#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
Are you feeling stuck in life, wanting to grow, improve your income, or build a stronger community? Join performance coach Jordan Edwards as he interviews world-class achievers—including the Founder of Reebok and the Co-Founder of Priceline—who share their success stories and actionable strategies. Each episode provides practical tips on how to boost your personal and professional growth, helping you implement changes that can make a real difference in your life.
This podcast is designed for anyone looking to make progress—whether you're aiming to improve your mindset, relationships, health, or income. Jordan distills the wisdom of top performers into easy-to-follow steps you can take immediately. Whether you're stuck in your career or personal life, you’ll find new ways to get unstuck and start moving forward with confidence.
How to get unstuck? It’s a question many face, and in each episode, you’ll hear stories of how successful individuals broke through barriers, found purpose, and created systems to overcome obstacles. From building resilience to developing a success mindset, you'll gain insights into how high achievers continue to evolve and grow.
Looking to improve your income? This podcast also dives into financial strategies, offering advice from entrepreneurs and business leaders who have built wealth, created multiple revenue streams, and mastered the art of financial growth. Learn how to increase your income, find opportunities for advancement, and create value in both your personal and professional life.
Jordan also emphasizes the importance of building community. You'll learn how to expand your network, foster meaningful connections, and create supportive environments that contribute to personal and professional success. From philanthropists to community leaders, guests share their experiences in building impactful, values-driven communities.
At the core of the podcast are the 5 Pillars of Edwards Consulting—Mental Health, Physical Health, Community Service/Philanthropy, Relationships, and Spirituality. Each episode integrates these elements, ensuring a holistic approach to self-improvement. Whether it's enhancing your mental and physical well-being, giving back to your community, or strengthening your relationships, you'll receive actionable advice that’s grounded in real-world success.
This podcast is for everyone—whether you're an entrepreneur, a professional looking to advance, or simply someone seeking personal growth. You’ll gain actionable steps from every conversation, whether it’s about increasing your productivity, improving your health, or finding more purpose in your life.
Jordan’s interviews are designed to be perspective-shifting, giving you the tools and inspiration to transform your life. From overcoming obstacles to building stronger habits, these episodes are packed with practical insights you can use today. Whether you're looking to grow in your career, improve your income, or enhance your personal life, you’ll find value in every conversation.
Join Jordan Edwards and a lineup of incredible guests for thought-provoking conversations that will inspire you to take action, improve your performance, and unlock your full potential. No matter where you are on your journey, this podcast will help you get unstuck, grow, and build a life filled with purpose and success.
#Clockedin with Jordan Edwards
#223 - Transformative Journeys: Building Purposeful Lives Through Resilience and Community (Group Calls)
The latest episode dives deep into Shawn Livingston's inspiring journey from addiction to ultra-marathon running. His insights emphasize the importance of finding a purpose, surrounding oneself with supportive communities, and redefining personal success beyond materialism. This conversation serves as an uplifting reminder that no matter how dark things may seem, transformation is within reach for anyone willing to chase their dreams.
• Shawn's journey from addiction to ultra-marathon is a testament to the power of purpose
• Importance of identifying and pursuing your personal “Super Bowl”
• Community and influence: surrounding yourself with like-minded individuals
• The emotional and physical toll of ultra-marathons
• Redefining success: focusing on fulfillment and connection rather than material gains
• Emphasizing accountability through actionable steps and routines
• Continuous growth and progress are key to a meaningful life
How to reach Shawn:
Instagram: iam.shawnlivingston
To Reach Jordan:
Email: Jordan@Edwards.Consulting
Youtube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9ejFXH1_BjdnxG4J8u93Zw
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jordan.edwards.7503
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jordanfedwards/
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanedwards5/
Hope you find value in this. If so please provide a 5-star and drop a review.
Complimentary Edwards Consulting Session: https://calendly.com/jordan-555/intro-call
I'm going to record to cloud. So what we're going to do is there's probably going to be a few more that join, but what we'll do is we'll just get started with who we are and a fun fact, so this is super easy, like 30 seconds who you are, what's going on, something fun about you, dylan, if you want to go first, I know you're driving, but if you can pull it off, if you can pull off the incredible, yeah, multitasking, we'll see.
Speaker 2:Yeah, my name is Dylan. I live in West Palm Beach, florida. Now. I met Jordan at college University of Tampa. I broker energy commodities. I connect buyers and sellers of different fuel products and help them trade it a little. Fun fact I got certified as a scuba diver when I was like 12 and my older brother was like 14, and we're going away together next week to costa rica. We're going diving a couple of times. It'll be like my 35th dive. It'll be his like 2000th dive, because now he's a uh, a commercial diver and that's what he does and I just dive with him randomly when we go on vacation.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, Jacoby. What about you? How are you doing?
Speaker 3:I'm doing good.
Speaker 4:My name is Jacoby.
Speaker 3:I'm from Detroit. I'm a student A fun fact about me. I recently left my job, Really. Say again I didn left my job. Really. Say again, I didn't know that. No, it happened like last week, oh really.
Speaker 1:Yeah, interesting. And then you were also a vet, right? Say again you did the military as well.
Speaker 3:Yes, I did.
Speaker 1:Okay, I'm just saying because I know Sean did that as well. How was that leaving the job?
Speaker 3:Cathartic. But overall you know it wasn't a good environment to be in and it served its purpose and my job got threatened like to my face when I did nothing wrong.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And a lot of nepotism with the project manager, who is related to the CEO of the company, and she had already fired like two, three people while they were at home anyway prior to that. So she was just trying to bait me into I don't know, but I said, hey, you're not going to talk to me that way and I'm not going to be threatened at work for the third time absolutely so I handed her my shit and I walked out and she was.
Speaker 3:She wanted to say more, but I just kind of cut her off and said hey, anything else you say, you're saying to a random person that you do not employ anymore, so I will cuss your ass out good for you, joby.
Speaker 1:Uh, robbie J, how are you? What's going on with you? Who are you? Fun fact I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 5:um, yeah, so my name is Rob um, currently a CPA, I'm working in audit at one of the big four, been there about five years and, uh, fun fact is so, last summer, at the end of the summer, I uh actually took a sailing lesson in Cape Cod, because I used to sail growing up a little bit, and this next summer I have entered a sailing race that I'm going to just try and test out. So something a little different, a little out there, but yeah.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, that's cool. Brendan, what about you? Who are you and what's a fun fact?
Speaker 6:Yeah, my name is Brendan Zolli Went to college with you, of course, that's how we know each other, but I currently do IT recruiting. I'm in the government sector.
Speaker 3:So a lot of the.
Speaker 6:DOD contracting companies help out a lot of veterans and stuff, get careers and stuff going there. And, fun fact, I actually worked as a librarian at one point when I was in the Army. I was recovering from some injuries so I never thought I'd be a librarian. You know, can barely read, but you know, there it was.
Speaker 1:So I like it Very cool, taylor.
Speaker 4:What about you? Yeah, my name is Taylor. I live here in St Pete, florida. I work at full-time as an electrical engineer designing power lines, but I also have a health and wellness business. I also have an international trade and logistics company that I'm working on part-time right now, looking to turn that into a full-time income this year. Uh, fun fact about me I was born and raised in ohio on a hundred acre farm. Born and raised, uh, catching crawdads out of the creek and bailing hay in the summertime, and now I live here in florida and I love playing pickleball it's's awesome.
Speaker 1:I love it. 100 acres Wow. It's like the dream that everyone wants Get out of the big city, Chase what about you?
Speaker 7:Hey, what's going on guys? I'm Chase. I'm out here in St Petersburg, florida. I run a landscape company lawn care Just me and one guy right now. Fun fact, I lived up in New york for a year. A year my now wife dragged me up there. We first started, uh, dating. Um, that's where I started, worked for a good landscape company and fell in love with it. So so I started in that's awesome.
Speaker 1:That's awesome, sean. What about you? What's a fun fact? We'll get into you a little bit more on who you are and I think everyone knows, but what's a fun fact you got.
Speaker 8:Fun fact, I just got back from going out to LA for the first time.
Speaker 1:How was LA with the fires?
Speaker 8:It was not nearly as bad as the news would say. Have you believed? But I'm not saying bad things didn't happen. But when I got there, when I left, it was very different from what you would see on the news, but still pretty bad in places.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. So now we'll dive into a quick win and then, if you were on previously, we'll just do accountability. So, sean, what's a win you got? It can be anything and everything. A win also qualifies as literally just getting on this call.
Speaker 8:it could be whatever you guys want it to be um, but when was uh originally when I went out to la? I went out there for an event. It got canceled, obviously because of the fires, but ended up being able to uh just network out there and got landed on a pretty podcast. Uh, the host has like 6.1 million followers. She was in the wwe and all that stuff. So what uh, a trip that I thought was not going to be good ended up turning out pretty, uh, pretty damn good. Hell, yeah, I love that chase.
Speaker 1:What about you? What's the win you got?
Speaker 7:um win, I think win for the week and then your.
Speaker 1:Your kind of case was empower cameron and knock on the doors yeah, so, um, I started training.
Speaker 7:Well, we got, we finished a real big job last week. We did three days on this. Well, not three full days, but we did over the course of three days, got done with this big landscape job, finished it up. I mean that was probably the biggest win of the week. Started training cam thursday, friday, I had him mowing edging. Um, I didn't knock on doors but I did go and check out a couple other estimates and stuff and, um, yeah, which, which was, which was nice. I mean hopefully got another bigger landscape job here coming up as well. So it's getting to that time of year, start playing them out.
Speaker 1:But, um, optimistic about cam so you were able to because you had cam. He was cutting the lawns while you were going and checking out the other properties.
Speaker 7:Yeah, so I, yeah, I did like two estimates. I went off and did um two separate times, um kind of getting some easier. Easier, you know properties he could do so, absolutely, that's awesome.
Speaker 1:It's awesome, Taylor. What about you? What's the win you got?
Speaker 4:Oh win. This week. Uh went to that first, uh youngurs of America event on Thursday, which is where I met you. So that was a win in itself. But I also host meetup events here locally in St Pete called Life in the 727. That's the name of our group. But we had an awesome vision board event yesterday. I don't know if you guys are into that stuff, but I love doing vision boards. Haven't done one in a few years. So we had a group of about 15, people got together and, uh, I made a vision board for the upcoming year. So really fun event, good energy and I met some cool people that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Very cool, brandon. What about you? What's when you got?
Speaker 6:uh, yeah, last week um got one of my certifications. I was trying to get this year certified scrum master, so basically something like kind of like um orchestrate some months, uh, like developers and um product donor and basically just it teams to see what they need done. So like basically kind of like a mini um management certification, essentially so glad I knocked that one out and go for a couple more later this year, so that's awesome rob about you.
Speaker 1:What's the one you got?
Speaker 5:So I guess nothing work related, but I did yesterday hit a hit a PR on the gym on the bench, so I started benching a lot again. I got 265 for nine reps. I know I'm not doing maxes, but I started trying to do reps for PR and started eating a lot this last month the holidays. Uh, it paid off. So it's cool, that's awesome jacoby, what about you?
Speaker 1:what's when you got?
Speaker 3:so I actually have a few wins outside of the obvious cussing my boss out. Um, I, as of like what, maybe a day and a half ago, I've lost 40 pounds.
Speaker 3:Uh yeah, I just checked because I told myself I'm not gonna look, I'm not gonna look at the what's it called, the scale until I feel like I've actually made a difference. Uh, another win. This is my last semester before I like done with uh, my undergraduate degree and uh, yeah, I have a job interview tomorrow. Uh well, two job interviews technically, but one's a test for customs and border protection. Another is for a bank that pays literally twice what I was making less than a week ago.
Speaker 1:So we love doubling the salary.
Speaker 3:That's awesome yeah, not a bad play not a bad play.
Speaker 1:Not a bad play, dylan. What about you? What's a win you got? And yours was get back into routine for mornings, three mornings after work, hitting balls, costa Rica two weeks firmly booked the activities.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a win it's just been. It felt like a really good week of work, kind of getting in the swing of putting on new trades for clients this year, like I had long days, a lot of us, we also. I brought that uh junior onto our desk like two weeks ago, so I've been like training him as well and like just long days. But they've been, they've been good and it's going really well so far and, yeah, all good. On the accountability stuff, I worked out a couple of mornings. I've been up early doing cold showers each morning. I'm like really ready and awake before getting into work. Nice, and uh, yeah, I booked all that stuff for costa.
Speaker 2:I got sport, fishing, diving and hikes and golf and a whole lot of servants, it's gonna be a gonna be a fun week adventurous week sounds fun, very cool, griff.
Speaker 1:How are you doing're going to do it all in one dude. Who are you? What's a fun fact? And then we'll do a win in your accountability.
Speaker 9:All right, I'm Griffin Shaw from Massachusetts, now residing in St Petersburg. I just moved here about six months ago. I'm in healthcare pharmacy tech sales for a subsidiary of McKesson which is a Plymouth company and fun fact about me I have a twin sister. Very cool. Did I miss anything?
Speaker 1:And then what's a win you have, and then yours was your accountability was create a calendar for 2025, doing this month, buying family trip opportunities to walk through that.
Speaker 9:Yeah, so that wouldn't really be a win, but in terms of accountability, I did do most of that. I did get some flights booked. I wouldn't say that's not a task that's going to be done in just a week, though. That's going to be something that carries on throughout January and probably February, kind of just you know ironing. Absolutely, yeah, yeah, yeah, but got, like you know the the baseline of everything and all my like flights in the next like four to five months, like uh, booked. So there's the wins. So, accountability wise, doing good there. Uh, thanks for the win. Um, I didn't have much to go on'm trying to think of one. That's good. I went golfing on Sunday. How was that?
Speaker 8:I don't know if you want to call it good or not.
Speaker 9:It's been about two or three years since I've actually golfed. It's pretty bad, but it felt good. It felt good. Absolutely, absolutely Cool. Let's hop into it good.
Speaker 1:It felt good, absolutely, absolutely Cool. Let's hop into it. And we're still on time Fantastic. So what we're going to do is we're going to do a quick intro to Sean and then I'm going to bring up a topic to him. He's going to speak for like three or five minutes and then you guys will all listen and then basically, you'll give your feedback and your perspective and then, if you have a question for him, you can totally do that. I have like two or three questions to kind of give out, but if you guys have questions from what he said, you can definitely add that in. And then, to close it out, we're going to do the greatest benefit of this conversation action, step and gratitude.
Speaker 1:So for you, we have the guest, which is why we're all here and while we're, we got sean livingston. He's a combat veteran. He's a decorated ultra marathon runner, a person who's overcome drug addiction and mental health advocate. In his documentary 100 miles to redemption, he's inspired millions of families and provided hope through his own personal accounts with addiction recovery and healing power of fitness. So, sean, for you, first of, thank you so much for joining us. We're all really excited about that. For you, how do you change your identity. You went from someone who was struggling with drugs in and out of rehab 12 times to someone who runs a hundred mile race. That's insane. Like most people can't run a hundred mile race if they're a regular person, let alone someone who did stuff poorly to their body as well. So, sean, how do you view that?
Speaker 8:I mean number one, I think just kind of, in my case, hitting rock bottom, the only way is to go is up. But discovering a passion is the biggest thing. You know to go through every day for as long as I did, and never really having a purpose or anything like that. When you discover true purpose, I mean it's life-changing. A lot of the people that I work with today when I go out and speak like I like using the analogy of asking them to kind of identify their Superbowl what's the absolute most important thing in the entire world to you. Once you're able to identify that, then I know, I know, then I know what direction I'm headed, and so anything that's not helping me work towards that goal I don't have time for it. I won't allow it to be around me, and so usually, in most cases, if I'm working towards this goal, the most important thing, if I'm trying to get to my Super Bowl, are the people that I choose to surround myself with, and so for a long time I used to consider myself a leader. All I know is, every time I hung around people that did dope, I did dope, and so I don't know. I don't know what type of leader I was. And so you know, through through starting to kind of identify the man that I wanted to be, I started walking in rooms and you see that, and those are the people I choose to start surrounding myself with. And so, hey, if I want to be a millionaire, I'm going to go hang out with millionaires. I'm not going to keep hanging with the knuckleheads on the block. My MO, my entire life, was always to hang around the funny guys. I want to hang around the funny guys. We're going to talk a little smack pastime.
Speaker 8:It didn't matter if I was back in the military, if I was at regular work school on a team locked up. That's what I did. But eventually I had to realize that did not serve me anymore, and so now it's about finding the right people that are working in towards the same direction. And when I say that like it's very black and white, I hold myself to a standard. Now I have so many things that I'm blessed to have in my life that I didn't think were a possibility, whether that's owning my own home, buying my wife a car, having a wife, even owning a dog. Those are things I didn't think were ever a possibility, and so to me, those are things I'm not willing to sacrifice, and so if there's anybody in my life at any point that is not, you know, continuing to be held to the same standard that I hold myself to, I'm sorry they get cut out, because that's just how important it is to me. When you discover a, you know, a passion and a purpose, Absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I mean, there's so many of us and that's kind of why we're on this call today to be around better people, because it can be so challenging, especially when you're in the same area for so long. So, dylan, for you, you, what do you take away from what sean just said, or any comments? And if you guys want to ask questions after you give a comment, you totally can. Yeah, man, I mean sean, I have a ton of respect for your story.
Speaker 2:I'm looking forward to watching the documentary. I spent like 10 minutes before this call scrolling through your instagram videos and getting caught up a bit, um, but yeah, I mean I couldn't agree with you more about, one, identifying the purpose and, two, who you surround yourself with. Like I mean, I'm kind of in it. I live in South Florida, I'm in Palm Beach area and like it's a busy you know party scene or whatnot, and I travel a lot for work, entertaining clients, going out, drinking, like that's. You know, through work you get caught into it. But some of the stuff I I gotta do, I gotta make the trips, see the people and kind of that age where it's in there.
Speaker 2:But then I'd get home and a lot of times my, my work trips and my personal trips would blend into just going out all the time when I'm home too, because you just kind of when you're doing that, you're just kind of stuck doing you know, whatever it might be.
Speaker 2:But like last year I was, like you know, working out like, and now, like I signed up for a triathlon for the first time and like I thought it was like a step for me. But then I met people, you know, at the bike shop and they're like, yeah, we do these run groups and bike groups and you know we also like, oh, like it's normal to you know, work out every day before work in the morning and then do that. Like then I would go out with my friends, you know, grab drinks or do whatever, like I would enjoy it. But it didn't, like it was stuff that like it's, it's not far off. But like once you are surrounded with people doing more extreme things than you in a positive way, you're like, oh, like this is actually pretty, pretty normal. So I think that's definitely huge and it's something to analyze, because you could you know you could spend years just going with the flow of the people that you hang out with and not even thinking twice about it.
Speaker 8:Yeah is just going with the flow of the people that you hang out with and not even thinking twice about it yeah, I want to change my fun fact, since you're from south florida.
Speaker 2:That's actually where I discovered heroin, so I get it. Yeah, you could discover anything you want all over here at all times. Yeah I.
Speaker 8:I moved to south florida an oxycontin addict and, uh, the day after I got there became a heroin addict, so I know absolutely, dylan.
Speaker 2:Do you have any questions or you could um, because there's a good amount of people kind of just I mean, a quick, easy one is like once you started getting into, I guess, like I mean, you're in the military, you're in fitness. Once you dove back into it, when you went from like your first racer competition, what was the timeline to signing up for and then training and doing your first hundred mile?
Speaker 8:um, so my man, I got very, I got very lucky in a couple different areas. Number one I fell in with the right people. Number two I was an addict, and so I'm pretty good at locking on to one thing and just doing it over. And so, uh, there was a woman that saw something in me. I didn't see him myself, and so you know, I was never a runner growing up. Um, if I was running without a basketball or football in my hand, I was in trouble for something.
Speaker 8:And so I started showing up to these run groups, I ended up meeting this woman. I hear she runs trail races, ultra marathons, and so I started asking her if she'll train me. And so she does and takes me out. I run my first 10K race. I was over the moon, I thought it was the biggest thing ever, and she just kind of looked at me and shrugged her shoulders and was like you could do more. And so then the next thing I know I'm running a 30K and then my next race is a 50K and and she did it again.
Speaker 2:And so within my first year, I'd ran 100k and then about, uh, four months later I ran the 100 miler.
Speaker 1:Sick, okay, yeah, 16 months, 16 months to 100 miles. That's insane. Uh, brendan, what are you taking from this?
Speaker 6:um, yeah, so the super bowl thing. I love that analogy. I don't think I have my own super bowl but, um, definitely like the folks you surround yourself with. Like this past year I wanted to get a couple other certifications in IT and I mean, like I said, I'm not an IT person. I mean I can barely make a PowerPoint, so I'm not any somewhat sort of qualified to be in IT myself. But it was a big educational year for me. So I haven't drank since like february of last year.
Speaker 6:So just like stop going out, um, and just want to just like focus on the studies. And, of course, like you're working monday through friday, 56 hours a week, like, just like the mentality to like go out on a friday, just like no longer there, so just to be able to like focus on, like the folks I want to spend my time with. It's my time, you know, selfishly, the most precious thing out there is. Like all right when I'm not working and studying, like who are the folks that I want to spend my time with? So, definitely was able to find, you know, a set group of you know folks and stuff this year that you know I previously hung out with in the past, but again it's just not going out for the hell of it. Or, you know, running into 60 acquaintances at a bar, it's like I'd rather hang out with quality people. I mean that was cool in college, like I definitely, you know, miss that from time to time.
Speaker 6:But again just like taking a break from that and um, you know, doing some um, volunteer work and stuff like that this year, off the hurricane and whatnot. It was definitely a big like reflection year. So um definitely thought that was, you know, kind of correlating to you know who you're trying yourself with, um, and then I guess one of my questions would be so I'm actually trying to get into run myself. I mean, I've played sports growing up. Um had a run for the army but was never a fan of it. But I'm trying to, um, you know, get up to a marathon this year, um, but as far as like recovering from your runs, like what are some you know practices that you do, I got the whole ice bath and all that. But anything to help out a broken soldier here would be appreciated.
Speaker 8:Nutrition's, huge Nutrition's, really big Water shoes. Shoes are tremendously important. Making sure you got the right shoes. Contrary to belief, I didn't realize when I got in the running world Nikes aren't great running shoes and so really going to get good shoes, man? Uh, sauna, cold plunge I do it all the time. Um, you know what I mean. I really enjoy it, stuff like that. And then, uh, hmm, I don't want to tell you to stretch because I, I'll be quite honest, I never stretched. Um, it was never my thing. I'm great at beating myself up, but I was never really great at taking care of myself. So, um, stuff like that, but really it's just like the meat and potato stuff that people say all the time. There's nothing quite exotic, I mean, unless you want to start diving into the world of peptides and all that kind of stuff, but, um, you know, just the meat and potato stuff. Being able to do that stuff day in and day out is the things that's going to really matter yeah, absolutely also run, run trails.
Speaker 8:Don't run road if you're, if you're feeling broken you got bad knees, ankles, feet or whatever. Trails much easier on your body, um, you know, and you actually build a lot more strength in your ankles because it's uneven ground. Um, just, if you ever fall, make sure you always fall uphill absolutely.
Speaker 1:And uh, brendan, I didn't even know you were trying to run a marathon. I ran two of them. I ran one in lake tahoe and then new york city. I ran in 2021 and the biggest thing for me was just, dude, honestly, putting it on the calendar. Like you book a marathon and you're like, shit, I'm up, like because then you start training and like whatever that is, like you just get into that regimen and I found one. I looked online. It was super easy. It was like two short runs and then a long run, and like you'd start off with like five miles, four miles, and then you build your way up to like 20 miles and then, dude, race day comes in three months, four months, and you're ready to go. But it's just really that concept of like you start winning the mornings and I remember some days I literally ran 20 miles before 7 am and people are like you ran what?
Speaker 6:and I'm like, yeah, I don't know, it's part of the training regimen, yeah, yeah and that's the thing, too is like wasn't, you know, not on the ground to post like the medal and the finish line picture and all that. It's just kind of like a mental bucket list thing. I'm like, all right, like a lot of people run marathons, a lot of people do this, or that's all right, let me cross that off the list because I owe it to myself. So. But yeah, I definitely appreciate that and, um, appreciate the trail.
Speaker 8:Uh, tip there too absolutely and did um, where are you located at tampa? Is there? Is there a lot of run groups there? Yeah, there's a couple. Join, join a run group. That would be my biggest tip on like, if you're getting into running marathons is running with people. Um, it makes a lot, so much easier. You're not as focused on, you can get a little bit competitive with it um, yeah, like okay cool and then do you listen like podcasts or music or anything like that, or no, just getting it on.
Speaker 8:I joke around with people and tell them my headphones are for the week. I'm a big believer in bro. You need to embrace the suck Like, especially when you're out on. I was always a trail runner and so, trail running, you don't want to have headphones on just in case somebody falls. You want to be able to hear what's going on road or just kind of zone out and do that. But uh, I've watched a lot of people use headphones and when the headphones die they fall apart, and so me personally, I just want to kind of be inside my head inside my body, um focused on things rather than trying to escape what I'm doing yeah, I love that.
Speaker 1:I'm soft. I I was wearing headphones, but I but also you got to equate like you can go a marathon with airpods. You can't go 100 miles with airpods because they're gonna die. The other thing with it is I would listen to podcasts because they were longer form. When you listen to music it's very jolts of energy and you feel like you just run out of energy really quick because it brings it down. Rob or Sean, have you got something else you can add? Totally, I'll go, rob. What about you?
Speaker 5:yeah. So, uh, I guess takeaway for me got me thinking, uh, especially about the part about who you spend your time with. Of course, everyone said that before, but it does mean a lot. Um, now, for my case, I'm going to be working with the same people like all day and night for the next two months, because I'm in business season for accounting, that's, you know, when majority of the work's done before they file the 10k.
Speaker 5:So I figured, um, you know, given I have a pretty good like way of getting through it without too much stress, I figured this year I'd try and, you know, create some positive energy for my team and, like, tell them to do certain things. It helps me, like going on walks throughout today. I go on like three to four walks every day. Um, some people don't usually do, but I think it does go a long way for, you know, mental clarity and all that stuff. So, you know, obviously everyone I work with isn't, you know, exactly like me or is, you know, motivated, is, you know, everyone on this call, stuff like that. So you know I'm working with people that you know are lazy in their own way. So, if I can hopefully fix that a little bit, um, because I'm not going to be with anybody else really so except on sund on Sunday.
Speaker 5:Um, and then I guess a question for Scott. I guess what? Why a hundred miles? Like I figured a marathon is already long enough. Like, instead of going for a marathon for time, like you just like doing things to the extreme and you just felt like you need to do more and more, or what kind of got you on the a hundred mile train?
Speaker 8:Um, it's funny the side. I kind of got bored with road running pretty quick. Um, it's funny the so I I kind of got bored with road running pretty quick. Um, it's just very, very different cultures in the road running, in the trail running world, and so I fell in with some trail runners, got out there and that, and it's it's way different when you're your mind's engaged on the trail, you're out in nature, you're away from your phones, people, wi-fi, all that kind of stuff, and uh, I don't this extreme aspect, um, you know, it was kind of attractive. I'll be honest.
Speaker 8:There was a big part of me that got a kick out of the fact I was racing against a lot of people that, uh, had been doing this their whole lives and I had been doing it for a very short amount of time.
Speaker 8:I started winning races, I won a marathon, I started placing pretty consistently, and so I got a big kick out of like man, like you guys have been doing this your whole life, like I just started this, and so there's a definite competitive aspect to it. And then every race I did, I would do this long distance and I'd get done and I'd be like man, there's no reason to ever run that far again I'm good. And then you wake up the next day and, for whatever reason, I'm like what's the next one up, like I could do it, and then you're right back in it before you know it. And then you're back out on the trail mid-race like why do I do this? Like it's a very loved relationship, man. But when you get done, it's like once you accomplish something like that, everyday problems you come up against are just, they're just nothing yeah yeah, I love that, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 1:The funny thing was rob was telling me that he, he makes it, he downplays it, like he's like, yeah, I walk three or four times a day. This guy averages like 15 000 steps a day on the health app, like not even running or anything. And I'm like how, like over years too, like he was showing me all his stats I'm like how the fuck do you do this?
Speaker 5:yeah, I think for someone that has an office job, I'm definitely on the upper end of the spectrum, but I, you know, it's just at this point. I mean, I live in new york city too, so that does help walking as a mode of transportation for me beyond just doing it for fun. But uh, yeah, I mean it's, uh, it's done a lot for me for sure, and now it's just like I don't even think about it absolutely taylor.
Speaker 1:What about you? What are you taking from this?
Speaker 4:yeah, sean, I feel like you definitely described my. Your story really described my whole reason for moving away from my small town in ohio. Because, again, dude, it's just going back to the environment, and for me, it was absolutely unproductive doing the same thing every week I'm going to the bars, getting drunk, and, you know, sometimes doing it two, three times a week, and just getting in that cycle of going to work and going to the bars on the weekend, and it was just really, really bad for me. None of my friends were in the business, none of them were into reading books, none of them were into personal development, and that was all stuff that I was into. So I had a buddy who was in business here in Tampa and moved down here to get closer to him and just found this huge, vibrant community of Tampa Bay and young entrepreneurs and hustlers and people really just like me, and it really inspired me to live a bigger life myself.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, so I really connect with your story, dude, because when you're hanging out with bad people doing bad things, you're going to be the sixth person doing that stuff. So my question to you, though, was what was that kind of moment for you, sean, where you're like all right, this is enough. Enough is enough. The rehab, the, you know, the jail, whatever the drugs, what was that instant decision for you is like okay, I need to turn my life around oh, good question.
Speaker 8:And I am also from from ohio bro. So I'm from I'm from youngstown.
Speaker 4:Oh, nice, okay, that's about, uh, I would say, hour and a half.
Speaker 8:Uh, I was about an hour and a half south of there, so okay, um, so, yeah, I get that and, bro, that is the best uh profile picture I've ever seen. That's, that's a hit album cover, if I've ever seen one. Thank you, um, but, uh, man, to be honest, uh, you know, hit hit rock bottom is the number one. Uh, the number one thing for me when, uh, dude, I was raised with a good family. My mother has her PhD, my stepfather was a steel worker, we were a blue collar family, but I had a very good upbringing. When I landed myself in prison and, uh, you know, at one point my mother stopped picking up the phone. Um, she wouldn't take my collect calls anymore. She couldn't sit there and watch me continue to contribute to my own demise, basically and so she stopped picking up the phone. That was the moment where I was like, all right, you know, mom's not picking up the phone.
Speaker 8:I got to change some things and then, throughout the course of my journey, I really I was looking, I was about to go back to, about to go back to prison, I was about to get sent back and was facing a whole lot of time and I got it was kind of a foregone conclusion I was going to go away. I got my third and fourth felony charge for heroin. They were going to charge me as a habitual criminal. So I stood in front of a judge. He said he didn't see any reason to sentence me to under 20 years, and so I thought I was going away.
Speaker 8:And I ended up going to treatment just so I could try to get back on speaking terms with my family and be able to you know, hopefully not withdraw when I go away. And so he ended up I do all this time and get to. I do eight months, basically inpatient, and I kept this folder all the work I've been doing. I am not a tremendously organized person. I have no idea why I kept this folder, but I just every note, I took test, I took everything and then when we presented it to the judge or the the lawyer.
Speaker 8:He kind of opened it up and he he was blown away by it said wasn't something you usually ever saw. So he went back, talked to the judge and he came back to me and was like man, whatever you're doing, I need you to keep doing it. You know you have a really, really good opportunity at probation right now. So that was like the other number two moment where it was like I finally found this ray of hope and I was going to cling on to it at all costs. Fantastic, that's awesome, man, happy for you. Thank you really long winded. I apologize, that's all right.
Speaker 1:No, that wasn't no, that was good. I was getting chills at the end. I was like damn, because you can feel like dude being sentenced to 20 years. You're like my life is gonna look completely different if I don't make a change immediately. And a lot of us never get to that moment, so it's like for you to actually be in that moment. You're like shit, I gotta make a change here. I only got one life, let's make the most of it. Absolutely, jacoby. What about you? What are you taking from this?
Speaker 3:so, like I'm taking a lot from it, but, like as a veteran, I just wanted to know, like, what flipped your switch and what is that question?
Speaker 8:like what turned me into an addict no, no, no, no, no, no.
Speaker 3:That I mean that turned you away from addiction. That's what I should have. I should have elaborated more what turned you away from addiction?
Speaker 8:um, just discovering, discovering a passion. Um, when I discovered the running thing, um, it did. It did for me more than I ever thought possible. And so, you know, at first I was trying to get help and I get diagnosed ptsd, depression, anxiety disorder, panic disorder, all these, all these different things. And so I, I'm an addict. I throw all my eggs in one basket and so I try to throw them into the mental health basket, take all the medications they put me on, go to therapy, do all that, but at the end of the day it it wasn't.
Speaker 8:The didn't keep me happy, didn't keep me sober. And so then, you know, I kind of went the 12 step route, completely submerged myself in that. But again, I kind of took a look around and was like I have to do this forever. You know, my outlook on it wasn't quite hopeful and so I never thought a physical aspect could ever contribute to these other things. But I discovered the running. It became a passion, it lit a fire up under my ass and gave me something. I was excited to get up out of bed every morning made me excited to be alive, excited to be sober. I discovered this amazing community of people. And so, for the first time when I left treatment, I was ready, I was excited about life and I just discovered something that was far more valuable, far more valuable to me than any high could be.
Speaker 3:No, I feel that completely.
Speaker 5:And is it?
Speaker 3:something that like holds your purpose, like, beyond, beyond the. I'm trying to like collect my words here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can chime in. Yeah, yeah, I can chime in really quick because jacob and I just kind of want everyone to realize this that when you look at sean and you're like what made him drop the addiction? He never dropped the addiction. He still has an addictive personality. He just put it towards running. You know what I mean. So it's this idea of like you're still chasing a feeling because, like, when you do drugs you chase a feeling, when you go to the bar you chase a feeling. So we're always chasing feelings. But if we can chase a feeling in a positive regard, where it's like I went in the sauna, I went in the cold sponge, I feel great, I went on a run, I feel great, it's just switching out the negatives for the positives and that's what I say in a manner yeah, like that's what helped me channel it.
Speaker 8:Um, and I had all this energy I used to put into the hustle getting high every day. When I got sober I still had all that energy and so luckily, I discovered a channel to put it through and it ended up being a healthy way, which was life-changing. But I also needed to discover healthy balance, because if I get injured running, then what? Then it's my recourses just to go back to what I was doing, but like a second fold to your question, what you were asking earlier like discovering that passion was big, but then also like what flipped my switch was being able to understand.
Speaker 8:I did not under understand before a world existed where I could ever take all this pain and all this, uh, all this stuff that I had been through and ever use it to help other people Once I discovered that it actually gave the pain purpose, and so that's truly what changed my life being able to go out and speak, being able to do my podcast, being able to work with people, one-on-one or groups. That's where it's like man. The things I was most ashamed of are now the things I'm, you know, most proud of to stand in front of groups, of hundreds of people, and talk about.
Speaker 3:I felt that. Thank you, yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Chase, what about you?
Speaker 7:Yeah, um, sean, thank you for your service. Uh, first, um, you know inspirational story. Um, yeah, I just, I just um, related to the 100 mile runs. Is there anything I guess I guess you could say is there? Is there something we might not know like? Or or you know what's? What's that last five miles, the 95 through 100 miles, feel like, um, I mean, I can only fathom running 100 miles. So so I mean, as far as, like you know, do your feet get messed up? Are you going through some out-of-body experience or something? Just kind of wondering what that feels like.
Speaker 8:This is such a good question. I'm going to basically give you a spoiler alert to the movie, and so real quick.
Speaker 1:Is that?
Speaker 8:what you wanted, Jordan do your thing, man.
Speaker 1:Uh, I'm just smiling because I like the questions.
Speaker 8:You're smiling real big, um. So, man, the the way I broke down the 100 miler the best way I can explain it it was very like physical, mental, spiritual. Um, the first 50, 60 miles was all physical. Your body gets you through it. Eventually your body starts breaking down. You start getting sore, tired. It becomes night, it gets cold, it's getting wet, everything is getting to you. Nightfall is one of the toughest things I've ever been through. You get very lonely out there, there's not a step you're taking where you're not trying to rationalize, quitting, and so, uh, then you get to this, um mental part where it's just your mental fortitude that's trying to get you one foot in front of the other. But once you get to the end, man, that mile 90, um, that's that's where it was a spiritual experience. It was something way, way stronger than me carrying me through.
Speaker 8:But, uh, it's funny, I go into this last aid station and you know, in an ultra marathon there's eight stations every three, five, seven miles. I go into this aid station and, you know, it's kind of carnage at this point there's people that, have you know, pissed themselves. There's people that, have, you know, thrown up all this and that Nobody's really running and everyone's just trying to trudge it in. And so I end up eating these two pieces of banana bread this very nice woman made, and I don't know what was in them, dude, but I absolutely came alive. And so I start running and I come off the trail, I hit the road and there's seven miles to go, and so I go out there and the camera crew's waiting on me and they're coming along. And so you have to understand, man, like this whole race is so emotional for me. It was 18 months before that. I was literally sitting in prison. I was a heroin addict, and now I'm about to accomplish the greatest thing I've ever. I didn't even know this was humanly possible, and so it's such a surreal experience. And so you know, at this point in my life I'm still trying to play this tough guy act, and I don't want to cry on camera, I'm not trying to get emotional.
Speaker 8:And so I come out onto the road, I start running, the camera crew's following me, my bottom lip's quivering, I'm trying to hold it together, they take off and as I'm coming in, man, I didn't know it's tough because I lived in Texas and my family lived in Ohio, and it's tough, because I lived in Texas and my family lived in Ohio, and so I didn't know. I didn't know if they knew what I was doing, I didn't know if they were paying attention, we really weren't there yet, and so, but I wanted to, I just wanted them to be proud of me again, and so my grandmother actually texted me that morning and said she's like you know, even at night, when you get lonely or you get tired or whatever, just know that I'm following along on my iPad with you the whole way. And so, as I'm coming in, I'm thinking about all this, I'm thinking about being in prison, I'm thinking about my grandma following me and everything. And so up ahead I can see the high school football stadium. That's where the race is going to end.
Speaker 8:And so I come into the high school football stadium, all this stuff playing in my head. I hit the track and you have to do basically a three quarter lap around the track and then there's the big finish. There's huge finish hundreds of people, the air horns blowing, there's cowbells, and all this. I had some friends that had came to the race with me. I could hear them yelling over all these people. And so I come on this trail. I'm trying to hold it together, knowing cameras are going to be there, and then I come on the straightaway and I look up and I see my mom's blonde hair and my sister standing next to her and, uh, part of a big part of the movie is me rebuilding the relationship with my family and my sister in particular. So the fact that that was there and that happened was the um absolute, most surreal, spiritual, incredible experience um in my life yeah, I'm not gonna lie me.
Speaker 1:And uh, madison, we watched the movie together and we're both tearing up at the end, because it's just the way you described it. Sean was incredible. Oh, like watching the visual, you're like dude, it's waterworks man. It's like, holy shit, anything's possible. Which is so incredible. Chase, have you got anything else?
Speaker 7:Yeah, no, I just I appreciate the story. That is incredible.
Speaker 4:It's like a movie man.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, griffin.
Speaker 9:Yeah, man. I mean, I kind of the first thing that kind of comes up, I'd say story-wise had a little bit of a similar instant drug wise with xanax during the the covid uh pandemic, and I was not alone during that, it was kind of like my whole fraternity, so it was, uh, an interesting moment, because then you have to disassociate from the people that used to be just very good friends with, so I definitely have some comparisons with that, even though it's definitely in a much, I would say, smaller lens and some stuff that you've I've heard from you mentioned more or less, and the other thing I was kind of sticking to. Stuck out to me, though, is I've had some knee injuries and some of that info you were sharing about running on trails, like do you have any other tips to kind of someone that says like a bad knee overall, that wears like a brace for whenever they do like physical activity, like pick up basketball or anything like that.
Speaker 8:Yeah, stay away from a treadmill.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 8:Treadmills very bad for your knees, bad for your hips. Collagen collagen is very good for your knees and then do you know what a. Rosti is yeah, I do. Yeah, um, a rosti I know has done really good for people. What? What part of your knee actually hurts?
Speaker 9:it was the acl, mcl, lcl, like all. Pretty much all the main ligaments have been torn, so I would say it's mostly like muscle atrophy is hitting me more today, if anything. Does that make sense?
Speaker 8:so like, like after a while running, like the muscles beyond gas, if that makes sense in the right leg compared to the left yeah, I mean you, if you I don't know if you did rehab or anything like that, but you should look into doing some of that and then like doing some cross training stuff of like trying to strengthen it, swimming or you know, station and all that um, but you you really need to get it to try to come up to the other one. I mean, it's something you're going to want to do, man, because I see so many older people that don't address stuff like that and then it's, uh, it's, it's not a good site. You know what I mean.
Speaker 1:We get right no, I appreciate that so the biggest strategy I heard from that was basically that you could fly, because I know you're in miami or you're in st pete. I guess you could find a pool or something, but it would be like a swimming dynamic. Yeah, I mean the swimming dynamic like one leg.
Speaker 9:So it's just the muscle atrophy in the one leg. That's kind of, I'd say, carried on and not there's not like a direct part of my knee that like irritates me more than the other, if that makes sense.
Speaker 8:It's not like a bruise or anything like that, but yeah yeah, dude, that I'd get in the gym and I'd go really slow um, lightweight, slow, slow reps, nice and controlled, and stuff like that and really started trying to strengthen it up, yep maybe even like single leg squats too on that one area.
Speaker 1:Very cool, cool. So let's get into the second question for you, shane, uh, for you, sean, what is true success to you? Now? Because obviously you've seen it at different points and even when you were going through the challenges and tribulations. Like, what has success always been to you? Because I know we all sit here and we all have our own version of what we think success is. But, like, what is true success to you Is it? Is it the money? Is it the cars? Is it the feelings? Like what? What is it truly to you?
Speaker 8:I mean, for me it's doing doing what I love and getting to help people. It sounds corny, but, man, I've been blessed. I was, you know, pretty set up financially. None of that stuff ever made me happy. All the stuff I was just trying to like fill this void in me, all the stuff never did it. All the sneakers cars, none of that stuff ever did it for me, did it. All the sneakers cars? None of that stuff ever did it for me. But once I discovered this love and this passion and being able to align what I do for a living with that.
Speaker 8:I don't have that feeling ever where I wake up and it's like oh, I got to go to work today. I get excited about what I do every day. I love it, I would do it for free. I don't want to put that out there too much, but I just feel lucky to get what I do, or get to do what I do, and so just being able to. You know, I just turned 41 this year but you know it took me a couple extra years to figure out some of these life lessons and stuff like that. But once I've aligned my life with doing something that I truly love.
Speaker 8:my mornings, my conversations, my interactions with people are much more enjoyable than going to a job that I really hate for money, just for stuff that at the end of the day is cool to have for a minute, but after I buy it a little bit later, it's just another thing.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And then the one other thing I want to get into is what time do you wake up at? Like? What's your morning routine look like? Because this is the most I'm an early guy. Sean puts me to shame.
Speaker 8:I have an emergency alarm set for 2.30 am. It never has gone off. I'm up at 2 am, Usually within five to 10 minutes of that, give or take Having coffee in the morning and then usually at the gym by about 4.30. The morning time is my quiet time. That's when I'm doing all my social media stuff firing off emails, shooting off the texts to people that I hope that their phone's on silent so they don't think I'm crazy. But that's when I enjoy getting stuff to do, getting stuff done. But there's the other side of the coin where, when it comes to a lot of the nightlife, like that's just not for me anymore and so I'm in bed by six, 30, usually knocked out by seven, and the joke around the house is like uh, on a Friday night we might stay up and party and I'll drink two cups of coffee to make it to nine 9.00 PM, if I'm lucky.
Speaker 1:So uh, absolutely Absolutely. And I think this is so important because a lot of people have talked about it that if you can literally go to bed by 9 pm, you will not have any issues. Your whole life will change and you won't have any issues. So I think that's super important. Chase, what are you grabbing from what Sean's sharing? And we'll go around the horn again. If you guys want to ask any questions, you can totally chime in.
Speaker 7:Hey, just pass real quick on me okay, jacoby, what about you?
Speaker 3:give me. Uh, I, I honestly I don't have any like more questions because, like, I can really understand how I don't know, I I can, I can really understand and resonate with the mindset. So it's like it's not something that I haven't thought, like what he's been verbal excuse me, what you've been verbalizing this entire time. It's like it's it's not like looking in a mirror exactly, but like the mindset and the mindset change that you've been going through. I think that I'm experiencing that right now myself. I'm perfectly honest. So I don't really have any other questions per se, but it's just like I'd like to know more about your story. You can ask that yeah, no, I don't have any specific questions. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:I don't have anything specific that I want to ask. No worries, griff, what about you? We're trying to do a little snake thing where everyone got an opportunity again I guess, uh, what did you say?
Speaker 9:you're local to uh south florida, or did you say texas? Because I was curious on some of the trails that you mentioned earlier, since you're a big trail guy.
Speaker 8:Austin texas, okay, all right then, never mind, never mind you boy, you boys that run down in florida, man, that's some, that's some different stuff somebody has to do a marathon now and I'm good, I'll go out to the, I'll go out to the altitude, altitude out in colorado, but that, that, that humidity, you can keep it isn't it pretty comparable?
Speaker 9:I guess what part of texas you said austin austin, yeah it's, it's a good happy medium.
Speaker 8:If you got arizona, that's super dry, and then you know florida, louisiana, that's, you know, super humid, we're right in the middle, I'd say yeah, absolutely, absolutely rob.
Speaker 1:What about you?
Speaker 5:you got anything uh, I mean not, not really I guess what uh, how long ago was the? Uh, the movie that you produced was that recent, it was just like several years ago and it's just still out there and you're still doing, I guess, like you know, speaking and on behalf of that and everything, and keep doing what you're doing there.
Speaker 8:Um movie came out. It was set, it was came out right as quarantine, right literally as it happened. So we were supposed to travel around with all the film festivals and all that, so it went out. It went out digitally and so it kind of held it up for a couple little bit until everything lifted. Then it's on its premiere, now it's on amazon and do that. But the podcast is really what I do big now. I've had on, you know, ufc fighters, olympic athletes, um, people in music movies, um all that people from the recovery community, but just people who have overcome tremendous amounts of adversity and stuff like that. Uh, the movie just happens to be what everybody always brings up whenever I come on to speak or do anything got it okay.
Speaker 8:Yeah, let's take a look at the podcast absolutely, absolutely taylor what about you give it a subscribe on youtube, follow on instagram? I promise you won't be.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I got you yeah, nothing much more here, sean. Nothing much more here, sean. I just followed you on instagram and I added your your documentary to my watch list on prime, but I completely resonate with what you just said about, uh, really what success is to you, because all that materialistic stuff is so short-lived and really what's really meaningful and valuable to me, at least as well as, uh, the continued learning and service piece and I think service-based businesses and, uh, you know, providing value to people is truly what brings you fulfillment in the end absolutely, and maybe what would be easier is, taylor, what's success to you.
Speaker 4:Success to me. I actually have it written down. It's just like uh speaking and inspiring people, uh, to do something bigger and more than you know what they're currently doing right now. Uh, but also that same thing is uh, travel to me is success and continued learning to me is success. And you know, having a community of growth oriented people around me, that I spend most of my time with success and really just truly impacting as many people's lives as possible.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. I love that, brendan. What about you? What did you take?
Speaker 8:away. If I'm long winded on my answers, I apologize.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, no. I like them brendan. If you have any questions, or what success is to you, whatever you want to talk about, um yeah.
Speaker 6:So I guess, um, a couple things. So I think, like you know the true success, I think there's no like finish line. You know, to your point of like you know you run, uh, one race and you're like all right, what's the long, longer one to go after next? That was kind of like my journey this year was like all right, I got one certification, what's the next one? So it's just there's no set journey line, which I think is pretty cool.
Speaker 6:And then you know just this you know shift in focus with your schedule, like I try to go to bed early and whatnot.
Speaker 6:And yeah, I think it's just like we don't realize, just kind of like the mediocrity across the board that we see with like the rest of the world of you know folks that you know you work in like an office all day, you never get to see the sun and like just get out in nature.
Speaker 6:Again you don't go on a long trail run, but again, the body's not meant to like drive to work in the dark, stay inside an office all day and then drive home in the dark like you need to get out in the sun and you know do that. And then you know you got folks to sleep in late and you know, just get fucked up on the weekends and all all that stuff and there's no like personal development. You just kind of just waste your life away, even if you're not even doing like super hard core drugs or anything like that. It's just you just don't know like the mediocrity that you're kind of putting yourself through. So I think it was just like a shift in focus and I wasn't even like an alcoholic or anything. I actually was doing like 75 hard and then I also have like a weird allergic reaction to alcohol now. So I have to get tested for it or else, like I love it, my throat closes up if I drink.
Speaker 6:So like super annoying, so I go. I didn't have like a you know extreme story or anything like that. So I've got to like preference that. But um, I think you know just doing what you like to do, I mean I do, you know I work in an office job and I help other veterans in that school.
Speaker 6:But you know my favorite memory we were talking about memories from last year and it was like volunteer for like hurricane cleanup stuff and like my favorite memory was like sleeping on a cot, you know, and you know, in this random city that just got destroyed from the hurricane we were, you know moving hundreds of pounds of molded drywall, you know all day and all night and you know, just like being on the cop being like all right, like I did something today and like that filled my cup and that hasn't happened in a very long time, and people are again just on their phone all day and they don't realize, unfortunately, that their life is just being wasted. So that was just a big reflection piece from the year. It's your point of just having a schedule and just getting after it and maximizing your time. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And I think that kind of comes down to, like what you mentioned is you doing something? That is, we always get into this consistent habit and we love being. We love being consistent, but, like the truth is, you have to have spontaneity in your life, you have to have a place of service where you're giving to others and you're helping others, because otherwise we're never going to have that true experience we want, and it doesn't allow us to put ourselves in that situation.
Speaker 1:Yes, we can rationalize that if I help this person get a job, that's very good and that makes me feel good. But it's more like I just want the commission check for like you know what I mean, and I'm not saying that's you, but I'm just saying in general it becomes very challenging dynamic where it's like, how do we really give to people and how do we really feel it? And it's like if I were you, like if I was giving you a piece of it, I would, I would find another way to volunteer, like I would find a volunteer weekend and like, sign up for something Because like, if that's what really gave you the most joy, like figure out a way to do it again. You know what I mean.
Speaker 6:Yeah, definitely Good point. I got one of my goals for the year two is a hundred hours of community service, and we went to an animal shelter and stuff too, and if you've never been to one of those man, that's like Tough.
Speaker 1:So yeah, absolutely. And then what would success be to you, brendan?
Speaker 6:um, you know, finish lightly. So, like I got one of the certifications that's like kind of hard within the it world and that was kind of a benchmark. Then I'm like all right, like what's the next one, what's the next one? So again it's just like you just can't, I can't sit still. Um, you know. So that's kind of like a blessing and curse, but again it's just like keep on challenging yourself, not being in quite the same routine and living the same boring life.
Speaker 6:So again, just just spending the time as intentionally as possible, whether you're working hard or spending with the people that you want to spend it with the most, because the circle gets smaller as you get older is what I realize, and just trying to be intentional as possible with anything you do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, and progress equals happiness. So that's why you make the progress and you feel more happy. Dylan, what about you? What are you taking from this? Any questions, if you want?
Speaker 2:to share what your success is? Um, no, just cool takeaways all around. Definitely looking forward to, uh, watching the documentary and following the story more kind of like a there's more of a share than a question. But there's a, a kid from my home. I have a small hometown east end of long island and one of the guys like athletic, like lifeguard, did triathlons, all that stuff and he od'd from fentanyl like seven years ago. He was probably like 25 at the time. So a group of some of the like lifeguards and athletes that he hung out with they started this foundation called dog patch bandits and basically they're like all ultra athletes and they'll do like fundraisers where they'll um, like they bugged across the us. They'll do like these point-to-point challenges like they've done, um, like long island they've, I think, ran it all these different things and raise money through those events and then build um like workout stations around rehab centers and yeah, so they'll put the money back in to build um the outdoor exercise stations.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna try to. It's like you kind of chase highs. You chase the, the dopamine and serotonin release, and you could get that through. You know, a great workout, one of those accomplishments you know better than a high from drugs or alcohol. But a lot of people don't really, you know, recognize that. So I found out like their whole story resonates so well with. That absolutely makes me want to step up my uh, my donation or fundraising for them I mean a donation could be introducing Sean to them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, definitely share the page. It's cool, like they've they've like had guys go overseas and like in a couple of days like biked all across England like they'll do these point to point challenges and they've done they've biked across the U? S and under a month, like doing like 115 miles a day for 30 days straight and I'm like you know what, like one of them like a kid fell like three days into the ride and got like fucked up and still did the rest of the ride and I'm like all right, that's insane, like I'm donating. But yes, they just built a lot of those workout stations at rehab centers, at like you know, like under privileged, like high schools or like you know inner city areas where it's like hey, like work out, and you know, get, get a, get a release from this and you know you change one or two people's lives with that and has a big ripple effect which obviously you've, you've done, you know, to the utmost as an individual. So it's just, it's definitely cool to see that that overlap thank you.
Speaker 8:Well, you said dog patch bandits.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'll share it. I'll share it there on instagram. They have a cool page please.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll give them a follow yeah definitely and then dylan, what's your version of success? What's success to you?
Speaker 2:yeah, I was thinking about that when you asked um the other questions I had.
Speaker 2:I think it might have been a book you recommended it was like high performance habits that I read like four or five years ago I think.
Speaker 2:I read it during quarantine and it said like to create a reminder in your phone of like three words that you want to live by each and every day. And like I still have this reminder like pops my phone every day at 10am and it's alive, grateful and hungry. It's like kind of going through each day, like being very alive and present and thoroughly enjoying the life that I'm currently living that day, while appreciating and being grateful, you know, for where I'm at and the achievements, but never losing, you know, a hunger of like curiosity and growth and progress, like I think you said before, like progress is happiness, like that's, if I'm not moving forward, I'm moving backwards entirely. So kind of like living each day through that, whether it be, you know, personally or through my family. It's like really enjoying being there and and living it, but trying to, you know, build and progress and kind of each day, I guess, and if you know you continue to do that, I guess success is is a moving bar with that absolutely it's inevitable.
Speaker 1:Last one chase what are you, what are you taking away from this, what is your version of success? And then we'll hop into the, the final part of this call um, yeah, looking forward to watching the uh documentary.
Speaker 7:Probably gonna watch that here with my wife after this. Um, yeah, I think I just, I just, you know, super admirable as far as I mean, not only did you just, you know, know, stop using the drugs, I mean, you just became like a total beast after too. So, um, something that people that have never. Um, you know, I mean realistically, I probably won't even ever do a hundred mile race, something like that, and, you know, I've never been addicted to a drug like that, so that you know.
Speaker 7:Amazing story um one of a kind um and I guess, um my version of success. Yeah, I just think it's. I don't know I can, I can probably feel it a lot better than I can explain it, but um, the the reason, yeah, the reason for explaining it is just so that you have a definition in north star, right.
Speaker 1:So it's basically the same thing that sean said what's your super bowl? If you don't have a direction, then we're just aimlessly going in places like is success having the business, having it run without you? Like you know what I mean, is success, having the deep relationships is success? And these are all questions everyone can ask themselves, because you start to realize, like wait, dude, if I'm going nowhere, like what am I doing? Like you know what I mean. And it's so easy to stagnate in this life. So it's like what is success and what do you really want to achieve? And most of the time we only put financial remarks around it, but we don't give ourselves the real feeling of like what it is. In regard to like how do I want to feel each day? You know what I mean, what do I want to be? So, chase, you could describe a feeling Absolutely.
Speaker 7:Yeah, absolutely yeah, I don't know. Yeah, financial, you know financial freedom is cool and all that. I just think it's. You know, when you're being true to yourself and you're accomplishing those goals you want to, having a great routine, that's what success sounds like inspiring those around you.
Speaker 1:I love that. I love that. That's awesome. Let's hop into the final part. This is going to be the greatest benefit of our conversation action, step and gratitude. I had a coach one time and he said whenever you have a deep conversation, you want to ask people their greatest benefit, reason being I might sit there and go. Brendan might have thought this or Rob might have thought that, but like I don't really know, I got to hear what they got. Let's hear from their mouth first. So, dylan, for you, what was your greatest benefit of this conversation?
Speaker 2:yeah, I mean just showing, having you on and your story and, you know, being able to resonate in some ways and you know have have a high level of respect for you and some of the more extreme ways and things I haven't experienced. But you know I've had people around me in different ways, like it's, you know everyone has, you know, unique aspects of their life but no one's lived. You know, like there's a lot of repetition in different areas and like I think your story is very just like microcosmic and representative. Like you know, you control how you live your life. It's like sometimes you might feel like you don't but, as you said, you know hitting rock bottom, it's a pretty good launch pad. So you know all the respects here. It's been cool just hearing it thank you, thank you, griffin.
Speaker 1:What about you? What's your greatest benefit of today?
Speaker 9:yeah, I would say, overall it's gone just being able to hear your story and, overall, just to kind of engage with you. I mean, this is quite a story and I'm very much looking forward to watching the movie and I think just the overall conversation that we had and kind of getting to hear everything it's definitely very inspiring and there's some parts that I kind of related to myself and, yeah, it's a very good one absolutely Jacoby.
Speaker 1:What about you?
Speaker 3:I'd have to say like I feel like I'm being kind of generic, but yeah, this conversation is definitely like the purpose of the conversation is to get benefit out of it, and just listening to everyone's stories, it's, it's inspiring, I guess, like cause I'm really in a mood where, like, my mindset is the most important thing and I feel like I needed to hear, I just needed to hear it, you know.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely, I love that, rob, you know. Absolutely, absolutely, I love that.
Speaker 5:Rob, what about you? Yeah, I think, just knowing that you know, it's great to hear the story, of course, and if somebody hits rock bottom, especially you, sean like just coming back 100 times harder, taking something to the extreme, like going from where you were at to 100 miles, like that's, you know it's as crazy as it gets. So you know, I guess for me assuming I haven't hidden you know, the hardest challenge to overcome my life, yet one day I will. And you know, just knowing that it's possible to just beat that 10 times over, it's cool absolutely.
Speaker 1:Thank you, brandon. What about?
Speaker 6:you. Yeah, a couple things. I mean definitely the general tips and stuff for running, definitely going to put those into effect and, of course, insight on your schedule and waking up super early. I definitely got to tune my schedule up and I know it's almost your bedtime here shortly, so I definitely appreciate you staying up watch the ball drop here at midnight with us. But I also like the fact, too, that you know you're being other people and something that you just started. It's kind of like a big fu to the rest of the people that have been doing that your entire lives. I think that's like pretty cool as well. So, um, you know, definitely appreciate all the tips and definitely have to get my running schedule, you know, back in check as well, and, of course, appreciate the rest of y'all being, you know, open, vulnerable, sharing your stories and whatnot, and Jordan for having me on here. This is my first time here, so thank y'all.
Speaker 1:Absolutely Chase. What about you?
Speaker 7:I'll switch it up, man, the trail run. I didn't know there was the difference between the trail run groups and the road run groups. I don't run consistently. Trail run groups and the road run groups, um, I don't run consistently. Um, when I do, I usually go to like a soccer field though, run around the field and with my shoes off, so that's how I like to do it. So I'm gonna I'm gonna look into that trail running and, uh, the group aspect as well.
Speaker 1:So appreciate it absolutely. And then for myself, sean, I would say it's raising our standards. Like you know what I mean. We sit here and go. Can I run two miles today? And it's like Sean's out here running 20 today. I should probably get ready for this, and it's not even I want to.
Speaker 1:It's even bigger than that. It's not just about running, but it's about that idea of like we can always get better and we can always progress, which I think is so important in any aspect of our life. And, like Brendan, you brought up a really good point of that. Sean kind of got in and then he did really well. What are you guys in that you can do really well in? You know what I mean? You guys might be a super athlete or a super swimmer or a super whatever, but you guys might not tried that yet. So that's, I think, a a really big opening and I think that that kind of inspires me to try more new things. So I appreciate that. And then, sean, for you, what's your greatest benefit of today? What was your biggest takeaway?
Speaker 8:um, just being able to get in front of a different group of men and you know what I mean that I that I usually do the different types of communities. Um, you know, the one thing about my story is, you know, like dylan said earlier, we, we all have a unique life experience. Um, you know, I've been through things y'all haven't been through, but each one of you guys have been through things I haven't been through. And so, you know, at the end of the day, the one thing I've noticed is me being vulnerable and opening up allows other people to do the same, and what I figured out is we're all recovering from something. We've all been through stuff, and so, um, my, you know, my greatest benefit is getting on here, being able to talk with you guys and understand that. You know, there is some similarities in our stories, even though they're very different. Um, we all have that. We all have this ability to be able to, to use that experience to help other people I love that.
Speaker 1:I love that the vulnerabilities is so true, because we all want to be so stoic and it's like no man, we're all broken, we're all struggling and we're all doing our thing. So the next part is the action step. So this is one action you will take. It can be from learning this call. It could be from anything that you want to apply this week to make yourself have a better week. So, dylan, for you, you, what's your action step?
Speaker 2:all right. So this is a partial action step from weeks ago. It's time to finish it. So I found the that triathlon in mid-march and then the one in mid-april that I'm gonna do, and I have them on the calendar. Haven't actually paid for them, so I'll do that tonight. Um, because my mind's not like yours too. It's like I've done the triathlon, just shorter distances. It's like if you could run one mile, you could run 10. If you could, if you could get the swimming done, like you could finish the bike and the run. So, even though I got a lot of traveling, work stuff in the next like month and a half, but I'm going to book those triathlons tonight Cause once they're on that schedule, like you say, jordan, you just figure out a way to just fucking get them done.
Speaker 2:So that's it. Yeah, you'll start. You'll start going out with co-workers and then wake up and you'll be like they're all like co-workers. I'll start, I'll start skipping hanging out with the co-workers. I gotta work out to do yeah, I love it, sean.
Speaker 1:What about you? What's your action step for this week? How are you gonna be better?
Speaker 8:actually. Oh, I didn't know you. I thought you were gonna wait for me to the end.
Speaker 1:I wasn't prepared we can go to the end. We can go to the end, brandon. What about you? What's your action step?
Speaker 6:uh, yeah, definitely to sean's advice. I'm definitely gonna try to run club, so I already know one of my friends that she does one, so I'm gonna reach out to her and see how I can get involved. I think that run actually on tuesdays, so, um, definitely perfect time.
Speaker 1:Perfect time and love it griff. What about you?
Speaker 9:yeah, to build off of that I was actually gonna be. One of mine is the run club this week and I've been off of it for two weeks, so I gotta go to it love it love it.
Speaker 1:Wait where you're in st p we are you? Going to the same brandon, is there's the same? Yeah, brandon where.
Speaker 6:Where are you at? He's in my office. I'm by, like uh, westward mall but I live in stepner but I was thinking of the Brendan is in the same. Where are you at? My office is by Westford Mall but I live in. I was thinking of the Off Balance Running Club.
Speaker 1:I've seen that that one's very active I'd go there if I were you.
Speaker 9:That's just too far of a drive for me. There's one right next to me, but if you ever want to go to St Pete, you can meet me.
Speaker 1:But if you ever, want to go to St Pete. You can meet me there, Jacoby, what about you?
Speaker 3:What's your action step? My action step is to get a job.
Speaker 9:That's really all I can say I need employment.
Speaker 1:unfortunately, I love it. It's cool, Rob. What about you?
Speaker 5:Uh, for me, well, I'd say it goes back to when Sean mentioned the importance of nutrition. I think, uh, you know I'm pretty good with staying active. I don't have to, you know, try too hard to just keep that in my rotation. But I think the uh dialing in the diet and, you know, being clean a hundred percent of the time for you time for at least an extended period of time I still don't know what that will look like on me, so I feel like I owe it to myself to do that before I turn 30, just to see what it really can get to.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I'm not saying I'm a super expert on the diet thing, but what I figured out is if you can swap out meals because you always have the same snacks, the same lunch, the same breakfast this is just most people. In general you have a pretty similar dinner If you can choose that same option, like if you have at your house, like you have cereal every morning, if you just sub that out for eggs, your whole life will change in one week, Like literally. That's how simple it comes down to, like it's getting the foods and then it's prepping them. That's what I figured out because I think that's always super helpful. But yes, the nutrition can be a very challenging, dynamic chase. What?
Speaker 7:about you? What's your action step? Um, I'm gonna keep training the cam. This week I'll have a lot more time to kind of push more sales, potentially knock on some doors. But um, I got some ideas for some bigger jobs I'm going to pitch to people. So try to do some. Try to do some like meet up with them one-on-one, you know kind of, you know, put that in-person pressure on them. So, in a good way, though you know, nothing unnecessary.
Speaker 1:So, chase, I love your new job. Let's go baby. Yeah, big promotion, gave yourself a little promo. Now you're the sales guy, you're not the one doing the ops. It's a huge move, major difference. Sean, what about you? What's your action step?
Speaker 8:I need more focus on healthy balance. I need to spend some quality time with my wife and my dog we're getting another dog at the end of the week, and so I know I got to be able to fill my cup before I can fill other people's and so really just making sure I'm taking care of my personal life just so my business life can do even better.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I love that. And then let's hop into the final part. I like to close every meeting with gratitude because I think gratitude is one of the biggest things. And everyone's like like to close every meeting with gratitude because I think gratitude is one of the biggest things. And everyone's like, oh, it's just for thanksgiving, but when you have gratitude you can't be angry, and I think that makes a huge difference. So you can be grateful for anything and everything. Um dylan, what are you grateful for?
Speaker 2:yeah, kind of uh grateful for this trip. I have coming up so kind of in a tradition of my brother and I to get together. We don't live in the same state anymore, so try to travel here and there. This trip we're going to Costa Rica. I got two of my best friends going as well, so it's fun. I like the friend and brother crossover and looking forward to enjoying that.
Speaker 1:I love it. Yeah, when you get the boys going, it's always better, brendan, what?
Speaker 6:about you. Um, yeah, I'd say honestly, just, you know, coming here tonight I'm just kind of breaking the cycle of just you know, just typical shitty mondays and just like back from the work, right, and all that. But now it's like all right, like it's a good productive meeting, just kind of, you know, stepping out in your normal zone and whatnot, and just learning some stuff and, of course, all like the action steps that I've gotten from this it's like gonna set me up for a better week and then, of course, better year, and I just turned 29 last week too, so I'm gonna go off my 20s on the strong route. So, dude, super, uh, you know, grateful for, you know, being invited here and again, everything that kind of went on today. So absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love that, rob. What about you?
Speaker 5:uh, just keep it simple. I'm grateful for the fact that I, uh, you know I'm healthy enough to be able to walk and, you know, run, do all these things we're talking about. Um, you know, some people can't and, uh, something that's a big part of my life too, so it's great for that.
Speaker 3:I love it, jacoby mine honestly would just have to say keeping my fire lit, because that's like the main thing that I focus on when I don't have like goals, I guess right now, and seeing some goals go up and not be completed, you know it's just it's kind of hard on the psyche, but keeping that fire lit is like the main thing for me.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. And just a little tidbit the more you measure and monitor things, like in all aspects, like you measure your monitor finances, you might see those go up. If you measure, monitor weight, you might see those go up. But the more stuff you measure and monitor, the more wins you're going to have. So, like Jacoby, you hopping on being like yo, I'm down 40 massive, like that is a huge win. You know what I mean. So, even if the other areas you might not be hitting the goals, that's still a great push and that's always been something to help me because you got to like got to find the wins and everything yeah honestly, I get you.
Speaker 7:Chase, what about you? I'm grateful for you know, you know all you guys this was a really good Monday group meeting. So I just, you know good questions, good questions. You know everybody was opening up and stuff. So, um, appreciate all you boys absolutely griff.
Speaker 1:What about you?
Speaker 9:grateful for this coffee machine that I just got called the breville. It's the sickest thing I've ever like used in my life. I've never had coffee so good and I'm never gonna go to a public place and waste money ever again, so it was a life-changing like purchase I got, so just throwing that out there.
Speaker 2:I've never seen machinery like this you got an ambassador code, I'll show you guys.
Speaker 1:It real quick dude griff, just drop the referral link in here, man wait how do you turn it off?
Speaker 8:drop the mic, I can't follow that. Look at that thing. Wait, can you screen?
Speaker 1:I can see it. I can see it, dude, it's huge how much, freaking, insane man, how much.
Speaker 2:Uh, it was a pretty penny, it was like 850 you'll, you'll, you'll get that back though, after like a year of coffees oh yeah yeah, boys, I'll tell you one thing it's a thousand dollars.
Speaker 9:I got 850 off of a gift card, like for, like coupon, like code yo were you rolling, were you rolling your eyes the whole time?
Speaker 8:I was talking about how material things don't mean. That don't mean anything that's it, yeah no 100%.
Speaker 9:No, sean, I was not, because, hear me out I have this keurig that I've used for forever and this thing is like 35 and just like the coffee taste is actually insane and making like an espresso and like I've never had the luxury of making all that, there's a certain change to it. I'll understand and agree with what you're saying because, as someone that lived in Miami, I mostly left because I realized I'm not as materialistic as I thought I initially might be. Does that make sense? Miami was too materialistic for me, so I was not rolling my eyes that much.
Speaker 8:That much you gotta make sure you tell us thank you when you uh when it makes you coffee.
Speaker 6:It looks like it.
Speaker 1:You know, transform and like take it out you gotta watch out for it dude, I feel like you gotta throw down a referral code just to try to get some try to get some money back on it yeah, that's great driven. I appreciate that that was awesome. No, I really really did appreciate that. Um, yeah, no, that's awesome, dude. Whatever, whatever gets people going sean. How are you going to follow up the keurig? Oh, sorry, not the keurig, the keurig, what is it? The Broville, breville, breville.
Speaker 8:Got you, sean. I have gratitude for opportunities like this networking. Networking, dude, is one of the biggest things that I do. I just got linked up. I don't know how somebody like me. I just got linked up with Austin Marathon. I just got linked up with South by Southwest. I don't know how somebody like me. I just got linked up with Austin Marathon. I just got linked up with South by Southwest. I don't know how somebody like me ever does something like that.
Speaker 1:But if it wasn't for networking and just being able to talk with other individuals, man, I wouldn't be anywhere, absolutely. And where can people find you? Where do you want them to find you, to kind of talk to you if they want to reach out with any?
Speaker 8:additional questions. Or Instagram yeah, instagram is my my primary source of communication. If anyone wants to hit me up, if anybody wants to like talk further, they can absolutely grab my number up on a call or text, whatever like that. But I am redemption on Instagram. Or I am Sean Livingston SHAWN. Feel free to reach out anytime if you ever need anything absolutely.
