The Battle Against Addiction | Justin Todd #577

Lachlan Stuart and Justin Todd have a conversation most men need to listen to. They dive into the battle of addiction, how the desire to fit in lead to bad choices. How sobriety has changed Justin's life. He has found purpose with his Gym Athlos.

Mentioned On Today's Show:
🤝 Surround Yourself with Success
🤝 The Battle Against Addiction
🤝 Seeing the World through a Child's Eyes

Men battling addiction, Surrounding yourself with success, Building a like minded community, Being fit and healthy, Going sober, Finding a mentor and becoming a mentor, Looking for community.

Connect with Justin:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jtoddperformance/?hl=en
Youtube:  @jtoddperformance
Athlos: https://www.instagram.com/athlos.inc/?hl=en

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 1:09

When shit hits the fan, how do you respond? Today's guest is one of the coolest people I've met since moving to Nashville. He has been someone who's welcomed us with open arms. He's been one of the people that I've wanted to surround myself with, who has a level of success that I strive to be around. His mindset, the community that he's built, is very contagious and really empowers me to be the best version of myself. He hasn't got there without his own battles, so we're going to talk about his battles with addiction, the challenges that he's overcome and the role model that he's become today, and also the new tattoo that he's just got the meaning behind that, which is really cool.

Speaker 1: 1:47

So this episode is going to blow you away. We speak for an hour and 40 minutes. It's one of the longest podcasts I've done, but I know you guys will take away so much from this, just like I did as well. So today's guest, justin Todd, the founder of Athlos, which is the gym that I'm training at here in Nashville, is one of the best places I've met here, so check it out. Let's get into the episode. Imagine being a kid again. I think about this a lot, just like you see everything again for the first time, and it may be why people love being parents because you watch your kids experience everything for the first time, so you almost get to relive it with a, I guess, different perspective on it yeah, that's a rock is so exciting to him.

Speaker 2: 2:31

He's like banging two rocks together and he's enjoying the shit out of it and, um, you know everything he's seeing for the first time and you get to see that life through his eyes and it's just absolutely the best thing in the world yeah and then I get to see my parents live that through him, and so that whole generational. Yeah, it's really cool oh, it's so worth it how is it improved?

Speaker 1: 2:52

and for everyone listening, this is just Todd, normally do intro, but I'll throw that on at the end, post edited because we're in the flow. But how? How has that been watching your young father, then? Bring so much joy, not only to your own life, but to your parents' life.

Speaker 2: 3:10

I mean, it just brings it all together. It's it's hard to explain because I've never gone through it and it just happened 15 months ago where he came into the life. He was born 15 months ago and each day that I go home now I feel like he learned something new, where he grows just a little bit and of course, I'm at work all day and then I get to come home and now he's in this position, in this phase where he's sprinting at me with his arms up in the air and saying dad, dad, dad, dad, and then I've got my dog that comes home with me and he's like baba, baba, yeah, bear, and but he calls him baba, so that's his second name, and bear listens to baba, um, and he listens to Oliver, bear does. And so to see this little guy that you created with your wife come out and then start to act like you and your wife. He's only 15 months, so there's not that much personality, but he's got facial expressions like my wife has, and he's got the energy that I have, the kid energy at the gym. He's just running around being a kid, so nothing special, but to me it's extremely special. And then to see my son recognize my mom and dad as who they are grandpa, nini, and he'll say that on FaceTime. He'll. He'll I'll say, let's FaceTime Nini. And he'll come up to the phone and he'll be looking at the screen and be Nini and waiting for her to come on, and then she comes on and his smile just goes bright. And when they're newborns.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Of course you don't get that, but I've gotten to see this gradually over over the last 15 months and it changes your why tremendously. Like there is no I need to muster up strength to do these things. It's just you do them now because you've. I've felt so. We're having our second kid in July and I can feel the fight or flight kick back in. Like I need to go provide, I need to go grow the business, I need to go be the my best self, and it's just natural. It just is happening. It's not like I've. I've had some time to reflect. Some people have asked me questions about it, so there's been some reflection, but it's a real thing that happens, that you can't experience without you know having a kid I was thinking about it after we spoke about it last night at the football, how you were.

Speaker 1: 5:25

You were talking obviously having a family now has given you a whole new why and a bit more purpose and direction with things. And then I I came home and I was like man, I've been so comfortable for so long. I've been with Amy, for going on 11 years now and we've had an awesome life. We don't have children yet. As I was saying to you, we were sort of waiting until we got over here. Just, I think logistically it probably wouldn't have happened. Not saying it couldn't have happened. Moving with a child, it just would have been a bit more challenging. And I've been like, oh man, financially we're comfortable, we're getting awesome experiences, have a lot of fun. But then when you were saying you know to provide for your family and do these things, I'm like I haven't actually been lifting my weight as much as I probably would had I had a child. And that then makes me think should I be pushing a little bit more so then I can let my foot off the gas when or if that happens?

Speaker 2: 6:18

I don't think you're going to let your foot off the gas. You're a guy that's going to put it on even harder. You figure it out, regardless of the situation that you're in. You rise to the occasion. If you're a person that's been making the right decisions, that's been disciplined and doing the right things, I think you just double down on that and do that even more. And, yeah sure, like when you know when that decision is imminent, when it's close by, you start to figure it out and you start to do more. At least, that's what I did, and now that I'm having the second one. So, yeah sure, I'm sure that it would be good of you to put the foot on the gas, even more so now, but you're a guy who's already doing that and you're a guy who's holding yourself to the highest standard. And guys like you and me, like we're our biggest critic and I think you got to give yourself a little bit of a love and pat on the back and you're doing. You're doing what you need to do to raise a family.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Yeah, you, you already are well, dude, it's obviously been awesome connecting. When I first moved to nashville, you were literally one of the first people. I randomly slid into their dms on instagram. My idea when I was moving over here I was like, okay, well, don't know anyone in nashville especially in the area of interest for me was fitness. So I started doing hashtags Nashville fitness and just searching around and came across your profile and then I hit you up with a message and then you're like straight away, come into the gym, man, come check it out and you're one of the most welcoming people we've met.

Speaker 1: 7:49

And obviously since then we've met a lot of welcoming people here. It's a great town, nashville, um, but for from my experience meeting you and the reason why I'm grateful that we get to have this, this potty on there and dive deeper into your story and your experiences and the things that you're doing was you've been very welcoming and even when we caught up the other day, um, you fucking destroyed me in the gym, like absolutely destroyed me, put me like on paper it didn't look like the most challenging session, but I couldn't walk until Friday, like legitimately, and I train a lot, but you're like man, make this place your home, like you know me people will connect and stuff like that, and as someone who's essentially, let's say, a transplant you move into a whole new town, a whole new country like it's an awesome experience to have people who welcome you.

Speaker 1: 8:36

And I think a lot of people in their own lives don't build connections like that in a place that they've been in for 20 odd years. And I'd love to. Obviously you have a business, you have a family, you have your own personal goals, you're a father, a husband, all of of those sorts of things, but it hasn't always been that way for you. Can you give us a bit of your backstory around? What's led us to this point? I know that's a big fucking question, a big gulp yeah, two hours yeah we got joe rogan special.

Speaker 1: 9:06

But if you were to think of some significant key points, and uh, obviously we, we touched on a few at the soccer last night, but let's see, see where it goes yeah, first of all I just want to say thanks for reaching out when you came here.

Speaker 2: 9:16

Super glad you did. Obviously, moving to a new place, not knowing anybody to do that, that takes a leap of faith and I was extremely excited this guy from australia is coming in. Um, you came in the one time and then, as I was thinking about, I was like man, I really want to get to know this guy a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 9:30

Uh, originally I like, no, we don't do that with our gym, like it's just personal training. I try to keep it really private and like keep them feeling like they're important because they are and we want that to be the environment that they're able to train in and come to and grow.

Speaker 1: 9:46

But then I was. That's a great standard to have, though I respect the shit out of that.

Speaker 2: 9:50

Well, thank you, um, but then I was like, wait, this guy obviously sets the standard the way that we want the standard to be. So absolutely, I, really I. You know, as we worked out a couple more times, I was like this guy's coming in, I want, I want him to be a part of what we're doing here at Athlos. And so, first of all, thank you, I'm super glad you did. And then soccer game last night that was awesome.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Loves it?

Speaker 2: 10:12

What led me here? I mean, I'm from Indiana and I moved here seven years ago to Nashville and I played football in college and essentially that was my rock. That was what, I guess, drove my life. It was how I made decisions and they made a lot of the decisions for me. So it was really easy and there was a lot of accolades that came along with that. And when, when you had success, you knew about it because people told you that you were doing good and I'd like to hear that I I didn't know it at the time, but that was something that I I guess I needed in that moment.

Speaker 2: 10:51

Then, from injuries and other things, we can get into it, depending, um, but when adversity hit and I was pulled away from football, that was when I became lost, and so I guess you know my story starts right before freshman year. Things have gone really well leading up to that. I'm going to go play football 16 hours away from home in Massachusetts and I had had surgery that summer on my shoulder. So I come late to camp, you can't. If you're not going to be playing, they don't invite you to camp because I was having surgery, I was essentially not playing.

Speaker 2: 11:31

I come back, I get plugged in, but the kids are, you know, they've already gone through two days essentially together, so the bonds had already been created and I so you know, I'm behind the eight ball, I'm trying to get to know the people, get to know this new system of football, get to go into this difficult school, and then I get a concussion. Then I have. I come back from that concussion, my girlfriend and I break up at the time and then I ended up, you know, popping out my other shoulder and I'm like, oh boy, something's wrong with that. But you know I've been not playing because of the concussion, the other shoulder surgery, that I'm not going to say anything. So I ended up having to get surgery on the other one that December and in those surgeries essentially I'm. You know they give me 60 pills, 60 hydrocodone and oxycodone pills, 30 and 30, and I'm and I'm yeah, it's nuts absolutely insane and for people who don't know what oxy is, there's like.

Speaker 1: 12:28

I'm not going to be the guru who talks about it, but it's one of the most addictive pills on the market. There's so many things on the internet around how much that shit tears people's lives up.

Speaker 2: 12:38

Yeah, for me. I fell in love with the feeling too. Now I was back home. A lot of people don't like it, they get nauseous, but I would try to save them as much as possible so I could take a little bit more to get a bigger buzz and do nothing, literally like lay on the couch and melt in like just a slob, and it's so. Everything I'm going to tell you right now is like looking back, like I realize how crazy and psychotic this stuff is, but it's part of my story and I wouldn't regret any of it. Um, and so my mom would literally give me the pills as prescribed. I would either a take them as prescribed or b save them until I I you know could take a little bit more. And that was not early on, that was kind of later in the second surgery, when that that started occurring, and so I fell in love with that.

Speaker 2: 13:25

And then I go back to the same school second semester, and I realized, because of the injuries and the pills and not applying myself as I should, that I'm not happy here. I need to change my environment. So I decided that I'm going to transfer schools to Indiana university, which is where you know, closer to my hometown. It's a school I grew up watching and I'm a huge fan today, huge fan then, and I'm going to be a preferred walk on there. So I start making these decisions, and we talked about it last night. We can, if you want, we can, go into it a little bit there. Let's do it. Uh-huh. And so I start smoking weed. Okay, I start smoking weed because I'm like, well, I don't know anybody back in indiana that you know yeah so, and you started smoking weed before you went back to indiana, right, sure, oh yeah and I had smoked some in indiana, but not to this degree.

Speaker 2: 14:13

so I start smoking at night after study hall and then my buddies were like, okay, we're going to smoke during the day, like before class. So I start doing that.

Speaker 1: 14:23

That blows my mind, and so you're what like 21 at this point. No, no, no.

Speaker 2: 14:26

So I'm like 18 at this point. Oh shit, yeah, I'm 18. 19 now, second semester, 2013. And so my guy, my buddy, he was on the tennis team. He would go to Boston and go get the weed. He'd get two pounds of weed. So he would do that. We would start smoking. And then eventually it was just every day and back home in Indiana, like I was in high school, like everything was about football, Like I wouldn't touch anything.

Speaker 2: 14:53

Now I dove into it after football was over, second semester, senior year. But for me to do this now, it was all about this mentality of, well, I can do it because I'm transferring, I'm going back and I it was very logical to me Like, why not? Like it's, it's okay, it's fun, you're just having a good time. That turns into cocaine and so I start doing cocaine. You know, just on a random, random Wednesday afternoon we would do it. He'd bring it to his desk, boom, we'd hang out for a little bit. End of story. Then one day he brings this thing back and it's a, it's a piece of foil.

Speaker 1: 15:28

That's just sitting on his desk. It never sounds good when something's coming from a piece of foil, unless it's frozen pizza or pizza from the night before. Yeah, that's always good. Yeah, exactly, probably got into some after this, I'd imagine. Yeah.

Speaker 2: 15:42

So then I said what is that? And he goes do you want to do it? And I was like, what is it? He's like it'll make you hallucinate. And so I was like, sure, why not? It's a Tuesday afternoon or Tuesday evening after study hall.

Speaker 1: 15:53

What was it about the hallucination that excited you? When I think about hallucination, I'm like that's a fuck.

Speaker 2: 15:58

no, I'm scared shitless now. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. I don't know. It was a weird mindset where I just said yes, yes, yes, and so I had literally built up something in my brain that was just saying yes to this stuff.

Speaker 2: 16:16

And it's funny, because now we've built up our brains to say yes to other things now you know discipline things, whether it be working out or healthy, healthy choices, running ultra marathons, um and so at the time I was building up my brain to do the wrong choices and it became very easy for me to say yes to these things. Anyway, he goes it's LSD. I go okay, sure, let's do it. What do you do? He's like put it in your mouth. So boom, without hesitation. Within two seconds it's in my mouth. I go what now? He goes let it dissolve. So I just sit there.

Speaker 1: 16:48

It's a sugar cube and he goes after.

Speaker 2: 16:52

I didn't even ask how much or what or anything, I was just like, yeah, I'm with you, sir, no problem. And so, anyway, you start to see the tracers, you start to see weird stuff moving. He orders pizza. It starts you know, pepperonis are coming at me. Anyway, he goes to roll a blunt and we go outside to smoke it.

Speaker 2: 18:08

The second I grab that thing turns into a gandalf staff and I hit it and it goes into like this didgeridoo kind of feeling. And then I look up and I see, as clear as I'm looking at you, aslan the lion from narnia, and I turn back and the, the guys who I'm with, are like the serpents, and so, looking back, it's been pretty cool to look back and kind of dive into this story how Aslan the lion, who I couldn't speak to but I wanted to and I wanted to be closer to, was like God or like the stoic. And why couldn't you speak to? Because I was hanging out with the people and I was doing things that I knew I shouldn't be doing. I knew it was immoral, even though I had, you know, practice, saying yes, saying yes, doing all this bad stuff. I knew deep down that I was not doing what I wanted to do, and I was, you know being a drug addict.

Speaker 1: 18:58

Why weren't you trusting? You got there.

Speaker 2: 19:02

Well, because I have a problem and I'm an alcoholic and for me I would obsess about the next thing, and so that kind of I don't know if it was when I started doing the pills or before that, you know, pills from the surgeries that's when I really fell in love with it.

Speaker 2: 19:16

I remember getting drunk for the first time on my 16th birthday and I remember really liking that feeling because what it did for me was it shut off my brain and I could be at peace because I had, I think, looking back, I had this fear of failure, this fear of not being liked, this fear of disappointing my parents, even though I wouldn't. Even today, I would not change a thing. Regardless of how I'm raised, I think it's just something in my brain that likes to obsess about a mind altering substance, Even when that mind altering substance doesn't always feel good or isn't productive in my life. I like altering the way that I think in order to kind of shut the normal hamster wheel off. But that was before. I had some tools now that I have, and those tools for me it's prayer, meditation, community, helping other alcoholics and other people, just helping people in general.

Speaker 1: 20:21

Can you talk me through, because one thing that I'm not familiar with a lot is prayer. I feel, since we've been in America, religion's a much bigger thing, so I'm very curious about it. Like, how does prayer? I have an idea of how I think it happens, or how you go about it, and I understand a spiritual practice. What does it look?

Speaker 2: 20:41

like for you. For me, it's just bringing to my awareness and I'm kind of speaking into a higher conscience, I guess, and For me it's just bringing to my awareness and I'm kind of speaking into a higher conscience, I guess. And for me it's God For me, I was raised in a Christian family, but I don't necessarily. While I am a Christian, I'm great with and I like to apply things from every religion. I think it's a great framework for which to live regardless.

Speaker 2: 21:03

And to me there's this, there's this line that Mac, I think Macklemore says the rapper, no matter what God you believe in, we all come from the same one, and so to me, it's really almost hypocritical If you're going to believe in a God and say that my God is the right one and yours is the wrong one. To me that's wrong, or I just don't subscribe. I think we all have the ability to find similarities in a different higher power and or or in the same higher power, rather. But for me I pray, god you know. Thank you for today. So I'm I'm bringing awareness to the things that I have, so gratitude gratitude gratitude is a big one.

Speaker 2: 21:43

Please watch over my loved ones. Please watch over my wife as we're going through this difficult time. Maybe um give us the strength to think about you when we're going through these things, so don't put the onus on just yourself. And so what I try to do is take my mind, or or to try to believe that he is going to be with me through this struggle time, or be with me in this happy time it's not just in hard times and so really, whether or not you believe in God, what I think it does is it removes self as the guiding principle for your life. I love that man and I think that's the beauty of religion. Religion to me is man-made, but spirituality is the spirit makes that. So it could be God. It could be a lot of people that in the rooms of recovery, they use the group of people as their higher power, because it's greater than themselves. So it's a group, it's a group conscience. So depending, I mean I don't know I could be completely off, no.

Speaker 1: 22:47

I can subscribe to that Once again. I've never walked into a church in my life. I went to a non-denominational school. It was never something that I was exposed to and I think there was a period where I completely disagreed with it and upon reflection, it's because I didn't understand it.

Speaker 1: 23:03

Over the last, probably since before COVID, I've started watching like preachers speak, because initially I started watching them because they're so captivating, like from a public speaking standpoint, I was like they're the guys that can hold an audience and make people feel emotion. Then I started listening to what they were talking about and whether it's a message to God or it's just the fact that it's a story that makes you feel empowered and you can overcome stuff, that's what I can understand and appreciate about it. So I like your point there, whether, to Macklemore's point, all the gods are the same thing. It's just that higher purpose and I think, religion.

Speaker 1: 23:47

A lot of people that I know, especially back in Australia, are going, you know, being baptized and all of this stuff. Like literally I've seen about 15 people that I know and I'm like 33, you know 33 to 35, and this is happening. And then I've started asking like, why, like, why is this happening and I think, because there's so much crazy stuff happening in the world at the moment, it is a structure that there's no gray area. It's like black or white in in its values and its beliefs, and I think the world is desperate for that, or a lot of people are, because at the moment, with all this murky water, it's very fucking confusing. Um, so that's for me, was I make sense why people are finding new beliefs or once again jumping into communities that they feel supported and are helping them find more meaning and purpose and probably structure in their life?

Speaker 2: 24:37

Yeah, that's it, you know. Look, I, I 100% believe that Jesus was, you know, died for our sins. I feel like I've experienced that here on earth and I feel like I can feel feel that through other people's victories and the way other people have dealt with adversities and and the way that he's helped me in my life. But to go in and talk about that with somebody that's not been exposed to that or not been within a church, I think is the wrong way to get more people within your way of thinking or within your religion.

Speaker 2: 25:12

And at the end of the day, I think the take-home point is exactly what you just said it's structure and it's a way to remove self from the guiding principle of life, the guiding force of life, and because if it's just self, then what is this life after we're gone? The guiding force of life, and because if it's just self, then what is this life after we're gone? Yeah, To me it's just well that that's too much. I don't want to be the guy. I don't want to be the guy. Let me have somebody else, regardless of who that is. I think you have to have that higher power or that presence in your life that you look to for guidance.

Speaker 1: 25:41

I feel obviously a lot of the work I do with is with sort of men 30, 30 plus really and what I've noticed is especially when we're in our hustle and I'll say hustle years is like we're building our career, we're finding our place in the world, we're setting ourself up.

Speaker 1: 25:56

But if I watch my dad, who is very much in that demographic, always working, providing and a lot of my clients, they get to this point and it's generally around sort of 38 onwards where they start softening and they start recognizing that it's not about what they first thought it was and there needs to be more connection, more community and something else. Because if you're learning all these skills or if you're developing all these relationships and having these experiences, if it's just for the remaining 30, 50 years that you have, that can be a an uncomfortable way to live, as opposed to if you go. Whether we're right or wrong, no one really knows and no one can ever tell us. But I like the idea of thinking there is going to be something else and my, my wife, fucking loves um, uh, like the afterlife and all that sort of stuff. So I like. The more she watches it, the more I listen to it. I'm like, yeah, cool, I subscribe to that because it makes it more enjoyable here knowing that the things I'm doing can go somewhere absolutely.

Speaker 2: 26:57

It's just a fresh breath of air, like okay like I'm good, I'm not the only thing you. What I do here almost doesn't matter, and so it almost allows you to take a deep breath and realize it's all going to be okay.

Speaker 1: 27:11

Yep, yeah, back to your that was a segue. I've never spoken about religion and I really wanted I obviously have an opportunity to have that conversation because when Mac was on a couple of weeks ago after the potty I was like, oh, I wish I actually asked about it, because I've never really spoken about it with people before who, um, had that experience in that upbringing. So that was cool. Yeah, back to your, uh, your dosage.

Speaker 2: 27:38

Yeah where'd we leave off? Um, so then anyway, after that it kind of just you just got gandalf's and you were gandalf staffs and arnie, yeah.

Speaker 2: 27:48

And so I was in that circle where I couldn't talk to aslan the lion, and I see all my buddies look like these, their beards start turning into a serpent and, of course, at the time like I just thought, oh my gosh, that's so cool. Looking back now, I've related it to something that could be beneficial in my life and that just shows me who I'm around, what I'm doing, the daily stuff that really matters and that allows you to connect to the things that you want to connect to, whether it be God or your business, your family and whatnot. Who you're around definitely matters. So then I transferred back home to Indiana and I think that I'm going to be a preferred walk on and that I'm going to play football. Well, long story short, I continue to just make those same decisions that I was at Holy Cross in Massachusetts, even though I said I didn't know anybody back in Indiana that was doing these types of things the way I was. I ended up finding those people, I ended up finding those things, and so I never got in football shape again at this time.

Speaker 2: 28:55

August rolls around. I'm supposed to report. My buddy sends me a picture of my name in the locker room and that was as close as I got to being an Indiana Hoosier, to putting on an Indiana Hoosier uniform. I went to school until November 12th, where I get done smoking a joint upstairs in my apartment complex with my two buddies. I come downstairs and my one buddy says dude, why is your mom calling me? And I'm like I have no idea. I pick up my phone. She's calling me and so I answer it. I'm like hello. And she's like answer the door. And I hear a knock, knock, knock and she goes. I go, mom, I just smoked. She goes, your dad's at the door Answer the door. So I hang up the phone. I answer the door.

Speaker 1: 29:39

Did your parents at this point know you were yes?

Speaker 2: 29:41

because my bank account showed like $60 getting withdrawn, yep 80, 60, yada, yada, yada. So it was very easy for them to know exactly what I was doing. So my dad walks in, we go upstairs to my room and I had had it's now the chair outside of the sauna room where my sauna is at the gym Yep, I've got a locker room chair that I had from high school, that I brought with me to college and whatnot. I'd have it in my room and so now it's sitting there. It was actually in the drywall of my room at my apartment complex in Indiana. When my dad walks up into my room, so it's literally a chair stuck inside of the drywall that I had thrown across the room, thinking it was funny when I was drunk one night. And so he sees this and he's like let me see your grades. So I pull out my laptop.

Speaker 2: 30:31

I can't remember how to get onto my laptop to get the grades. One, I was nervous. Two, I was high. Three, I hadn't been to school, been to class. But I can remember the exact oneiuedu I can remember it today the website that I need to go to to check my grades. But at that time I couldn't. I figure it out within time, then maybe five minutes or whatever, we pull it up and he sees that I hadn't been going to class I'm failing, so he drives me back home to Indiana, which is about an hour and five minute drive from the campus to my family home. And the next night, the next day, I'm working shoveling gravel at a warehouse that my dad was partnered with, and I'm shoveling gravel I'm putting you know, just doing bitch work essentially and that Saturday my mom made me drive back to Indiana with her, the university, so I could drop out, and I remember having to walk in and tell them that I was dropping out. So then I I'm at home working at the warehouse.

Speaker 2: 31:33

The end of that semester, I go to Ivy tech community college the next semester in 2014. And I start boxing, um, and I'm training for golden gloves. They essentially said, if I trained for four hours a day for two months, it was two and a half months later. At first they were like, no, you don't have enough time to train. And I said, what if I? You know, stay here all day, every day they go, we'll see. But yeah, if you do that, then yeah, probably.

Speaker 2: 31:57

So I ended up dropping from 245 to 213 pounds, fighting in Golden Gloves, winning my first match, getting knocked out. In that first match just blacked out Nobody knew it except me, but I black out for like a second and then come to. Luckily he was tired. He was this big boy, 6'2", 260. And I come to, I win unanimous, but I can't move my neck. My next fight is supposed to be six days later and the fight the guys I'm not not kidding, I'm not exaggerating 6, 11, 350 pounds. He's massive and I'm super heavyweight. So 213, 201 plus is within the super heavyweight division of amateur boxing and it just doesn't matter what weight you are, then as 201.

Speaker 2: 32:37

You could be 500 pounds. It doesn't matter, you're in super heavyweight, so you could be.

Speaker 1: 32:41

You could weigh 201 pounds and fight that I would have been going on a cut if I were you.

Speaker 2: 32:47

I loved it though, like I was, but anyway I quit because I couldn't move my head. Now, looking back, that's my one thing that I'd like to change about my life. I wish I would have taken that fight, but I just wish I could. There's, there's something about man to man combat that just is so. I don't know. It proves a lot or proves nothing, maybe I don't know it. It's just something that I wish that I I would have.

Speaker 1: 33:12

I'd love to say that I took down this 611 350 pounder because I think I could have, but there's a sense of confidence that we have, knowing we can protect ourselves and also protect our family. Yes, that's.

Speaker 2: 33:24

I think that's what it's about. It's like this you know survival instinct, that that I tap into with that and I don't. I guess I don't actually regret it.

Speaker 1: 33:33

Like I, I sleep fine at night okay, but if we're gonna talk about it, you're gonna ask me, like, what's one regret you have?

Speaker 2: 33:40

it's like I wish I would have taken that fight, but anyway. So I quit and at that point I was wanting to play college football again and I was doing great. I was. I was not hanging out with people that I shouldn't be. I was on the right path A's at the community college, boxing, applying myself, well, great with the family.

Speaker 2: 34:01

And then I get a call from a, from a head coach with football at DePaul university, which is in Greencastle, indiana. It's about an hour west of where I'm at now at home with my parents, and this head coach used to be the head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. And so I'm like, oh, I know this guy, like I've been watching this guy, I love this coach, yes, absolutely. And so I end up going to play football there at DePaul, and all the same things that I was doing at Indiana, at Holy Cross, I started doing again. I get there the first week, I'm great, like I'm not doing anything. I shouldn't. But then you know, you start to get to know the guys, they start to learn who's got the weed, who's got the, who's drinking, who's doing this and that. And I'm 20 years old at this time. So that's really what you do on a university campus anyway. But, based on my past, I needed to be weary of what I was about to get into. But I didn't think I had a problem, I just thought it was the people, the place, the things. You know, it wasn't me, it was them. So that's why I'd been transferring, trying to find the place that I needed to be. So I thought DePaul was it, but then I started getting in with the fraternity. I start doing the exact same thing.

Speaker 2: 35:08

So, long story longer, I get taken to the hospital twice in 17 days, and so the first time you get taken it's kind of a funny story I had pneumonia, so I'm not traveling with the football team, so I'm staying home. I'm in bed taking the coding syrup as I should, the prednisone, the steroid to help get over pneumonia, and I get a knock on the door. My buddy comes in. He's like hey, it's like 1030 at night I was already going to sleep. He's like yo, we're going to, we're going to this fraternity party. Come, I was like no man, I'm sick. He's like here. And he gives me a bottle of new Amsterdam vodka and boom, I just start chugging. He brings a joint, we start smoking outside on our way there and I, literally, from that moment on, I don't remember anything else.

Speaker 2: 35:53

I wake up in my parents' house an hour and whatever an hour away, back home, in my childhood home, I wake up in the bed the next day because they had picked me up from the hospital that night and I don't remember any of it. 17 days later, the exact same thing happens. I get picked up by my parents from the hospital but I don't remember it, and I wake up in my childhood bed back home, an hour away. And so the first time you get suspended or academic probation, the second time you get suspended.

Speaker 2: 36:24

So I have to tell the coaches what happened again. I have to tell the administrators what happened again and they're like okay, get your stuff out of your dorm If you go get help. The football coach says if you go get help, you can come back. We want you to play again. So I tell this therapist back in Indiana. I say, hey, here's what they said. What do I need to do? And she says you can either do outpatient treatment for nine weeks and live with your parents, but we're tussling where I I'm pissed at your parents at this point man.

Speaker 2: 36:57

I took them through the ringer. They they've. They saw it from the beginning, but they didn't want to see it because they didn't have experience with it and they just wanted to believe that I was at the wrong place, wrong time. Of course any parent would no, that's not my kid, my kid doesn't have a problem. Of course they're going to act that way. They were still very supportive. They didn't have any experience with it and I feel terrible that I put them through what I did.

Speaker 1: 37:23

Did you feel at any point during this that you were?

Speaker 2: 37:31

there was something wrong with you or you were like broken in a way, but I didn't want to accept it yet because I would always think about like well, I won't be able to drink at my wedding, I won't be able to, you know, have beers with my kid, and both of those things. I didn't even have a wife, or rather I didn't even have a wife, all right, rather, I didn't even have a girlfriend. I to have those thoughts, but that's what alcoholism does it makes you any excuse possible, correct correct.

Speaker 2: 37:53

And so I still hadn't hit rock bottom. My and and guys can raise their bottom, but I wasn't ready yet. And so she says or you can go to montana. And she gives me this brochure with a zip line and a grizzly bear, yada, yada, yada. So I'm like I'm going there and I show up on December 26. I fly out there, they strip search you and they take everything and they put me underneath this guy who's coming off meth, and so I'm.

Speaker 2: 38:19

I'm thinking I do not belong here. This is the wrong place. You guys sent me to the wrong place. This is not it. And so I try to convince them to give me the phone so I can call back home, to get, to come home. And my dad says they finally let me day three to have the phone. We have a conversation with my dad and he says you committed to do this and fighting back tears he was fighting back tears at this point and he goes don't quit, don't quit, don't quit. And for whatever reason, those two words, said three times, hit me like a ton of bricks, like, oh, I, my actions, my behavior has caused you to feel that way, and I think, for the very first time, I realized oh crap, like something's going on, I've got a problem but how were you feeling in that moment to have someone that brought you into this world and cared about you so much, wanting you, almost begging you, to not quit?

Speaker 2: 39:15

I mean, I guess I was motivated at that point, like, but I was very emotional about it. I was deeply disappointed in myself.

Speaker 1: 39:26

Had you allowed yourself to experience emotions to that point, or had the weed, the drugs, the alcohol always been an escape from feeling that?

Speaker 2: 39:37

It was always an escape I had never yet felt I hadn't had time to process without a sober mind.

Speaker 2: 39:48

So it was kind of a rude awakening for me. I remember right after we got off that phone call, I said I'm ready to get honest to the lady sitting across from me, and so she brought out her pen and paper and I went down the timeline, just like we just did now, and I said at Holy Cross I was LSD, cocaine, weed, alcohol, you know how much when I said I would obsess about it and I just completely got honest. And then she showed me that picture or that, she gave me that list and I was like, oh, that's not normal. My other buddies don't do that. They don't do it that often. They don't obsess about it, they don't do it that often. They don't obsess about it. They don't have to transfer schools because of it, they don't have to go to the hospital, they don't have to get in fights with their parents.

Speaker 2: 40:35

And so I just started to see it for what it was, versus this delusion and deceit and deception that I had, this ego that I had and still, like every day, have to somewhat battle it. It's become, you know, it's way different now than it was then, but it's a it's a constant battle. It's a constant, I guess, application. I have to continue to apply everything that I did then. Now it just becomes easier to do so because I've practiced and it's just part of my life now.

Speaker 1: 41:10

The addiction side of things is something that I think about a lot. I have a similar sort of story to you Alcohol and drugs destroyed my life and my sporting and everything like that and, much like you, I hopped around hoping for something better that would change it all, but then, a couple of weeks in, the insecurities would rear their head. I would find the right people for the right stuff and I recognized I was a problem, and one of the most powerful things I had happen maybe in like 2018 or so had happened, maybe in like 2018 or so was that I stopped subscribing to the idea that I, you know, I'd always say I love drinking or I love taking drugs, and that was my story for so long, and then I shifted it. Like, people who've met me since about 2018 just would never associate me with the drugs, alcohol or the violence which was a part of my life for a very long time, and I don't even associate myself with that because I've just worked so hard on redefining who I wanted to become as a man. And now the biggest challenge was for me when Amy and I went on our first family holiday. I went with her family to Thailand and I just got on the booze heavy and old Frank the Tank showed up and she kicked me out in front of her family, which was an embarrassing moment. I'm walking back to our hotel trying to find flights back to Australia which I couldn't afford. So then the next morning I have to hang my head in shame. And fortunately for me, she tried to understand what the fuck was going on in my life and it was the first time I actually allowed myself to talk about my problems and and all of the stuff that was going on.

Speaker 1: 42:56

But it was in that moment that I knew that I needed to set a new set of standards and I couldn't be around the people that I was hanging around because I was always a rubber arm just like oh beer, fuck it one beer. And I'm at a point now where people don't call me up to drink because I'm it's not going to like I'll have a beer and stuff. But I had to get myself, and I was saying this to you last night. It took me seven years to propose to Amy because I was so worried that I would fuck it up somehow, and at the seven-year mark it doesn't have to be seven years for anyone listening, but that was at the point where I was like, okay, I think this version of myself is set in stone.

Speaker 1: 43:35

I can be around people who are drinking or taking drugs and I don't feel influenced. I could definitely the smell of Coke or all that. I'm just like, oh yummy. But I'm strong enough in myself because I think about what I've got to lose and that's really helped me. So my psychologist doesn't like it because I'm, as you were saying, like I'm super ambitious, which is a detriment in some things. But I also use a lot of the pain and I still hold onto a lot of the pain in my past to make sure that I don't fuck up again. And I feel like do you sort of have a similar internal oh yeah battle to a point where it's like you think about, if I do this, if I were to have this be an hour, you've got a young family. Could you lose that?

Speaker 2: 44:18

yeah, it's not. Could it's when? Yeah for me. I told you last night which number one incredible story I think that's. That's phenomenal. I I want to dive deeper into more of those details with you, probably off after this, but, um, just with, like, what you experienced and how you were able to stop doing that, cause it sounds very similar to what I went through, um, um, but yeah, I have to play the tape because rarely now so I've been sober four and a half years.

Speaker 2: 44:45

It'll be five in November, that's awesome Thanks, so good it's a lot of good people around, my wife, just, and my son like, just like what we said, the gym, the community, that's what helps me to do it. But I have to play the tape because every once in a while, maybe every third month or every six months, it doesn't happen often. But I'll have a really good day at work. It'll be very sunshine, 72 degrees and sunny, nice little breeze. You get done, you got the windows down, you get the dog in the back on the way home and you're thinking man, we're having steaks tonight on the grill.

Speaker 2: 45:17

Yeah, it'd be really nice with a little beer, really nice with a glass of wine. Whiskey, yeah, something like that, yeah. And you start to it's normalized. That sounds really normal, like, yeah, why not? And you fantasize about it At least I do but I have to play the tape. What does that look like for me? I told you last night I could probably have a beer with you and you would not have a single clue that I ever had any of these problems. But in, but, in my head, as I'm drinking that and as I finish, I would have that little bit of a slight buzz and I'd be like oh man, I need another one, or when is the next one? Or oh, I was really great with him that night. I could have two the next night and be fine because I was good with one. Oh, I had two the next night. Nothing happened wrong, wrong, I was fine, I was normal. Let's try three. That's probably just fine. And I guarantee you, within two weeks' time I'd be blacked out.

Speaker 1: 46:14

This is what I think a lot about it, because I was the same for a very long time and I didn't drink for a while and hadn't taken drugs for 10 years. I got on the gummies when I got back into Nashville, which fucking had to pull up on those too. But I was very similar after that moment where Amy kicked me out. It was just like I can't do a single thing, I don't trust myself, and I had a mentor that I played footy with and he just said to me how do you know? Because you've changed. So one thing that you and I have in common was we were moving around the place and we still kept finding the bad people. You're in a position now where you've got an incredible family, you've got a great community, and the one difference is you've created that. You haven't gone looking for it, and that, to me, was a big difference as well.

Speaker 1: 47:01

So when I moved from the country town that I had to move back to after France, and then I moved down to live with Amy, I had no buddy, like I had a few buddies at college, but I needed to be apart from them for a while because otherwise I would have done the same stuff. So I ended up building a brand new community from scratch which was more health focused, didn't necessarily they drank a little bit, but not too much different values. And that then was the moment that old bud said that to me and it made me shift and I'm not trying to get you to drink or anything, but it was a huge shift for me because I had grown so much and I'd never really recognized that in that moment that what I had built an incredible community, but this community wouldn't exist if I didn't stand for the values that I had and the standards that I had. And going back to what you said about the gym and you said it to me that at our gym session last week, it's like this is our standard, because we want to make people feel valued and like they've got a place, and I was like I fucking respect that, because standards are what separate.

Speaker 1: 48:04

I think we're living in a time in society where the media is telling us we should include everyone, but when you include everyone, you aren't really connecting with anyone and it's not about being better or worse, it's just like this is what we value, this is what we prioritize. Therefore, these are the standards, or the price of admission and that's what I think. A lot when I talk to people who've struggled with addiction, and myself included, is always just the. I feel like we don't recognize how far we've come and how we've changed as a man, because I question were we born with that addiction?

Speaker 1: 48:42

or not, and fucking everyone's different to that, but it's always something that I like thinking about.

Speaker 2: 48:48

Yeah, for me, I probably could now with the family, with the gym, but I don't let myself get there. I just don't want to. I really enjoy the life that I have and I don't want to mess it up, so I just do not let myself get to that point to where I question it. I think it's really amazing to hear your story that you were able to. You were able to recognize that you needed to change and then you were able to recognize that, oh, what is the change that will help me not do this? And you were able to then go create your life around the more health and fitness lifestyle, all while really I would call it really cold turkey. Almost. I needed a sponsor. I needed somebody to walk me through what I needed to do.

Speaker 2: 49:31

I needed my day filled with things that I wasn't obsessing about getting drunk or high. I needed like there were days where I'd literally I would literally drive for lyft when I was trying to grow my business with training people. I would drive for Lyft just to get enough money for Chipotle either a six-pack of beer, ipa, a bottle of wine or a fifth of whiskey. I would pick one of those each night and I made sure I had enough dipped tobacco after and enough weed or Adderall in the morning, whatever caffeine drink in the morning, and I would literally just drive for Lyft and I'd cash out my money into my bank account and, boom, go right to the liquor store, boom.

Speaker 2: 50:13

But there was many nights where I didn't want to do that. Yet I still did it and I would find myself without, like it was out of my control, turning towards the liquor store and I'm telling myself, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. And I'm still doing it. And I'd feel this remorse and I'd have to go grab that drink. So fast I'd get it, I'd get home and I'd pour it to a 16 ounce pint and I'd go boom immediately, cause I was.

Speaker 2: 50:37

I was so regret, I was so guilty, I felt this remorse that I'm still doing it. I don't want to do it, and so for I think, if I'm going to say anything, the difference between you and me is that I, I don't know, there's something in there that is like a disease, like it's there and I can't get rid of it, no matter what I do, that it's always going to be there for me personally, and I don't care if I'm wrong, that's just how it is.

Speaker 2: 51:03

for me it's not worth it for me, but it would be cool if this wasn't me. I'd like to dive into that train of thought, so I see why you would.

Speaker 1: 51:12

Yeah, I just think it's important. I just get curious because there's like 25,000 people that will listen to this and I can only speak from my experiences as you. But I think it's important to understand why other people? Because there'll be fucking heaps of people that go, oh fuck it, I get what you're saying, and there'll be people who are like, oh yeah, cool, awesome, and I think part of life to live an exceptional life is we need to have an idea of where we want to be.

Speaker 1: 51:39

So I think about, like the end, if I'm 90, like what do I want to be working back from? And for me, that is family, that is health and experiences. I want to rack up that, buckle it. So what? What do I need to be doing now that's going to allow me to do that.

Speaker 1: 51:54

To your point, alcohol I'm not drinking this year because and I very rarely drink anyway because it doesn't add value for me. Like, don't get me wrong, I love having a whiskey and a red wine and stuff, but, but having not drunk this whole year, I'm not missing. I don't think about it anymore because I get to go for runs. I get to my mind is sharp as a tack. So it's adding more value.

Speaker 1: 52:13

And the only reason why I think I'm being pulled to do that and I think a lot of people are lacking that is because I think about you know, I was really close to my grandfather and, by the sounds of it, you were very close with your, your parents. I know you got a tattoo, which I want to talk about in a moment, but having having role models or people that we aspire to be like or aspire to build upon, you know, because our parents are doing the best that they can with the experience and information that they have, and I can't imagine how tough it would be as a parent because you think you're doing the best, but look, we're all saying, oh, my parents fucked me up because I did this and it's like I'm doing the best man come on and so I think, if we can build upon that, we're ultimately all trying to achieve one thing, which is to live a good life, and the definition of what that is for each individual is different.

Speaker 1: 52:58

So I think that's why I love podcasting, because I get to speak to so many cool people who have awesome lives, but how they got there and what they think keeps them there is different, and that's completely fine yeah, that's there's going to be, like you just said, I think it's great our two perspectives on this, but the end result, I think, is the same thing, which is great.

Speaker 2: 53:20

It's the same thing as the religion talk, in my opinion. I don't think you have to be so binary. There's, there's some space in there to get there separate ways, and I think by being so rigid on how you get there deters people from doing it in the first place, and to me, that's the wrong way to go about it. It should be fluid, it should be able to change based on your own personal experiences, your own wants, your own needs. And if we can get to the same place now, sure, if you're a true alcoholic, in my opinion, there are some things at least it's been proven to work my way, your way. There are some things that we need to do. We can agree on that. We need to be with a different community of people. We can agree on that. You should probably try to cut off relationships that are no longer serving you, that are continuing to enable you to those same behaviors.

Speaker 1: 54:15

There's a lot of things that we can agree on that get us to that same spot and yeah, and, yeah, I'm sure have you experienced since going sober, and I look at it as you're literally taking responsibility for the outcomes in your life. You're not looking to blame anymore. You're not blaming the environment, the people. It's like it's all on you and if you put yourself in an environment that encourages drinking, there's a high possibility you're probably going to drink, like it's just exposure. That's what happens. We all have a limited amount of I can't even think of the word at the moment, but to say no, anyway, I mean discipline, yeah, let's get with that, let's get with that Self-control.

Speaker 1: 55:00

Yeah, self-control, that's the word, but some of the upsides to that is like I can imagine. Your self-confidence is up, like your sense of responsibility, and and the feeling that you are, you know, being the best version of yourself, is huge. Right to sell a self-esteem, ultimately and a lot of blokes are lacking that, like one of the biggest issues, that one of the biggest reason why blokes come and work with me is they lack purpose and they feel confused. They may be extremely successful in a certain area, they may have a family, but something's missing and one of the unfortunate sacrifices that we choose to make and, as men, as we sacrifice our health and we sacrifice our hobbies and relationships to provide for our family, now that's a great thing to do, but there is a cost to that and that's what is putting men. You know that 35 year old age group or 40 plus, where suicide is such a high thing because they don't know what else they stand for.

Speaker 1: 55:58

So I think the position that you've put yourself in you've created community one tick awesome. You've got purpose. You know one through family or why, let's call it why but also your business. And then you also set personal challenges. Right, you did that 50 mile, which in kilometers? For everyone listening, what do we work out? 80, 80 kilometers, 80 in in florida last a couple of weeks ago. So you're constantly finding ways to grow as an individual, across, I guess, guess multidimensional. It's not just your career, it's not just your family.

Speaker 1: 56:29

There's so many aspects to you that provide value and you can sort of flow between them and give them attention as they need. Let's talk about the ultra and, more so, the tattoo on the leg. It says don't quit.

Speaker 2: 56:44

You were showing me last night yeah, uh, real quick, if you don't mind. I want to touch on what you said about essentially. I did not know how to do any of this. I had to find other people that did, and so that's why I really like what you do with your academy. And that was the biggest thing for me was I did not know how to live in a way that I wanted to. I knew I wanted to live this way, but I hadn't practiced it at all, and so I didn't know where to go. It seems easy, looking back, like well of course you should just do the next right thing.

Speaker 2: 57:17

You should have a job, then go home, work out, then have a nice meal, then go to bed or read a book and, like, do the normal stuff. That seems so easy, uh now, but at the time I hadn't practiced that I was all in the bottle or the pills or whatever, and so for me at the beginning it was just finding people that were doing it the way I wanted to do it, and it didn't have to be the people that I came into the first meeting or the second meeting Like there there was some soul't have to be the people that I came into the first meeting or the second meeting, like there was some soul searching of, like I like that guy, ooh, I like what he. Ooh, I like what that guy's doing. I'm gonna stick by that guy. And in the beginning it was really hard, though, because my ego was telling me I didn't need to be with those people, like I'm already successful in X, y and Z, which I wasn't, but in my head I was telling myself, I'm successful in that.

Speaker 2: 58:05

Well, he doesn't know how to do that. I got to find somebody else, which that's fine. Everybody's not for everybody, but I think, you know, that's probably one thing that keeps men from exploring their mental health, because they're like, well, I'm this really successful guy, I need to look like I've got my shit together, and they do not practice being vulnerable and you have to practice being vulnerable. You need somebody in your life that you can talk to, and so, for me, getting on this podcast is extremely beneficial, so I can talk about my problems, I can remember what it was like and I can speak about it because, number one, I'm going to have somebody that's going to reach out and be like man.

Speaker 2: 58:47

I feel you, I'm doing it too. I'm two years sober, or man, I just got sober last week, I just got my first token. Or hey, I'm 16 years sober. Keep going. And to build that community and to feel that we're all looking for that tribe and if we can look at our similarities, not our differences our similarities, not our differences we can come together and and freaking crush life. Um, so sorry, I needed to get to that real quick.

Speaker 1: 59:07

But this ties into another thing I did want to talk about as well, like obviously the first session I did at your gym the young fella, I think his name is chase yeah, hockey player yeah young fella and I loved that because, similar to you, the whole reason why I started my business, I had like a couple of role models, but they're in the sporting field.

Speaker 1: 59:30

That was it. I lacked role models. My dad was working a lot and then I didn't have any other male role models that weren't crushing beers, and you know talking in a way that I didn't want to be talking.

Speaker 1: 59:36

So I built this community to have men similar to you, of all walks of life, who were successful in their relationships, had incredible relationships, were fit as hell, ran great businesses and had awesome lifestyles, and I wanted to learn from them. But I wanted them to tell me what it actually took the strain on their marriage, the sacrifices that it. You know what went on in their head, because I didn't want to feel like I was broken, because when I had these thoughts, you know, men are really under attack, like and I hate saying that because it sounds like we're complaining, because that's part of the problem, but we're getting criticized for so much stuff and that's not going to bring a solution the solution comes from going okay. If this is the case, you telling young boys that they're a problem before they've even fucking set foot out of the household is a bad belief to fill them with. And when I was training with you and Chase was, I was like this is awesome, like I'm, you know, probably double his age and it's cool to have. I hope it was cool for him to be able to talk to yourself and myself and pick our brains around.

Speaker 1: 1:00:38

What life is. You know, you can be jovial and joke, but then there's also two what I would consider strong, fit blokes who have good morals and have good values, and that's the influence. Going back to, what you have created is we have leaders, but then we have people who are worthy of influence and when you're maintaining the standards that you have and the values that you have, you influence the right people. You and I was saying I asked you last night. I was like, well, there are a couple of rock bottom points prior to like the one that really made you want to change. And you're like, yeah, fucking heaps. And I was like, cool, same for me, but I wasn't ready. But when you can put young boys around men like yourself or myself and I'm sure a lot of other people in your life and my life they and I'm sure a lot of other people in your life and my life they can start to be influenced just by proximity. Rather than having conversations where it's like, oh, check out that chick, yada, yada, yada, it's like more respectful or more empowering or progressive conversations to build better men. And you've done that because you're training young boys as well, which I think is fucking awesome, and I think the influence that you have over the people and I'm sure this podcast will definitely connect you more with the people that you do, but you've also come here and been open to speaking and to add to your point, we're all going through shit and some of us think it's insignificant because they may hear what you've gone through and I haven't been through that.

Speaker 1: 1:02:08

It's all significant to the right person because we're all going through that stuff and if you can go, look, I want to influence my community. I don't need to be on a podcast to do that, or I don't need to be Jeff Bezos. I just need to talk to the five closest people and tell them what's going on, because I don't know whether you do it, but do you ever call up your mates and actually ask how they're doing? Like, how are you really doing? Like I've noticed you've just had a kid.

Speaker 1: 1:02:29

I was asking you last night, like, how's the relationship changed since? Um, you've had a kid, because I hear it changes a lot. And like, I'm genuinely interested in that because I know I'm fucking scared of that like, and people don't have those conversations. So you're, with the influence that you've got and being on here and the community that you've created. You're giving people an environment to walk into, that right to know that that's available because, as you said, that wasn't there for you. It's not as easy as what we talk about, but that's as well. The beautiful thing is we're not here to change everyone's lives. It's like you just want to have influence over your direct community, and if people who hang out with you then do that in their community, that's that ripple effect we're looking for.

Speaker 2: 1:03:10

Absolutely, that's Athlos. So I mean, that was beautifully said by you and gives me chill sitting over here.

Speaker 2: 1:03:17

You summed up exactly what I wanted to create in a sports performance place. I wanted to create in a sports performance place and I do a speed Saturday on Saturdays at 8 am at the gym and it's for high school kids, football players usually, but it's open to any high schooler and at the end of it we've got three seniors in high school who are going to be going off to college to play and they've got the great opportunity to go play for a university and some of them I've been with. One guy in particular, I've been training since I moved here seven years ago. He showed up with a boot on and I hope he hears this, but I'm not going to say his name, so don't worry. Um, this kid means the world to me.

Speaker 2: 1:04:00

He showed up the very first day. It it was uh, he showed. We went to Rose park, which is a uh, uh public. Well, it's where Belmont university plays their soccer and they run their track and field, and so we would go there for some of our workouts. So day one I meet him there and he shows up in a boot, broken foot from a scooter accident, and here I am with this kid who's never. I don't think he played football. Until his eighth grade year. He hadn't really played football and he says that his goal was to play in college and I said, okay, let's do it. But at the time and I don't even know if he believed himself that he was going to actually get the opportunity to do so and sure enough, he signs two, three weeks ago to Geneva college, and probably shouldn't have said that, Cause now you know who it is, but anyway, it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1: 1:04:52

Okay, whatever.

Speaker 2: 1:04:52

It doesn't matter. And I say to the guys, to the three seniors and to the other four kids that are there, I said hey, I'm talking to you guys, to your future self. It's not if it's when shit will hit the fan. You're about to go in and experience life like you've never had before. Yes, you're going to go get to play football, but all these players are going to be just as good as you were. You are, and you're not used to that. You're used to being one of the top dogs and it may not, it may not. You may end up shining right, and I hope that you do, but I really truly believe that it's not. If it's when shit will hit the fan, you're not going to want to play, you're not going to want to go to class, you're not going to want to be at this school, you're going to get homesick. The friends that you surround yourself with you might pick the wrong people and you might get in certain scenarios where you feel uncomfortable, where you have to make a decision, right or wrong, that could have an impact on your life, and you're going to be growing up as men and anyway.

Speaker 2: 1:05:58

So I started to have this discourse with him. I wasn't planning on it, but I just felt that it was the right time to do so. And sure enough that next night one of the seniors calls me. He's like man, you really hit me with that talk. I need to talk to you about something I've been struggling. I've been feeling a little bit anxious, depressed, whether it's the change that I'm about to experience or just haven't been feeling motivated, and so we just talked for 30 minutes. 'm on the phone, my wife's putting my son down. I'm on the phone downstairs just talking to him, and then he comes in the next day for a workout and then he comes in the next day.

Speaker 2: 1:06:30

And so I just said look, man, all these things that you're experiencing, they're completely normal and I'm just telling you my experience. I'm not any expert on any of this stuff, but the way that I look at this, anyway it it was a wonderful discourse, and so that's. I'm very grateful for the opportunity to have those conversations with, with people like that. I do not take it lightly, as it is the number one thing that I like doing in my position is getting to have conversations with these young men that I've gotten to train and improve physically from their performance on the field. But my number one thing is to get to impact them in some way, shape or form outside of that, those four walls seeing them graduate, seeing them get a girlfriend, seeing them, you know, get the scholarship, all those things, they're so important to me. Watching so with the parents, the parents that are listening, like I do not take working with your children lightly at all. It is I want to impact them in the best way that I can.

Speaker 1: 1:07:32

I forget where I was going with this, but oh we were just obviously talking about the, the standards and the values and what you, the opportunities that you bring, and it was then coming back to you know the saturday speed sessions with the, with the young, young fellas and the impact that you bring, and it was then coming back to you know the Saturday speed sessions with the with the young, young fellas and the impact that you have.

Speaker 2: 1:07:50

Yeah, and I, I don't know, that's just.

Speaker 1: 1:07:54

I guess to move on from no, to put put the cherry on top of that, what I hope people take away from that is what I really take away from it, and this is from someone who looks at, I'm in control of everything in my life, meaning if I win stuff, awesome, that's on me, I get to enjoy that. But if I fuck up, that's also on me and that's what I got to walk into. I don't I can't drink myself out of it or or blame other people, and so for anyone listening who isn't in that position, it doesn't matter your age, I believe you know. Look, if you're living at home until 18, which is generally common back home you're obviously heavily influenced by the environment that you have at home. But we live in a world now where people can listen to podcasts, young dudes train with you. There's a lot more opportunity to consume information. That's going to improve our quality of life. So if you don't have role models, right, and young men are looking for role models. That's why there's a really great book, um, by an australian psychologist uh, it's called the new manhood first book. That made me cry. An incredible book, though, um, and the benefit of that is, like they say, from sort of zero to five or six, you know your mom's everything. And then this is for young boys, directed at young boys and then from seven till sort of 14, your dad's the greatest thing ever, but after 14, they're looking for other role models. You're no longer cool. So, as a man, you want to have some fucking good mates, because they're going to look on them to be influenced. Otherwise, they're going to go find influences which may not be beneficial for them. It's just going to be a place where they feel valued, where they fit in. And so when I bring that back to myself as an individual and even for what you've created, it's about then going. You've put yourself in this position because you've gone through a lot of stuff, but you also owned it and now you're the man. You are today the husband, you are today the coach, you are today right, which people love and respect. You did that.

Speaker 1: 1:09:57

Anyone that's listening to this. You need to think about the role model that you want in your life and you need to become that. It means you need to stop and take a moment and think about what does that look like? What god? What would they say to me? How would they conduct themselves. What would their interest be? Because this is how we mold our future. We don't ever think about that because we're constantly spoon-fed. This is what we need to fucking do. You need to go get the house, the car, all that sort of stuff. It doesn't matter how you do, it doesn't matter if you sell your soul or you become an alcoholic along the way, it's just like just do that thing rather than building a better relationship with ourself so we can have better influence. Because, at the end of the day, we just want a good life, and in order to build great relationships and enjoy that good life, we need to have a great relationship with ourself. And that starts by that reflection piece segue that was wonderful.

Speaker 2: 1:10:52

Um, it brought me to almost tears. I was almost fighting that back because it made me think about my son. When you're talking about 7 to 14, I'm the coolest, and then after that you better have good mates because they're no longer going to be looking to you, and so that gives me chills and brings me to emotion, thinking about who am I surrounding myself with, because one day that this, this, my son, who I love more than anything on this world, is going to need them to look up to. And you know, I feel like you should be a little nervous when you hear that you should. It should drive you to be a little bit stressed. I think stress is a great thing to have. It's a good motivator for movement. It's a good motivator for performance If you're not stressed to a certain I think stress has been talked about very negatively and I get what they're saying.

Speaker 2: 1:11:47

They're saying chronic stress but stress is a great motivator for people, it's a great way to do, and in doing is where you get, where you get the cherry on top that you have to start doing stuff. And I love that this world has the podcast and it has the books and all of the information out there. But it's almost like that's not the problem, because at this time we've got more people that are depressed but more information than we've ever had in the world, and so at some point you have to start doing, and I think it's analysis, it's paralysis by analysis, and so we have to have your one podcast or have your couple, maybe once a week. You got to have your time to look into it. Sorry, you've got to have the time that you learn, but then you've got to have that. Okay, let's, let's go, let's strap up the boots and let's get moving here. But the problem is is like wow, that's maybe not the right thing that I should do. You're not going to find out until you try. You're not going to think yourself into picking the right thing. You got to go, you got to go.

Speaker 2: 1:12:53

And so for me and my journey, what I did was I did everything and I I did the landscaping. I did the working at Edley's flipping burger, you know, doing barbecue, driving for lift. I was a field, I was maintenance for uh, I was a field manager for some baseball diamonds uh, a baseball umpire and a groundskeeper for an apartment complex and I think you know I did an internship in accounting and whatever and I had to do in order to find out what I wanted to do. And I was very lucky to find out that I wanted to do what I do now, at an early age and cause I've been training for 10 years and so you know when, when people call me and I love this part of my job, getting to help young people figure out what it is they want to do if they're interested in fitness, personal training, sports performance, anything like that I love talking to them.

Speaker 2: 1:13:44

But a lot of what they want to know is which certification should I get? I'm like, uh-uh, go train somebody. You have a friend that likes it, okay, go train them for free, go get experience, just go figure it out. If you even like it, you might like the idea of it, but personal training is going to be some long hours and for a long time you're going to have to eat shit. You're going to work hard. You're not gonna get paid much. You're probably gonna have to be renting out of a facility or getting you know not paid much for for each client. You always have to be on. The client's gonna text you at any time. Do you actually like that? It's not all you know.

Speaker 1: 1:14:20

I absolutely love it now, but um it's not that freedom lifestyle, that it's what I was sold into, and exactly so it's not that freedom lifestyle. That it's what I was sold into Exactly.

Speaker 2: 1:14:28

So it's not about the certification, it's about do you even like doing it, and then we can learn from there, and that's very valuable. The experience for me is extremely valuable.

Speaker 1: 1:14:38

You would have learned, though, because, very similar to you, when I moved back, I went Uber driving. I call myself Brisbane's best Uber driver. I was working at a quarry, did my building apprenticeship, but I did so many things and, once again, that feedback was very helpful, but it taught me a lot of skills that helped me today, like Uber driving. I fucking loved Uber driving. My network grew astronomical astronomically, sorry but I really learned how to build rapport very quickly with people, because you generally have in Brisbane about five minutes per trip on average, so I had to build rapport really quickly and that skill changed my life communication and so I can imagine all of these things that you did along the way. While they may not have been the thing, you put another skill in your tool belt and it redirected you closer to where you want to be and people as you're you were saying it's like we hope that the next thing we do is the right thing, the next partner we choose is the right thing. We don't fucking know.

Speaker 2: 1:15:35

No, but I think the take home point is you made it that way. You made it. You chose to look at it in a positive way.

Speaker 2: 1:15:47

There's a lot of people that won't choose to look at their job or their time in life or their phase in life in a good light, and I think the take home point is find the thing that you can be grateful for and figure like you have an opportunity or I have had opportunities to decide whether the event in life or the decision I made ended up being a good thing, and I think a lot of people maybe it's younger kids or people that are deciding whether to take the job or change the job or or go to university or not. You have the opportunity to make it the right choice. It's not the choice itself, it's what you do after that. It's what you do with that choice, if that makes sense. You you were. You know it wasn't the uber driving itself that was the beneficial thing, for it was what you chose to do with the uber driving that made the positive impact in your life that's a mic drop moment for me.

Speaker 1: 1:16:40

That is for all these years I've been thanking uber.

Speaker 2: 1:16:43

I should be thanking myself, thanking yourself. It wasn't uber, they were just the medium. Yes, the the platform.

Speaker 1: 1:16:49

Yeah, um, what time do you have to go? By the way, I'm good, yeah, cool yeah we'll keep rolling the 50 miler dude. I remember the day that I was running and you were running directly into me and I was like what are you training for, dude? I've got this 50 miler in miami. And then I looked it up that night and I was going to do it, but then things you're busy.

Speaker 1: 1:17:09

Yeah Things. I just was scared by your experience, man. I was watching it looked fucking savage and for those who aren't watching on YouTube, you're built like a brick shithouse, Like I don't know whether you use that terminology over here but you're a solid build. I like that compliment. What do you mean pounds? What do you weigh?

Speaker 2: 1:17:31

223, so 100 kilos.

Speaker 1: 1:17:34

Yeah, solid, that was always my goal. But then you're running 80 kilometers or 50 miles. Talk us through why you chose to do that, what that process was like and what the actual race was like in itself.

Speaker 2: 1:17:49

First, all I know there's you've had one guy on here who was it's a freaky a freaky. He's incredible yeah my gosh, so it makes mine seem like a trot in the woods versus what he did um and what you're going to do, dude, it's, it's all I think to your point, though, it's all.

Speaker 1: 1:18:06

And what you're going to do, dude, it's it's all. I think to your point, though, it's all. People can look at these things and go, oh, what iran is doing is fucking crazy, right, um? But to me, even 50 mile, because we all start from somewhere, it's exactly so. I I don't want people to be discouraged at all, I think but I just wanted to point out like I know there's people, oh there's some fucking savages man. Yes, I do. There's people doing that in their sleep. Oh, there's some fucking savages man.

Speaker 2: 1:18:27

Yes, I mean there's people who do 200 miles a week. Anyway, more than that probably. But there's 200-mile races too, which is insane. Dude, there's 300 miles. There's a guy.

Speaker 1: 1:18:36

So Arana Tamada, last week, like the week after I had him on the potty he did one called the Backyard Ultra in Australia. Yeah, I know that one. Yeah, and the winner did what do you do like 350? Kilometers like he went for three days and he just didn't stop. Yeah, and this guy's a new zealander and he how long was how?

Speaker 2: 1:18:56

how was the loop?

Speaker 1: 1:18:58

uh, 6.7 kilometers or something like that, so uh four miles, four miles yeah and I googled this guy and he's got the world record for backyard ultras. He did 640 something kilometers, so he went for like five days on one of the backyard. Yeah, dude I, I can't I would have gone like 115 he looked like pretty pretty lean.

Speaker 2: 1:19:22

He's built like a runner but like mentally oh yeah, it's all mental, did you?

Speaker 1: 1:19:26

you have me missing five hours of sleep, and I'm a grumpy bastard. I would have been in strife on there, but anyway back to your 50.

Speaker 2: 1:19:32

Yeah, so I hadn't run much at all. I would run like six miles on a weekend like just to get out, and I love nature, I love trail runs and and whatnot and I love just doing stuff. That's hard. But when we got pregnant for the second time, when my wife was pregnant, I said to myself that I wanted to accomplish something before, to essentially put the stamp on my life that I was no longer a quitter, that I was going to be doing the things that I said I wanted to do and follow through with them, no matter what happened, no matter how hard it got. I had already done some things like that, but I wanted a stamp, I wanted a place, place, I wanted a masogi.

Speaker 2: 1:20:07

I think that's what they call them I wanted to do something in 2024 that I could look back on and be like that's what I did. And so I literally told, texted my buddy jt out in colorado now he was my college roommate and I said, hey, man, let's run a 50 miler. I'm signing up now. And boom, I found the closest. I asked my wife. I said when can I do it? Are you good with me doing it? She said yes, she had no idea what that entailed and I'll get to that in a second. And I said when should I do it? She said before april or in april, because we're gonna have a baby in july. So I said done.

Speaker 2: 1:20:45

I looked it up, found, found that JW Corvette trail in Loxahatchee, florida knew nothing about anything, I just found it to be flat and I was like I need a flat one because I'm not really running, and so I picked that one and then I go into and I and I sign up. It was a hundred bucks to sign up. I sent the link to my buddy JT. I said I'm in, are you? He ended up having his sister's wedding, so he was out and then I saw you and I and my brother was going to do it, but he's got to get ankle surgery so ended up just myself yeah, which nobody I signed up without.

Speaker 1: 1:21:18

Oh, dude, I was telling you on the run I was I'm 100 in. Yeah right, I came back here and you're like I can't.

Speaker 2: 1:21:24

Yeah, sorry, no, it's. It made for a great story Otherwise. Yeah. So up to February my training had gone great. I had increased my mileage like I wanted to. The plan was going perfect. I got up to 55 miles a week. For me that was a lot. For others I know they do hundreds a week. So I go to deload that next week. Achilles starts to hurt both of them, but about mile two they would chill out and so I'd be like, okay, I'm fine. So I would do some movement and some prehab, rehab stuff in the gym. I go to increase. I go to the next week to go to 40 miles and I was going to go 40, 45, 50. And then I was going to increase from there after a deload to like 60, 65. Anyway, I was going to build up in March to get to 70 miles a week one time and I was like if I can do that and still do my weights in the gym, which look very different from how I do them now, but if I can still do some resistance training, I'll be great and I'm just going to try to stay healthy. Well, I get back to that 40.

Speaker 2: 1:22:29

This is now in March and my Achilles hurts for the first 10 mile run, the entire run, and I felt like they both were going to pop. I had never felt that much pain, but I finished it because I just built up in my brain Don't quit, don't quit, keep going, keep going in my brain, don't quit, don't quit, keep going, keep going. You have to do this, you have to do this. And so I got treatment from the chiropractor I would get and it was amazing this guy named jeremy roberts, at athlos, at my gym. He's phenomenal, he's a, he's a magic worker and if you've not worked with him, I'd love for you to for to work with him. It's on me, we'll make it happen I think you introduced me to him.

Speaker 1: 1:23:03

yeah you, yeah you met him.

Speaker 2: 1:23:04

We'll have to get you in with him. You're going to love him. All my everybody loves him. So he would help tremendously.

Speaker 2: 1:23:10

I probably would not have been able to do it without him, and he would give me like a day to three days of recovery where I'd be pain free, so I'd get what I could in, but then I would have to take a break and so anyway, so in my mind, with what I do, in the visualization talk that I have with my athletes, the thinking about it before it happens, the manifesting the mental side of sports, I wanted to practice something, and so I've seen these power lifters, these strong men, go to the depths of thinking that they would not be able to save their family without completing the lift, and I'm like they're crazy, but they'd all lift a thousand pounds.

Speaker 2: 1:23:50

So I'm like there's something there. So that's what I did, and I would literally and it wasn't like all day long, but you know before I would lay down at night. I would literally visualize myself falling down on the trail, feeling like I would not be able to go any further, but then see myself get up and keep going, one step at a time, and I would literally go able to go any further, but then see myself get up and keep going, one step at a time, and I would literally go through this for about three weeks before the race and I was amping myself up and I was visualizing myself failing but then figuring out how to keep going. If I don't finish, I'm not going to be able to save my family, and I was irritable and I couldn't sleep the three nights before the race.

Speaker 2: 1:24:27

I'm sleeping three hours, then four hours, then four hours, and so I wake up on race day. I'd had everything planned out to a T like everything my food, all of it perfect. My kit was perfect. And I show up and my heart rate right before we're about to take off is like 160. And I've got a resting heart rate of like 41, 42, like shit.

Speaker 2: 1:24:50

Um, an average of like 50 throughout the whole night, whatever 52 average heart rate so, but it will drop as low as like 36 and at the lowest that it will go on Like I've got, I'm psycho, I've got whoop, aura, garmin, like All the stuff, all the stuff, just to experience it. So my clients can, so I can give them feedback.

Speaker 1: 1:25:09

Yep.

Speaker 2: 1:25:11

And so mile two. We come across this 120 yard, so 120 meter knee deep water, crossing off the bat.

Speaker 1: 1:25:23

I couldn't think of anything worse.

Speaker 2: 1:25:24

Yeah, straight away, too right, and I knew that it was going to be water, but I couldn't think of anything worse. Yeah, straight away, too right. And I knew that it was going to be water, but I didn't know how much. I'd seen some pictures, I'd seen some video. But I'm thinking, okay, maybe 2% of the course is going to be water. It ends up being 25,. 23% of the course is water knee deep, and so we cross it. That's fine, because everybody's, everybody's there.

Speaker 2: 1:25:45

There's a total of like 41 people doing it. So there's only 11 people doing 50 miles. There's like whatever 18 doing the 50k and there's some other doing the 18 miler, but only 11 are doing the 50 miler. And so I'm like leaning forward with my pack on because it's heavier, because you've got more stuff in there than you're used to from training, you're, you know, looking down at the ground now, because nashville doesn't have anything like Everglade, like like Florida does. So I'm like leaning forward more than I'm used to. My quads are starting to lock up by mile three, four or five and I'm like, oh, I'm in it Like my heart rate's one, 55. Normally at that time that pace would be one, 38, maybe like just trying to stay in zone two.

Speaker 2: 1:26:24

I mean my mileage. I'm going like in my training runs I'd go zone two at like 9, 30 to 11, 30, depending on hills or flats or whatever, and sometimes like 12 minute miles, like nothing fast at all. And you know I was running 11, 50 minute miles, then heart rate's 155. I'm like holy shit, we're screwed. Couldn't get it down the entire race until the last 10 miles. When you're walking and stuff, it finally dropped. But I get to mile nine, that's the first aid station and I'm stuffing myself with food because I'm thinking, okay, I need to, I'm hungry right now, I need to eat and about mile 13, my stomach just starts killing. I don't want anything else to eat.

Speaker 1: 1:27:08

I've got acid reflux. What were you eating at the aid station At the?

Speaker 2: 1:27:10

aid station I had a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich that I made, but at that time I didn't need it. I'm thinking, though, I'm stressing myself out, thinking I need to just gorge myself, but in training it was perfect. I would just be systematic, trust yourself, trust it. And I didn't't trust it. I started to have things that I normally wouldn't have, and I had peanut butter and jellies. I guess in the marathon, whatever it was not working for me that day and race day nerves can do that. From from other guys that have done races, they're like, yeah, you never really know how you're gonna feel. That's the beauty of of race day.

Speaker 2: 1:27:44

And so I get to mile 16. This was another kind of significant event and I'm like tired, like oh, this sucks. And I'm sitting there having an orange that was the only thing I wanted to eat some M&Ms, I think, and some electrolytes. And I see my buddy, this guy from Australia that actually was running with, and he starts he's ready to go. So he goes. I said I'll catch up to you, but I see him take off the same way that we were coming from, and so I'm looking around trying to find like he's got to be going the wrong way. Nope, it's 16 out, 16 back.

Speaker 2: 1:28:20

And so at that time, like I didn't know the course well enough to know, I'm thinking we're going to go somewhere else, and so I'm excited for what we're about to see and something different. And Nope, you're going right back the same way. You just came. I've already seen the entire course. So it's 16 out, 16 back, then nine out, nine back. So I'm like, okay, I got to go all the way back to the start finish line right now. And then I'm still not going to be done. I got to go 18 more miles to finish, and so that was just a mental fuck Like that would have killed me. It did, it did. So I'm at mile 22, just dying, 23, 24. I got going pretty good, and then, once I hit 26, I'm like, okay, now this is now further than I've ever gone. So, for a good bit at least, till 32,.

Speaker 1: 1:29:04

When I got back to the start finish line, the next, so the most you had ever run was 26.2 so a marathon I've done 42 kilometers, and then you're doing eight, you're doubling it, essentially yeah, I had done two marathons, once like two years prior, and then once in training I fucking love that it was great.

Speaker 2: 1:29:21

I loved every, every second of it. I'm gonna do it again like I'm. I'm amped now about it, but this time I want, like you, to do it with me, my brother like I want people it'd be awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:29:32

So, yeah, I get back to 32 and I'm running by to check in with my name like to give him my name to check in for the time and I see my mom and her friend had come out to help to, to help kind of uh, you know, with the aid stations and whatnot. And I see Becky she is my mom's friend, our good family friend. She's sitting in the back of the car in the shade eating a Jimmy John's sandwich with her feet propped up and I remember looking at her, not in disgust or mad, but like that looks so good. Like how dare you Not, not actually, but like that looks so good. Like how dare you not, not actually?

Speaker 2: 1:30:08

but like yeah, definitely yeah and, uh, I she knows this story already, so it's amazing. But uh, I can literally feel how I felt right now, like, just like that looks so good because it was starting to get hot out and whatever. And you're 32 and now you got to go back 18. You're at the start, finish. And so I remember FaceTime my mom was FaceTiming me with with Oliver, my son, and I remember seeing him and he said dad, dad, and he claps and I just start crying, like something overtook me that I became this emotional, like I had depleted everything. And I saw him. I start crying of like and it was kind of a motivating factor, but like a exhausted factored as well. But that was what I needed. I needed to see him, my wife to like give me that extra juice to go. And then I remember trotting off and then I realized I forgot my electrolytes so I had to turn back around. It was not far, maybe 200 yards or whatever. And I remember screaming as quick as I could to yell for my mom so she could try to get them in and meet me with them.

Speaker 2: 1:31:14

Because every step that you take that's not towards the race is it's awful, because I remember we got lost. I got lost like five times. We got lost in the first mile, me and five other guys and not again, not long, maybe 45 seconds worth, yeah, but it was just demoralizing every step, because you're only looking, it's literally the swamp, like you're. There was one part that I was. I felt like I was on the episode of Gator Boys and we're going through, and so I had to go through that four times. The first time you're with people, because it's the first 16 miles, but then after that you're're spread out and so I would clap, because somebody told me I should clap if I feel like there's an alligator in it, and so I would clap every time I go through this thing and then slowly I'm like walking through knee-deep swamp you can't even see it, I saw eight snakes like, and they're just, you know.

Speaker 2: 1:32:01

I don't know what they were. I I think just like rat snakes, water snakes, whatever they could have been, water moccasins.

Speaker 1: 1:32:08

Dude America's dangerous with your animals.

Speaker 2: 1:32:10

I feel like that's what's Australia.

Speaker 1: 1:32:11

Nah.

Speaker 2: 1:32:11

Yeah, You're always scared of what you don't know. Yeah, 100%, and so I feel the same Like when I went to Australia. I was like they've got crazy animals over here, and what is it? Snakes and crocs. Yeah, but alligators, great whites bears yeah, yeah, we got black bears here yeah, fuck that moose, mountain lions, exactly, but like africa would be like, of course, the scariest hippos africa would be pretty hippos I think are the most dangerous animal in the world by yeah, they look calm, but here I think it's moose.

Speaker 2: 1:32:47

Really, I think it's moose that killed the most people.

Speaker 1: 1:32:49

I think don't I need to google that yo, jamie, jamie, fact check, but anyway.

Speaker 2: 1:32:57

so, yeah, I get to mile 41, which was the last aid station before and I had like two hours before the time limit or no, I'm way more than that because it was, yeah, whatever, three hours left until I would hit time and ended up making it back. I would like run for 10 seconds, walk for 50, run for 10, walk for 50 and then I'd run for 30, walk for 30. Like you, you end up just making these confines, these, I guess, boundaries in your head of like what can I do? I can't run a whole mile right now, but what can I do? I can run for 10 seconds, yeah, okay, do that. Walk for five.

Speaker 1: 1:33:34

Why did you do that instead of quitting?

Speaker 2: 1:33:37

Because I built up in my brain, I literally hardened my brain to not quit. That was not an option. I you could have cut my leg off. I would have figured it out. I don't want to find out, but I probably would have figured it out. There was something I had done in the in the weeks leading up to it that I'd never done before, and I had literally played it over and over and over. I'd done it a thousand, 10,000, probably a hundred thousands of time in my head prior to getting there that you know, everything went to to crap, whether it was my training, my sleep, whatever. All that didn't matter.

Speaker 2: 1:34:12

I had hardened my brain to be able to do it, and that's what I wanted to figure out. Like, how powerful is the brain? Like? So, when a kid tells me he's in a slump or he's, you know he's the backup and he wants to be the guy, he wants to start. Where can he get an advantage? It's film, it's the visualization. Now, I'm not an expert by any means on that stuff, like a sports psychologist would be, and so we can definitely refer out. I love referring out to people, whether it's PT, chiropractor, doctors, psychologists.

Speaker 2: 1:34:50

I think that just makes a better team and you can have the discourse. I think you got to have communication between those folks, that is so important. Yeah, don't be the guy like yeah, sure you can be the. What I see is as a kind of the consultant. That's my role, I'm support role through and through.

Speaker 2: 1:35:05

There's strength coaches at their schools, there's foot, there's sport coaches are the main guys calling the shots yeah then you've got the strength coaches of the school that are the support staff to them, and then you've got you know, from the parents to doctors, you know pt, all that. And then you've got me in the private sector over here that the parents are hiring. Outside of that, I'm support to support and so for me, all I'm trying to do is get a idea. I ask a lot of questions. You have to this is totally off, another tangent but ask a lot of questions to see, okay, where can we gain an advantage? Are they not sleeping well? What's their meals look like? Are they doing something that we wouldn't think would have be an issue, but it is? Can we get more volume of sprints and are they not sprinting enough in practice? Are they doing too much conditioning, too much long form running where it's not top velocity? Can we dose in throughout the week these things that will make a big difference? And so can we see somebody that can do body work or treatment over here?

Speaker 2: 1:36:17

And I try to develop this, I guess, plan of attack for them and try to suggest, you know, how can we go about being a high school, college professional athlete, the best, given what we're given, like I have to be in the weight room at these times at the school or with the team. Okay, well, during, do you have five minutes extra? Okay, I want you to go lay down and do some breath work for five minutes, because I feel like you're stressed beyond all belief and maybe it's a pro athlete that had some new you know know, new kids or whatever. They need to try to get to the gym early just to go take a nap. Like well, we'll go there. Like hey, can you get out of the house right now? Okay, go, go to the, go to the field and go take a nap. Um, so that's what, the way I look at my job part of my job, anyway- so good.

Speaker 1: 1:37:07

But even having those tools, you can put that in your own preparation and that's one of the other benefits of putting yourself aside from the reasons why you initially chose to do the 50. So the the 50 milo is like. Now you have that experience on what it's like to prep. You know I find it really hard. A lot of my clients have kids and I can't comment on what it's like to have kids. I can give my thoughts but take it with a grain of salt because I don't know what it's like having children and then running a business and having to be woken up at all hours of the night. So I think when you can have lived experience in things, it's so much easier to give valid recommendations around things. That's why I think one of the best things in life is having first experiences.

Speaker 1: 1:37:48

You know we did that a lot and you see a young fellow doing it now, but we still need to do that for ourselves and in our relationships, and you're not always gonna like the first experiences, but it gives you feedback.

Speaker 1: 1:38:00

But you get that feeling again, you get to learn, you get to be curious, you get the feedback and then it's like, okay, well, what's the next thing that I can take?

Speaker 1: 1:38:10

Because that conversation or that experience may help someone in the future or give you an insight that may change your life in a certain way, which is for most of us, most people traditionally, once they sort of hit 35, the dad bod becomes a real thing. It's like my health done. But now we're seeing I'm seeing on instagram like dudes in their 70s running marathons and I'm inspired by that, and so just the fact that one dude at one point was like I'm fucking 70, feeling pretty good, I'm gonna run a marathon and then has probably inspired a whole you know demographic. So I think that's you know something that you're still doing as a dad, as a business owner. You're still making time for those personal challenges because, as I guess we started that whole segment, a lot of blokes sacrifice that because they feel the need to provide, which is awesome. However, you still got to make time, a big believe.

Speaker 2: 1:39:00

You still got to make time for yourself you have to make time because and and you being a dad now of just one, so, like when you have two, it's way different.

Speaker 2: 1:39:08

I'll find out soon at three four obviously everybody's situation is different and time is finite, but there are ways that you can make time and that you might, for for a lot of us, we put these boundaries in place. Well, I have kids, so I can't, that's fine. What can you do? What can we do? Can't, never, could, and we need to figure out. If it's something you want and it's important to you, what can we do? Is it walks? Great. Is it eating 10 more grams of protein for each meal? Great.

Speaker 2: 1:39:41

Let's start small and small things add up to big changes. They do. It's 365 days in a year. If you do one small thing every single day, that's a big change and it ends up being exponential, because if we learn something today, then I apply it tomorrow and I start to. That becomes exponential. And I think when we see videos or we see success stories, we see the whole, we see the finished product and we think we can't do that because our time is finite, or I have kids, or my job or whatever. It didn't start with their success story. It started with them making one decision, and that's how it changes me, that's how we can become successful.

Speaker 1: 1:40:19

It doesn't need to be complicated. Where can people find you man? Obviously, if they're in Nashville for one, but if they just want to check out your socials and everything like that, yeah, at jtodd performance.

Speaker 2: 1:40:30

Instagram is probably where I share the most. I'm not good at it because most of the time I'm training people and so and I love it, but I don't have time to put as much as I'd like to on socials. Athlosinc is also our instagram page, but we've got a website as well athlospro. But yeah, I'd love to talk to anybody on Instagram. Just DM me there.

Speaker 1: 1:40:51

He does respond. I'm living proof, that's right, I can't believe.

Speaker 2: 1:40:55

I'm so thankful that you decided to go down in the DMs.

Speaker 1: 1:40:59

Oh man.

Speaker 2: 1:41:00

And that it popped up and I was able to bring you into the gym and I'm just so grateful that you're here in Nashville, you're. I really want to continue to improve our relationship and hang out more. I was just reflecting on our time that we had last night at the soccer game with my wife Lauren, and I was just like man. I really want to be around Lockie more and I just love what you're doing. I love all the people that you're helping. I think it's extremely important today's society that we need more men like you and not be a bad thing to be a straight white male.

Speaker 1: 1:41:26

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 1:41:26

Because I got nothing wrong with anybody else, and if you don't want to be that, that's great. I just want people to want to be the best that they can for the people that they're around, and I think you're you're the guy that can help them do those things. And you know, god definitely put me, or put you, in my life for a reason and I truly believe that. So thanks so much for having me on here. I put you in my life for a reason and I truly believe that.

Speaker 1: 1:41:47

So thanks so much for having me on here. I appreciate you giving me your time. I know you're a busy dude and likewise dude. I look forward to getting obviously more training sessions in and hanging out a lot more as well, and eventually getting an ultra marathon and at some point will be good fun.

Speaker 2: 1:42:00

Well, what you're doing is absolutely incredible your story. I'm sure you've told your listeners what you're diving into next.

Speaker 1: 1:42:07

I haven sure you've told your listeners what you're you're diving into next. I haven't yet. No, I'm just waiting for the logistics.

Speaker 2: 1:42:10

Yeah, but yeah, I mean the logistics alone have made my head spin, and I know he can do it, so I'm excited for you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:42:17

I personally reckon the logistics are harder like yeah, absolutely it'll be yeah not discrediting what it is, but as someone who's not good at admin, it's kicking my ass. I bet it is, but you, you can find all the Justin stuff in the show notes. Remember, if you got value from this episode, share it with someone in your life that you know needs to hear it, and hit the subscribe button and leave a rating and review. Thank you.