-access television. By the way, this preceded ABC’s ‘The View’.
However, it was in the commercials where their creativity really got to soar. Both brothers were nominated for Telly Awards. In Tony’s commercial, he was even the stunt double. He had worked as a stunt actor at a western theme park. That job had ended when he broke his clavicle and cracked some ribs during a live show. Still, he had two more stunts in him. That commercial, where he was thrown out of a car. And finally, Michael Moore’s television show ‘TV Nation’ where he hung from a helicopter over Manhattan and the Hudson. These were his younger wilder years.
Most people knew that Tony was a ‘party animal’. As well as a somewhat intimidating punk rocker who could not be told what to do. However, it was addiction/ alcoholism that was dragging him down. After finally honestly confronting it, he decided it was time to pursue his greatest passion – acting. Tony also had an extremely talented dog – Sid, who could act. And by the end of the summer of 1995, the dog had made more money acting than Tony had. It was time to get serious training.
Tony was accepted into the prestigious New Actors Workshop. He studied under the acclaimed director Mike Nichols and George Morrison. The latter being THE guy behind great actors Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman. However, Tony being the extreme sort of a person he was became ostracized at the school and dropped out (also to pursue business). He continued to study in Mr. Morrison’s private class for several years afterward. However, it was George’s introduction of Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) that really blew Tony away. He saw life in a whole new way and George became his mentor. Unfortunately, his ambition to get certified in NLP waned.
During this era, Tony’s stepsister; Christina died. The family was proud that he did not drink over it. However, the secret was he could not take the pain. He drank in the basement while the family convened. It would take eight years and approximately six hundred attempts before he would finally be successful at addiction recovery. That came in 2000 when his sister Arlene, his favorite person; was killed by a drunk driver. That six hundred had prepared him for that one event. He finally surrendered to a better and functional way.
The pressures of a working man’s life went on and his passions were not fed well enough. In his recovery, he saw that he must bring his potential forth. It was living with it unfulfilled that was at the core of his addiction. He always wanted to be a punk rock singer. He finally started a hardcore band. Indeed his band became an up and comer in the NYC scene. Turns out, he was a great front man but not a good singer. That’s not why it failed though. He quit. He was involved in several businesses that were also all given up on.
Two passions he discovered were scuba diving and sailing. A director friend who he had worked with numerous times teamed with him. They created a nautical adventure reality show. After some revisions, they received the attention they were after. They were offered several contracts. However, Tony did not like them. They took all his rights. Finally, for the sake of his partner he agreed to sign, if they gave him spin off rights. They would not. Tony was just not that desperate for fame. So just at the brink of success, it all fell apart. Tony intends to bring that show back when he can, this time with no compromise.
That show had Tony playing a persona of himself that was a sea captain. So he smoked a pipe. Then, after eight years without one, he began smoking cigarettes again. Tony had quit smoking cigarettes about a hundred times. An NLP Master Practioner, who had been teaching Tony in the 90s, had long before sent him a self-hypnosis home study course. It still had the cellophane on it.
Tony finally took the course, and at least for the smoking – it worked like a charm. Though the key was to make a winning strategy. Of which, hypnosis was the central part. It changed him like no other cigarette cessation before. It reinvigorated his interest in NLP, which has a huge overlap with hypnosis. He began taking workshops and seminars. Then trainings and certifications. He finally got certified in NLP in 2012. He hired a life coach who did not let him drag his feet in becoming who he wanted to be.
Tony had been working as a red light camera (for vehicles that go through red lights) field technician for sixteen years. Just four more and he would get a pension; he was in a great union. However, he realized this was not making him happy. He had thought he would be able to pursue the things that excited him while doing this job but he just could not. Or at least, this was not his purpose.
The company was laying people off and Tony said he wanted to be let go. People could not believe he would leave the union. Tony saw it as getting thrown scraps and he wanted to sit at the big table. He saw that his potential was so much more than what he had been doing and settling for. He wanted big things and to make a real difference.
He opened his life coaching practice in 2014. In his business plan, he described something special he wanted to do. It was a virtual coaching program that would not let people fail. NLP gave him the tools to make it. In 2019, he officially closed Captain Coaching. However, this time it was not because he quit. In 2018, he had formed with his new partner an innovative technological coaching company. He did not quit this time for several reasons. Perhaps the primary one is that he really believed in himself sufficiently. He had prepared. He knew that with help and cooperation he would finally succeed.
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Tony has been in recovery since November 18, 2000 and is committed to a life of self-improvement. He says; “I’m into all these Self-Helps, psychologies and philosophies. I’m a certified NLPer and coach but the most profound thing I ever did was to get clean and sober.”
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Tony’s whole blood family is indispensable to his success; his sister, brother and mother. However, his father started him on the Self-Help journey. Frank died in 2016. Tony dedicates his endeavor to all of them but especially to Frank Thomas Petrozza. Says Tony, ‘My father taught me so much. One primary thing was that “Whatever the mind can conceive and believe – it can achieve.” Actually, he stole that from the father of modern Self-Help, Napoleon Hill. Hahaha! I put them both on the same platform. I know that life is painful. But it also has joy. Whatever we focus on – is what we get more of.”