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Heart First Leadership
Welcome to Heart First Leadership, the podcast that explores a revolutionary approach to leadership. In a world that often prioritizes success above all else, it's easy to find ourselves leading from a space of fear, doubt, and unworthiness. There is a new way!
Join me, your host Ryan Sawyer, and my co-host and wife, Heidi Sawyer, on a transformative journey as we seek to inspire and guide leaders, parents, and athletes to unlock the secrets to a truly fulfilling life—one that resonates from the heart. In Heart First, we challenge the conventional norms and embark on a voyage together, where heart-driven leadership becomes the compass for a life well lived.
Are you ready to redefine where you lead from? Let's dive into meaningful conversations, insights, and practical tips that will empower you to embrace a new paradigm of leadership.
Heart First Leadership
Rising Above and Beyond Through Sheer Will and Determination will Nolan Ulm
Every new beginning comes with challenges; for Nolan, it was about turning adversity into his most significant advantage. Embark on a journey with us as we sit down with this inspiring individual who shares a remarkable story of resilience and a celebration of the unwavering strength of a mother's love.
As the conversation unfolds, discover Nolan's transformation from an average athlete to a Division I Star through sheer determination. His story is a powerful reminder that the barriers we face can ignite our deepest passions and lead us to discover our true potential. We probe into the strategies that keep our fires burning, from the role of visualization in achieving our goals to the pillars of impact that guide our purposeful strides in life. Nolan’s unwavering commitment vividly illustrates how a relentless pursuit of self-growth can sculpt a career and an extraordinary life.
Finally, in a soul-stirring wrap-up, we reflect on how self-mastery and gratitude can redefine our worldview. The art of Transcendental Meditation and a focus on essentialism offer a path to clarity and intention in our decisions. These insights are not just for contemplation but are stepping stones to 'winning the day' and building a legacy. Join us as Nolan and I explore the early milestones of growth and set our sights on the accomplishments ahead, sharing the belief that our stories, much like our dreams, are meant to be lived out loud.
>>> Get our FREE Heary First Guide to Helping Teens Thrive Beyond Performance
What's inside the guide?
- How to better help your student stay engaged, motivated, and resilient by focusing on learning, improving, and expanding their capacity.
- How to avoid common behaviors and messages that cause students to "duck their heads" or adopt avoidant strategies.
- Get practical exercises and conversation starters that you can use with your teens or students at school, sports and home.
Website: www.ihpcoaching.com
Follow Us on IG: @mentalstrengthcoach
Welcome back to the show and thank you, Nolan, for joining us on this podcast. I am beyond excited. I know every podcast host says that, right, I'm so excited, but I'm really just stoked to have this conversation, Cannot wait to see where this conversation goes, and I just want to give you a little bit of a nod before we start here, before you introduce yourself and share your story is I think that I've learned more from working with you than anybody else I've ever worked with. Just because of the back and forth and because of your willingness and your openness and your readiness like wow, you're just so incredibly inspiring. So I just want to thank you for taking the time out of your busy day to be here.
Speaker 2:Oh of course, of course it's a. It's an honor to be here with you and it's really cool to think back to that first time that we met in that coffee shop on Eastern's campus and where we are today, all the talks that we've had and the journey that we've been on. I knew something special was going to come out of this relationship Just the moment. You gave me that hug when we first met, so I'm super, super grateful for you and the mentor that you've been. It's funny, right. You would have thought in a different lifetime you would have still been coaching at Eastern and that's how he would have met. But it's funny how we met and you know, outside of that, so super, super grateful to be here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm uh, I'm actually from Canada, so you know, if we have any Canadians listening, shout out to Canada. There it is. And so it's really crazy for me to be on a podcast with you, right? Because I shouldn't be here, right? That's what a lot of people would have said. I was born in Edmonton, alberta, so go Oilers right now. Hopefully they beat the academics. We'll see. I was born in Edmonton and other than the.
Speaker 2:Oilers. There's not really much there, ryan. So you know I was born to an 18 year old mother. She had me. My dad was actually 16 when I was born, turned 17 a month later and you know my dad was a good dude. He was. He was a really good dude in his heart but he had a mom that took a ton of advantage of him and so she enabled him a ton and he ended up just getting into a bad scene. I mean, she left his life when he was four years old, came back when he was 16. Unexplained, just really, really weird situation. She comes back and then she's the mom that's bringing home a keg and saying, hey, you can have whoever you want to have come over. Not good for a 16 year old 17 year old to have that sort of freedom for any of us, right? And of course, you already know what someone. You know what my dad did is. He went and had ragers at his house, uh, and so gotten to that scene, gotten to the rave scene and it just wasn't good and my mom we were living with my grandma at the time and my grandma and my mom took incredible care of me. I wouldn't really see my dad that much Only really like a couple times. He would just go and spoil me so fast forward.
Speaker 2:I'm three years old and my mom has this dream. This is a crazy story. My mom has this dream and she sees my dad and his head's in a bucket and the bucket says cocaine on it. And so my mom had no thoughts of this idea before. And the next morning she wakes up, calls my dad and says hey, luke, are you doing cocaine? And there's silence on the other end. How did you know? Right, it gives me chills even just to think about this. And so that was kind of my mom's introduction. They became my dad totally as a cocaine addiction and he was never physically abusive, he never would have done that but he would call her and just, it was not, it was a toxic environment. So my mom said you know what? Screw it.
Speaker 2:I'm 21 years old, I got a three-year-old and I got a beaten up Toyota Corolla. We're going to pack up and drive eight hours to where we have some family in a town, a couple of states over one province, over right. Provinces are huge, we only got eight of them, so we travel eight hours over and we get there and family doesn't really help us. Family doesn't really help us. They don't come and we move into low-income housing. So my mom gets a job. It's not enough. She gets another job. She starts eating seven-layer dip so that I can eat good food. We have suitcases for tables. I mean for me, I didn't know any better. I'm just there playing in the room and whatever. It's more room to play for me, right, we have no furniture, we have nothing. She gets a third job, right, and she's, she's grinding.
Speaker 2:But things are turning up, because where we were at Kelowna, beautiful city, and uh, the people at my daycare loved me, the neighborhood was not the best, not at all. In fact, a month after we moved out of that place, our next door neighbor murdered his wife and their little baby. So I mean, you name it, it it. Looking back on some of the instances, I didn't know what was going on, but these kids would stop me asking what my name is. You could see, just parents were definitely um, if they weren't dealing, they were a part of it somehow, just the interactions that happened. And so not a great situation, but it's, it's looking up.
Speaker 2:And then you know, a couple of years into being there, my mom goes to hairdressing school and she it's. It's going to be a really good opportunity for her to get one job and just be doing that, a really good skill that she's going to get. And then she got a phone call one day and it broke her heart. It broke her heart because Luke had passed away in a motorcycle accident my dad and it. It broke her heart, but I think just as much, and probably even more was the was the fact that she had to break the news to me. Now I'm five years old, I have no idea what's going on, but, ryan, this this day I'll never forget for the rest of my life, for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:I don't remember how I got there, but I remember sitting in the living room and my mom sitting across from me and she's got glasses, blonde hair up in a ponytail, cross-legged sitting on this couch. And my auntie and uncle are there, but I don't think they're in the room, they're just around. So now they come right, because this is a pretty big event. That's happened and she's sitting there, she's fixing her glasses, she's rubbing the tears off her face and she looked at me and said your dad is no longer here.
Speaker 2:Nolan, I'm five years old. I remember that crystal clear. That's so. That's. That's really that moment, right, there, right, and that was life defining for me. Right at the time I had no idea. I'm just like, okay, yeah, like I don't really know what that means, but you, I look back to that moment now and it's the really the foundational belief that I have that that this life is a gift. And Ryan, crazy, in July I haven't told many people this in July I will live, have lived longer than my dad ever did, 22 years old, wow, and so, uh, pretty, pretty powerful for me. And every single day, my alarm clock it's labeled my dad's name and, uh, hyphenated gift gift, because this life is a gift and uh, that's really a lot of where my story starts. And then, you know, you flash forward. Mom gets into the hairdressing school and we end up moving out every single morning. You know these, these lessons from my mom. They stick with me. I know this is a pretty long introduction on on who I am.
Speaker 1:I'll keep your it's, it's all important man yeah, foundational elements of who I am.
Speaker 2:Like, looking back on it, I'm just so blessed. And so you know, the crazy thing about my dad passing away too is he was actually supposed to come out and that next weekend I hadn't seen him in a year and he was going to come out and see me, but it never ended up happening. And you know, you talk about this all the time, right, right, like everything happens for you. I never, ever saw it as anything but that crazy as that sounds. Some people would say, wow, it's so morbid that you know like that. You would say that about your dad's death. But from a really young age I learned quickly, subconsciously, about meaning and how important that is. Right, you talk about that all the time and who knows what would have happened if my dad was still alive. But I saw a very similar situation with a friend growing up where that dad it was this exact same thing kind of party scene and enabled that kid right and he didn't have the opportunities I had because I didn't like he was getting distracted on the weekend with his dad and I never had that. So every single morning we'd be in our Toyota Corolla in this low-income housing and I remember it's a really, really sad setting, ryan, when you're sitting there in the morning and I don't know anything different, but you look to the right, left on a cold Canadian morning and everyone's looking to start their cars, right, and I mean it's just like crappy car after crappy car, beater, beater, and everyone's having trouble starting their car. That's the scene every 8 am at these low-income housing spots. Really really sad. So we're starting on Toyota Corolla and I can just remember every morning three things every single day she would pray for these three outcomes and this is foundational for my life too. I still have three pillars to this day that I chase every single day. Right, the vision. And she was praying for a new man in her life, for us to have a new house and for siblings, for me, more kids, and so she prayed that every day and it's funny, that created her reality. We started going to church. She met a guy at church right, that's a really good place to meet someone, mostly right, better than the nightclub Hope. So, anyway, she met my stepdad who came into my life and really was like a mentor for me and gave me guidance and showed me had CrossFit and these things. That changed my life and really was like a mentor for me and gave me guidance and showed me, had CrossFit and these things. That changed my life. And then, you know, a little bit later they co-signed with my grandparents, got a new house. So now we're out of low income housing, we're in the upper mission. So the NHL wife neighborhood, I mean we're, we're a little bit off. There was like the section of the neighborhood that wasn't burned down by fire as the oldest were able to make it in there, but completely different world. So radical shift in our life with that. And then now I have two little brothers that are seven and eight years old. Do you look back at that? She prayed every single day and it didn't show up after one day, it didn't show up after a week, a month, a year, but slowly these things started to show up in her life and so that really changed our life.
Speaker 2:And then, you know, I fast forward through some troubling years in middle school and just weirdness and hormones, and really my freshman year, a lot changed for me. I was walking through my house and you've heard this before. I was walking through my house and I saw Rocky five on the TV, right Like Rocky fives, the weird one where he's training that guy, tommy, I think, or something like that, and it. And I haven't ever watched it again because I was like this one is the only one that sucks. But they're flying in a bar. I'm like, wow, I didn't even know there was a Rocky V. Hey, grandma, can you get me the Blu-ray set Back when they're you know Blu-rays were a thing? Can you get me the Blu-rays for the Rocky series? I've never really watched lot. We're going on a family vacation to Hawaii so we we elevated quite a bit. So I took these blu-rays to Hawaii. Everyone went to bed and I popped Rocky one in and who hit me in my heart.
Speaker 2:I never knew a story, a movie, a character could impact one so deeply in that first scene and and it's a song. I listen to that song every single morning. It's called philadelphia morning and it's just this horn. And it's a scene where he stops the alarm clock at 4, 15 or 4 o'clock, whatever it is, it's 4 am, chugs the the raw eggs, goes and runs and at this time he's smoking in the movie still. So he's, he's coughing out on the street right and it's there's no one out there. It shows the post service there's. There's nothing out there. I mean, he runs the top of the stairs and to me it's my favorite time when he runs the top of the stairs, cause it's so real. That's what it's like. Everyone has a Rocky montage in their life, but it might not last, you know, five months. It might last five years for people. And there is no Apollo that you're fighting. You don't even know who Apollo is, you're just striving after your goal.
Speaker 2:And so after I saw that, I knew that I could be Rocky, and I don't know. I came home and I literally started waking up at 5am, 4am, like Rocky Would work out in the morning, would work out in the evening at the CrossFit gym with my dad, and I played football my whole life, but I was always good. It was just like something that I did, though, because it came pretty natural to me, but that's not saying much like it was a small town in Canada. So I was just, I was pretty average, and I just remember that really changed my life. And then I was sitting in a computer lab in my, my freshman year and I'm just looking at this picture guy that committed to go play D1 football, and that's when it really hit me what my specialty role at that time in my life was was going division one and playing d1 football. So I said I gave everything to that next three years.
Speaker 2:Four years completely shifted my life. I mean, looked into all that stuff what to eat, what to drink, when to go to bed, jocko discipline wins like 4 am, wake ups. I went through all this stuff and that's what really sparked my journey to self-grow, chase that self-mastery and I ended up getting a bunch of D1 offers. The one that was, I didn't even know Eastern, was only five hours away, and the receiver lineage that came out of here really is what led me to where I am now, where I'm heading into my senior season, where it was the exact same thing. I got here, got my ass kicked for for four years and it's slowly gotten better every year and now I'm really in a position to go, have a chance to go play pro football, which has been the ultimate calling uh, the whole time. So so that's kind of my story, and a lot of it, like I said, is just so early in my life. These, these experiences that I had and the meaning that I took from them, shaped who I am today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so well. First of all, thank you for sharing all of that, and it's incredibly inspiring. The first thing that just absolutely stood out to me is that at a young age, you had this innate ability to be able to see how adversity was for you. Innate ability to be able to see how adversity was for you. Can you just even just take a moment and just imagine if the world operated as if, where we legitimately just recognize that everything is happening in a way that, if we choose to look at it with the right attitude, that it shapes us, it forms us and it makes us stronger? Yeah, right, that it shapes us, it forms us and it makes us stronger. Yeah, right, and like, just to know, like wow, like okay, so what's next? Like, whatever's next, I'm gonna take it on, I'm gonna face it. So I just wanted to highlight that, like, that is phenomenal. That is phenomenal, right, right, to just have that from a young age. So, to have found your inspiration at a young age, right, because the level of passion that you speak with, the level of conviction and commitment that you speak with, like, sometimes even gets me a little bit to fidget in my chair, and there's very few people in this world that I know that can get me to fidget in my chair. Like you know, there's people who I surround myself with intentionally, that I've trained with, that I've seeked out mentorship, that can make me feel really uncomfortable and make me realize I have a lot of ways to go, but there's, you know, in my circle that's not very, not very apparent, right and so so thank you for being somebody who can make me fidget in my chair, like to have found that inspiration at such a young age.
Speaker 1:What has what has led you to be able to, like, stay connected, right? Because it's one thing to be motivated in a moment. It's one thing to listen to or watch a Rocky movie, which I love, that you love Rocky, my favorite series. I saw this little hoax the other day where they said they're going to come out with a Rocky 7 or 8 or whatever it's going to be. I'm like, oh, I hope so. I'm like I don't care how corny it is, it's Sylvester Stallone, it's Rocky Balboa. Let's go get him back in the ring one more time.
Speaker 1:Anyway, anyway, how do you stay connected to that? Because I know, for me, the majority of my life, like wasn't the way it is now. Right, I wasn't 20 in my early 20s as inspired, as motivated as you are. I know most people struggle with being inspired or finding what inspires them and staying motivated. Most people go to bed on a friday night after watching a movie like rocky, thinking that tomorrow morning I'm gonna wake up and I'm gonna change the world, I'm gonna crush it. But tomorrow morning, when saturday morning rolls around, they hit snooze. Yeah Right. And so like beyond it, just somehow being born in you, right, like what is it that you've done? I know that there's things that you do to stay connected and I would love to start there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and I think it's good to pre-frame this too that I was not the most motivated, disciplined. You know, I always was. There's some things I was definitely very blessed with and it's crazy it sounds like we talked about like my father passing away was a blessing in that, you know, it made me mature very, very quickly and my mom, being a single mother, what do I have to do? I always have to come with her right, doesn't have a lot of money, so there was never really a babysitter, so I was always, like, allowed to be around adults and hear conversations, and that's, I think, really allowed me to skip a couple of beats. I always was friends with kids that were were older, but other than that I wasn't really given much.
Speaker 2:I mean, I remember I used to play video games all the time and I know it's a super normal thing to do, but like my, my passion and intensity and focus, like I would grind on video games and because it just it felt good, you know, and I mean that's that's me in middle school. I don't beat myself up about that, but I think it's. It's hard to explain, but there was there's, there's this voice within all of us, I really believe. And there's another really key moment that I'll never forget for the rest of my life, and it was actually that freshman year. It was after we lost a playoff game and I remember sitting there and it had been something for a while.
Speaker 2:I just knew it was on my heart to go hard, to be more than just good, I just was sick of just being, like, you know, just just in the pack and I had that initially, and then I fractured my hip, actually going into summer. So I'd never I didn't do it that summer. And I had that initially and then I fractured my hip actually going into summer, so I never I didn't do it that summer. And then that like the after that next season, I remember it was like okay, like this is really the time. And then that's where I really believe that the law of expectancy right, like what we focus on is going to expand. And so I just started kind of looking for that and it showed up and it wasn't perfect whole journey, like there's times where I mean I really didn't waver on my discipline, but there was times where it wasn't easy. I think that's a part of the human experience. But I think what really connected me to that is is this is gonna sound crazy too, but I do this quite a bit and this just always came on my heart. I always talk about legend ideas and legendary action. Like we all have these legendary thoughts, like, like you said, where it's? We watch Rocky, we want to wake up, and then all of a sudden, yeah, it's like now it gets real. It's our Philadelphia morning, where it's cold, it's 4am. You feel like crap and you're like, okay, this sucks. Like I didn't realize this is what I signed up for. I do not feel like I did the day before, but for me there was a couple of things that really led to this. One of them was I really made commitments to myself that I really meant I would listen to music. That took me to a deep emotional place where, when I made this commitment, it wasn't just like, oh yeah, I'm going to do that. It was like it wasn't a should, it was a must, and I would go and I would look at I'd be different views. I remember there's just one spot by my house and I go listen to these couple songs that really take me to that place, and it was D1, d1, like I must. It's a calling and really what it what came from is we'll do more for other people than we ever will for ourselves, as as much as people don't want to believe that it's true, because you know you got loved one in the fire building, you're going to go and get them. You'll do crazy things for others when it really comes down to it, and so I really linked my journey to showing everyone else what was possible. So there's a couple different things, and then one that really I think is what led me to it is I knew it was going to suck. I knew it was going to suck and so there was actually a a couple of times when I was in sixth grade Now that I think back to it that you're bringing this up where I did wake up early, my, my stepdad.
Speaker 2:I had a really good model in that waking up early, discipline, right, or you know, committing to something and sticking to it. And he would go in our we had a shed and it'd be freezing cold and go in the shed and back squat in the mornings. And this is just like a normal businessman, like he's working out twice a day I don't even know what for, he's just disciplined. You know, I would go with him and I'd go in there and I remember, like, looking back, I'd go and like, sit in a lawn chair. I'd go run a loop with him and I'd sit in the lawn chair and then he'd be like what are you doing here? I know it's going to be cold, I know it's going to suck, I know it's going to be dark. What's going to get me through this?
Speaker 2:Okay, I know what to expect and so let's just like, let's rehearse it a little bit. I'm going to get up, I'm going to do these things like as simple as that wake up is right. And then I started doing that with everything. I know I'm going to feel really tired before my third workout of the day. I know it's going to be really hard to make that choice between going with my friends to this party or going to the gym to get another workout it keeps coming back to the workouts, right or to read when I want to go or watch a YouTube video by Kelly Sturette about, you know, mobility, instead of going and playing Arkham Knight. You know the Batman video game, and so I think it was that mental rehearsal committing to myself and really making it not about myself but about others. You add those three things in. I think it's pretty hard not to stay committed to what you set out for.
Speaker 1:I think that word commitment gets thrown around, like you know, but when you truly decide something, when you truly is this idea of going all in, are you trying to tell me that you naturally understood mental rehearsal before you knew it was called mental rehearsal because what you are explaining is very high level habit forming. Uh, techniques, I would call them, where you're able to predict adversity and then how you're going to respond and what you're going to make that adversity mean. Like this is the stuff that we teach. Right Is is, if someone struggles to get out of bed in the morning and to get themselves to the gym, for example, right that to not act. Like the motivation is going to be there. So let's say it's a 5am wake up, that you know that you're going to be tired and so you know that you're going to have this urge to hit snooze. And so then you see yourself putting your feet on the ground anyway and you see yourself getting up anyway. You see yourself getting dressed anyway and going to the gym. It's cold in the car and you're scraping off the ice, off the windshield or whatever you got to do. Like you allow yourself to experience the almost the worst case scenario and all the resistance. And then you see yourself at the gym and you see it being the third set and you're tired and whatever, but you see yourself pushing through that resistance and doing it anyway, right, like given your brain neurologically the pathway to follow when things get hard, because you feel like you've already been there, because you've rehearsed them. And this this takes me back because I don't. I'm almost at a place where I remember it but I don't experience it anymore.
Speaker 1:Like where I come from in the sense of my story of overcoming depression and and panic attacks and all the things that I went through is that I remember there being a time where I used my mind to rehearse before I knew what mental rehearsal was like the very next step, like put your feet on the floor, dude I'm talking about I'd be laying in bed and I knew that I had to get up and train if I wanted to change my life. I knew how to train my mind. I knew, but at the time I didn't have the resources to do it, like I just didn't have the motivation, the inspiration. So all I could see myself doing was legitimately one step in front of myself, and so I'd lay in bed and I would visualize. Before I knew how to visualize, I would visualize my feet being on the floor and that's all I would do.
Speaker 1:And then I get my feet on the floor and then I'm like, okay, now I'm here, so now stand up, right. No, but don't, don't stand. See yourself standing up. And then, before I know it, I'd be standing up Right, and so I do this. Now I call it a flash forward, like whether I'm doing cold exposure or whatever it may be like. Just see yourself doing the thing and then watch how much easier it is to do the thing Right. So are you trying to tell me that you knew how to mental rehearsal, practice mental rehearsal at whatever age? How old were you, like 12, 13 years old or whatever it was? And or did you? Did someone teach you this stuff? Is it just inborn into you or just how'd that work?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's's a. This is a great question. You're deep in deep dive into my psyche here.
Speaker 1:Yeah because I mean, if we, if we could teach this skill to mental project and mental rehearse, like, people do not understand the power of visualization and they just, even when you teach it to them, they still don't get it. Like my whole life is visualization, it's all already been seen. Every time I'm like I'm experiencing something fully because I'm like, oh, I've been here before, I created this. Like, how cool is that? Right? I'm going to share one more thing with you because I think you're going to love this.
Speaker 1:I was teaching a group of men recently that were going through integrated mindset about the power of visualization and I said I want you to develop a life that you will fall in love with in your mind. First, fall in love with your future, like literally fall in love with every single aspect of your life, and then take a step in the direction of that life, take an authentic action to affirm that's the version of yourself that you are becoming. And then, when you recognize that life is unfolding in the way that you created, that you fell in love with, then you can fall in love with yourself and this process of falling in love with your life and then stepping into it will be the process of you falling in love with yourself and when you fall in love with yourself, like everything changes, like legitimately, the world will just form around you. So this process for you, like I know you do so much vision work and mental projection, mental rehearsal, like how does that speak to you today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's funny, this is the one thing I do with a lot of people. It's a really easy exercise that gets them to start to think about vision, and I can't pinpoint when exactly this this hit for me. But when you look around, right, everything we've talked about this is once an idea, right? Leave the sign behind me. This may have a podcast. It was not a thing three years ago, it was an idea. And then we bring those into fruition, into reality, right. Bring those into fruition into reality, right.
Speaker 2:And for some reason, I think it ties back to my mom, those three outcomes. I guarantee you, subconsciously I was already planted. Talk about something, create something in the future, go get it. Because we did like she, she would cast those out, and that's where a lot of it, I think, comes from. And then, I don't know when you, when you talk about the mental rehearsal piece of things, it just kind of seemed like I don't know. I knew. I just knew how to.
Speaker 2:I had a good feeling, cause I'd been in an early morning before. I knew what it was going to be like. And it was really like those two forces, right Pain and pleasure. I just linked so much pleasure to changing my life. Like one thing that I love that Tony Robbins says is people change when they reach a threshold. And I just had reached that threshold. I was so sick and tired of of being the guy that didn't win the pushup comp, or like just physical wise right, like I was really not flexible. Uh, and it's funny, looking back, I remember so well my stepdad. He was just messing with me, but he was like my hamstrings were so tight when I was whatever fifth grade, and he was like you know, if you're going to be a receiver in the NFL, you can't have tight hamstrings. And that like broke me down. I was like, kid, I guess I'm never going to be a receiver in the NFL because, like, my hamstrings are tight.
Speaker 1:I didn't realize that I could stretch it out.
Speaker 2:But all of a sudden, though, I started to understand this. I was like, whoa, this is an unfair advantage, like this, life is a video game. You can upgrade yourself, you can upgrade your thoughts, you can do any one of these things, and for me, the physical transformation was that first piece, but I wasn't able to create that physical body without seeing it first, and so I think even too, like social media can be such a double-edged sword, but that vision of seeing those D1 guys, I started to see myself in like those pictures, but I knew that it wasn't, that's not what was going to get me there, like I needed to do the work, and so why would I not just visualize the process as well and doing that and even something? To this day, too, you can tell I really love songs and listening to these. They link emotions, are like anchors for me, and I listen to Watchful Guardian by Hans Zimmer Right Dark night, and I know it's all my workout Real best, right?
Speaker 2:So when I was a freshman in college, I've been doing this forever where I don't I visualize the end result, but I also visualize the process leading up to it, because there is no fight in Rocky without the montage, and so I honestly, this is a this is a key question, and I know I'm kind of bouncing around here, but I'm just dropping every tool that I'm really is coming to my mind that helped me do this. I started to realize the subconsciously, the, the importance of focus and my question it comes back to that word legendary, right? What's the most Epic and legendary response? That that became my primary question. Because I knew, in order to get the results, I needed to have crazy stories about me. Right, like I needed to have someone being like this guy would always go in the weight room and and lift at lunch, or he would always be watching film at this time, or he just a grinder in the in the math class and he was just doing problems. Like I just knew how they needed to talk about me and even, as I'm saying this to you now, like this is crazy that I was able to, like I just started picking up on this because I was just going after the goal and I just I'm a very thought dominant person. I've really learned about myself and I didn't really understand that before. So even talking it to that with you now is good.
Speaker 2:But I heard what people were saying about my future self. I knew what I needed to think about myself. I knew how I wanted to feel about that next version of myself and, like you said, right Like falling in love with the future. I had this thought yesterday while I was meditating, when I came back out and I was thinking and I just was like man, people look forward to a movie on the weekend, people look forward to entertainment, people look forward to family time, but why don't you look forward to your future? Why don't you look forward to your growth? Right, like we aren't.
Speaker 2:I love whenever I go to schools, I say you aren't lazy, guys, you aren't lazy. I'm going to tell you right now You're't lazy. I'm going to tell you right now you're not lazy. You just don't have something to wake up for. You want to have something to. You know, take the actions that you want to take for, right, and so that's a lot of it, right, like having that compelling future, reaching that threshold and yeah, like all those little things that you talk about, all those details of, it's got to be as detailed as that, like, what are people saying about you? What do people think about this person? Not that that really matters, but like that's a part of your future self, right, the perception of that person, and that was really important to me, and a lot of that stuff is from watching different videos and feeding my mind great brain food, as I like to say it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, but all of it is. And some people who maybe listen to this might think, well, that sounds a little egoic. Right To like. What are people saying?
Speaker 1:about you Like yeah yeah, I mean, what are people saying about me to me? What are people saying about me when I'm not there? Like, all of those little pieces are a formation that you then can be connected to emotionally. Right, and it's the ability to construct yourself into the version of yourself that can achieve. I always say this set a goal, set a worthy ideal, set a vision or a clarity of what you want in the future and then very simply figure out who is it that you need to become to be able to execute that and begin to close the gap. Right.
Speaker 1:How is it that you need to think? How is it that you need to breathe? How is it that you need to walk? How is it that you need to treat people? What do you need to be doing every day and step one step into that future every day? Right, and so it's. It's not egoic because it's. It turns into what you are relentless with and why you inspire me so much. It turns into service for other people. Like you, you've recognized that you have a certain level of awareness and knowledge and information and practice and credibility now, because of where you are and what's on the horizon, that you can turn back and give this to other people. So I want to hear from you I'm going to see me a multifaceted thing A couple of things. I have like three questions for you. Number one is you mentioned something. I got to go back real fast before I forget You've talked over a few things and sound like we got to come back to a couple of things. Number one is what were your three pillars? What are your three pillars?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So these are big three pillars, so these are my guiding force. So number one is make it to the NFL. That's the first one. So football, really football, right, and that has been like I told. I feel like I might've told you or someone else, that's the story of the first quarter of my life. You know I'm 22 and it's gonna be. Yeah, next April is the draft, it's when the scouts start calling all that stuff.
Speaker 2:So I've been grinding that for over a decade now in terms of actually really pursuing that. The second one is to impact a billion people in terms of actually improving the quality of their life, and so that's service. So you know, whatever that's through we've talked about that A lot of that's not going to be through me directly. It's going to be. I want to lead the leaders. I want to do what you're doing with me right now and and attract those people into my life and be able to serve and mastermind and do all these things to go, create a positive effect and leadership in this world. That leaves a dent that is not attached to my name, it's just attached to how it serves others. And then the third one.
Speaker 1:It's just attached to how it serves others, and then the third one and this one's a little crazy, but Well, the first and the second one are kind of crazy too. Just to let you know it was crazy all the way through all these man.
Speaker 2:It's all good. The third one, and this one's going to be. It's going to be a long process, but I'm excited for this one because to me it's really going to be a big focus on the back half of my life how can I create systems, create values for others, for others, and it's become a billionaire. And so what I want to do with that is, I realized, right, if my goal is to impact, then I need to be able to have these, these resources as well to do incredible things, because there's a billionaire in Spokane that just passed away recently and he was the one that founded or helped get that ProVision building right and be a huge part of that, and so that Eastern. There's so many things that I want to give and I want to be able to have a lot of things run, like I said, without my name, without me there, and I know with that financial power, you're able to do some pretty incredible things.
Speaker 2:So those are the three pillars and, as you can see, one of them will be coming to a close here really next year or whenever it is, until I get that done and I'm not really like super attached to these either, it's more just like they are a guiding light every single day. Right, like they're my. Does it fill into these buckets? No, done Right, and so that's really my, my three outcomes. Right now I haven't told many people those and those are some pretty big ones but and obviously, like I don't, really there's so many goals underneath that and I'm really just focused on winning the day. Right To get to get to that point, but I think gives good people a good idea of like I began with the end end in mind and everything works back from there yeah, and then you set the micro goals to help you progress towards it on a daily basis.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that's where we won't go. We won't turn this into a mental toughness lesson for the listeners, but that that's what you're doing. So something that I want to hear, this because somebody who has something I underline and circled here as you were talking I'm taking notes somebody who has a lot going on. Right, I want you to talk about your camp and different things too, because you have these huge three pillars and that's kind of helped me lead into. My next question is but, before we go into it, something that has so much going on, I mean you're, you're going to college first of all like that's usually enough for everybody. You're a collegiate athlete. You have a podcast called make it happen podcast.
Speaker 1:You run a camp uh, this is going to its second or third year as camp up in canada for third one, yeah third year for for canadian football players right to be exposed to, you know, a level of instruction and mentorship that in the past you didn't experience before and that gives back to somewhere right. And so, like you, you have that piece plus you, uh, you have an app, right. I mean, I, I'm just trying to illustrate to people that we'll I'm going to let you unfold this, all of this piece. There's so much going on, but something that I was really really curious about before we dive into all those pieces is sounds that you said something that you kind of rolled over the top of it, but I caught it. Okay, there was this. When I asked you about your inspiration and I asked you about your motivation, you said there's a, there was this voice inside of you. There was, there's some sort of a guiding message that you were receiving.
Speaker 1:And I've been really, really curious about this in my life recently. I've been doing a lot of simplification, a lot of decluttering, a lot of slowing down and mastering listening. And now I'm talking about listening, you and me listening. I'm talking, I do that too, but I'm talking about, you know, listening to like that inner guidance system, that intuition, god, whatever somebody wants to call it Right. But it's to me it's God Right and it's this. It's this feeling that I'm always protected, I'm always directed and I'm always going to be corrected, right. Like it's this feeling that I'm always protected, I'm always directed and I'm always going to be corrected. It's just so much clarity where there's just no fear. There's just no fear, and all I know I have to do is relentlessly focus on the process.
Speaker 1:And so I'm curious your early days, your early life, there was a level of simplicity to it. You even said, hey, there wasn't furniture, like I could run around and play right, like this is the only way you knew. And I just wonder, if there's, how do you keep things simple enough at this point where you're able to listen, right? Because I think that simplicity in your early age were formative for you to be able to really tap into something that most people don't even know exists inside themselves.
Speaker 1:Because we all have it. We all have the inner guiding system, we all have a bigger calling. We all should need to be pursuing for a level of mental and emotional well-being. There is a specialty role that lives within each of us. There's a way that we can bring something to the world that is unique to us, we can make an impact that is unique to us individually. Right, and I believe that wholeheartedly Right. So how do you keep things in this stage of your life, with all of that going on before we talk about what all of that even is and you kind of hit on it a little bit how do you keep things simple enough to be able to continue to listen and not get distracted and not have things be distorted?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think once again going back to those those simpler times, right, you mentioned that I was an only child, and so there's another little gift that I had, and I actually, even now, I never really have a problem being alone and being with my thoughts. In fact, some of the most incredible experiences in terms of coming into those insights are when I'm with myself and just contemplating. I used to always have imaginary friends. I feel like I told you this, yeah, and I make up all these situations in my head. I never really needed anything to play with, like I could create anything with my mind and go have fun doing it, and, oh, it's just so cool to look back how I created these visions within my head and that's really, you know, a gift that that we both share. I believe there's a couple of things, right, there's a couple of pillars that I've really been coming to like hey, what is the specialty role? What, what have I been given? Really been coming to like, hey, what is the specialty role? What, what have I been given, definitely, that imagination, that vision, uh, that that keeps it simple but also guides me, and I believe, completely with you there, too, I'm I'm navigating this as we speak, but all the stuff that you've guided me to and that I've seen I got. I got emotional when you were talking about it there, because there's a creator and he's just had has had so much grace for me in my life and I'm so forever grateful for every day, um, to him as well. Um, yeah, yeah, anyways, sorry, that's just like so powerful to me, that gratitude and so that imagination and that vision, and then also just like my ability to speak and putting those things together really like the more you know who you are, the more you can be real with yourself for what you really want, and that's what I think keeps it simple, and so the more I get to know myself as soon as I find something that's a no. It's a no If I don't like it, if it doesn't, if I just it doesn't feel right for not being called to it, it's, it's done.
Speaker 2:I think, with all the stuff that I have going on too, a lot of it is who, not how, and so there's incredible people that I know, like I said to you, right, like there's. We only have so much time, me and you, and so it's going to be teams that we need to lead in order to to create the depth and breadth of impact that we really want, and so I think it's a continual process of checking. In this day and age, I mean, there's so much going on all the time and you only have so many morsels of focus. They're so valuable and they literally are talking about it like attention is the new oil, right? So people are talking about day trading attention, which is crazy, but that's the world that we live in, and so for me, like I said, it's constantly being real with myself, and I think I'll talk about it here. If people know you and they don't already know about TM, then I don't know who they are.
Speaker 2:But transcendental meditation has been one of the most impactful tools ever for getting to know myself, for getting closer to that voice, for, yeah, like to me, when you get to know yourself, your life becomes more simple because you know, you know who you're growing into.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying that I really believe that everyone's limitless, and not that everyone's going to become Superman, but that our potentials are so much greater than we could even start to understand. Yeah, however, I believe that, like, we do have these gifts and these roles, like we've talked about specialty role that you meant to step into that, like we do have these gifts and these roles, like we've talked about specialty role that you meant to step into, and so that's really how I keep things simple is just looking for that and what's true to me. And so there's times where it's uncomfortable and that's good, but there's times where you know it's a different type of uncomfort where it just doesn't, it's not, it's not fitting, and that's when I think it's time to you know, be an essentialist a really good book, essentialism, yeah, and get rid of those things that don't matter.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. So there's a level of alone time I'm hearing there's a level of reflection, there's a level of time where you're becoming familiar with, which is one of my favorite definitions of meditation, my two favorite definitions One is to become familiar with and then the second one is to develop an internal domain that's independent of our external circumstances and those, those when we go inward, we are able to birth not only that familiarity with ourselves so you get to know ourselves, listen to that voice but then we're able to then come back out to the world. This, this is a it's a focus orientation shift where the majority of the world is so externally focused that they never even have an opportunity to go inward right, so we have to master performance. It's actually something I was going to teach you offline, something I've been researching and teaching recently. Is this shift of orientation external, internal back to external like how seamlessly can we do that to the point where it becomes almost like subtle and and then it almost seems like we have an orientation to both at the same time?
Speaker 1:yeah, I love that wow but at first it feels a little bit rigid and then, because our brain can't focus on one or the other or can't focus on both at the same time, but eventually we can be aware of our internal domain and what's going on outside at the same time, simultaneously, and that's when it becomes like a level of grace to it. So I hear that in what you're talking about. And, yes, tm is a game changer. I don't know if it has to be just TM for people, but the more I practice it, the more I'm going down that trail of learning advanced techniques and everything else, the more I'm like man, uh, be good for you too, and you and you, and you, and you and you. My whole family has their mantra. Now, did you know that? I tell you that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know what? That's one thing I I'll. I'll wait until you're on my podcast, but the way that you are parenting your kids and leading your kids is you're. You're leading me right now, without even leading me, because as soon as I'm about to have a kid, I'm calling you and I'm getting the blueprint, because just the oh my gosh, the gifts that you're giving them and the people that they're going to become, and, oh my goodness, just these pillars that some people never experienced in their life. They're experiencing like, right before they're even how old 10, right Like 10 and 11,.
Speaker 1:10 and 11, right 10, 10 and 11.
Speaker 2:So I just had to say that real quick. It's incredible.
Speaker 1:We enjoy it, we enjoy the process and it's not perfect, but we're we're unfolding it and it's, and it's it's my greatest, my unfolding it, and it's, uh, and it's, it's my greatest, my greatest honor, my greatest joy. Like you talk about pillars, what gets me out of bed in the morning? There's a couple things. Number one is my children. Number two is wondering what is that specialty role gonna, how it's going to unfold today, like, legitimately, in what way? What can I bring to the world today that only I can bring to the world? I can't wait to find out. Like that, just that level of curiosity for me, like that, just I want to know what that looks like today and living that, living that out.
Speaker 1:So no, I appreciate that. I appreciate your kind words. So, meditate people, become familiar with ourselves. So talk to me just a little bit. I want, I want people to hear about, um, some of these things that you're doing, so they know what you're up to besides, just, you know, having a big dream of impacting a lot of people and playing the nfl, and, and obviously we're going to be watching. You know, we're going to be watching as the next year unfolds and and it's football, football season again, before you know it and you know, the Eagles are back on the red field for some more magic and all these type of things that are going to be happening. But talk to me a little bit about what it means to make it happen. What is that? Cause, that's kind of your theme and everything comes from that. You got your, your podcast, you got your camp, you got your app. What?
Speaker 2:what's? What's all that about? Yeah, so it really all started with the podcast, so a couple of years ago. Once again, I love telling these stories, right, because we communicate through stories and these are real decisions that I made and I was watching the Tony Robbins I'm not your guru, my girlfriend the second time. I watched it when I was younger and it lit a fire on me on the plane.
Speaker 2:I remember I started writing in a journal and, looking back now, it's just so cool that someone can have an impact like that on someone. And so we were watching it for the second time and he was doing the intervention and just his level of presence, his congruency, his ability to serve someone else, it was like you know, god Right, like you call it, like it was like it was coming through him in that present moment to serve this individual. And I was watching with my girlfriend and I was like that's what I want, that's what I want now. I didn't even know even close to what that meant back then, but it really started me on this path of, okay, like football is awesome, but honestly kind of pushed me away from football for a little bit because I was like dang, like me catching a ball of air between white lines is not actually like impacting anybody, might be entertaining someone, giving them a little bit of joy, but man like Julian Edelman won the Super Bowl MVP, however many years ago. No one really talks about that anymore and did it really like change someone's life? Yeah, it inspired me, inspired kids, and that's why I love doing what I'm doing with football. But look at what Tony's doing Like he's shifting someone's whole family tree in a moment, in a moment, and so he's giving them those stories that I'm telling right now with his abilities. And so that's what really started me on this, and I thought what's the easiest way I could do this?
Speaker 2:I remember hearing on a podcast and this is what I'm saying, like whoever's listening to this stop thinking, take action, like you. It's so simple to put content out there to do whatever you want. Now you could go buy a 4k camera for less than a thousand dollars and start making incredible cinematic YouTube videos. If you wanted to, you could start developing your own app. You could uh, you go speak on a stage at Toastmasters next week and start working on your speaking abilities. There's so many things that you could do. And I remember I was listening to this podcast three years before, when I'm in high school, and these guys were talking about anchor, this app, and how you can create podcasts from your phone, and so I was like why would I wait to impact? If Tony was in my shoes, he would start impacting right now. And so, boom, I don't even know how it came to me, but I just remember hearing this and I'm like you know what?
Speaker 2:Like some people make excuses in life and some people make it happen, and I, honestly, I'm super I'm glad that you asked me that question like it means to make it happen, because the reality is, especially in football. I say it like this make it happen in per, in preparation, and let it happen in performance. Like making it happen does not mean to force things. It means all the things I talk about get your burn, get your why, get those three outcomes and go create your life, because you only get one. That's what it means to make it happen Take actions every single day and win the day. And so that's what it formed out of. And then I really like to be honest. I was just regurgitating a lot of Tony's teachings on the podcast because I was like this is my base right now and I think more people should hear this and it's super inspiring to me. So I'm going to share this stuff out and I'll tell personal stories from it.
Speaker 2:So I went pretty crazy that July and then I really made a shift to where I was like oh man, I don't want to post on my social media Cause I want everyone to look at me a certain way. And then I was like screw it, let's grab the iPhone, let's make some like not great quality videos of me out back, like saying this Tony stuff, and I'll put it out there. I started doing that and I started putting myself into the world. I stepped into the light a lot more. I had always been a grind in silence. You know, our thing was in high school was MSM, make silent moves, and I just don't agree with that anymore, because your ability to be the lighthouse in this day and age is is so incredible because you're always ahead of somebody, right, like whatever that means, but there's always someone that's looking up to you, and so, if anything, I wish I would have started earlier and so started the podcast. I got a huge amount of buzz and it's still doing pretty good and it really was just like the foundational element for me to share my voice, to get guests on, to create relationships right, like you know.
Speaker 2:Like a podcast necessarily isn't like to get millions of views and one day I'll have a great studio set up that you know. I'm just. I'm in my college frigging townhouse. You know I need my, my signed football on the back and my nice setup. I'll have that eventually, but I know where I'm at and that's okay. It's not perfect, like you said, just like parenting. So I started the podcast.
Speaker 2:And then I always want to do a camp back home. So I did one and this was just me and my, my coach. We went back to Canada, just the kids in my school, really. So that was cool. And then Greg Peach was like oh, I heard you did a camp up in Canada and Greg Peach, for those who don't know, defensive player of the year in FCS football, buckley Canada award winner at Eastern Washington University I mean Big Sky Hall of Fame, 10-year CFL veteran, like the man, and he runs a Provision Academy now in Spokane. So he was like I'll come up with you. All of a sudden that turns into me bringing up 20 guys from the States up to Canada. We had 86 kids last year and that was incredible. All proceeds go to a single mother charity Me.
Speaker 2:That's really my way of giving back. Uh and and yes, it's increasing the brand and all these things, but that's it's always going to be, that we want to make it the best football camp in the entire world in terms of a developmental standpoint, because all these camps they just they get run for the wrong reasons. Stars, the drip. You see the culture nowadays. It's about the coaches more than anything. And yeah, we're bringing up star coaches, but we're bringing them to impact. That's what it's all about. And, just like you said it perfectly, you know exactly how. I think it's about giving back to those people that were in my shoes, giving them what I never had. Like if I could have got all this information right there. It's like a one-stop shop for everything you need to go, know, to go to the next level in football. So that's really what the camp is. So this year it's blown up.
Speaker 2:We got 46 camp coaches coming up well, we just got sponsored by the nfl, so we're a partner with the NFL now, which is that we posted that yesterday and that blew up.
Speaker 2:We have five, so four NFL alumni and then one current NFL guy coming up, and that's like we're going to get a lot more in the future. We partnered with this team out on the east. They're going to give $500 away to the two kids. We've got like 70 signups right now and we're still a month out, so I think it'll be pretty. It'll be a pretty awesome event. We're going to bring together the community. We have a youth camp this year as well. We're going to be partnering with some NHL guys and so this thing's growing into a beast and it's really cool Like my first true company and business that I started, and so it's been really good for me to learn those base skills right, to go accomplish that ultimate pillar one day and meet incredible people.
Speaker 2:That's really the biggest thing. It's it's opened my eyes to what's possible. I mean, we had a guy at the camp last year like I told you, that's making a million dollars a month, and so that was really really cool. So that's one thing. And then, yeah, I was. We were like hey, how do we further development this and or develop our ability to impact these athletes? And my thing is like we have a world-class process here at Eastern and people. It's tough to see where I started here, but if they would have seen where I started to where I am now and some of these other guys that have come through, they're gonna. They're gonna talk about the things that we're building over here for years to come, whether that's receiver technique, whether that's just like overall process with it.
Speaker 2:In terms of strength conditioning football. We've been obsessed with this like it's all we think about, and so we have an app. I have an app with my strength coach, tj Conley, and we have 15 athletes on there right now strength speed program, and then we've got all sorts of resources from every aspect of their performance, the whole performance profile. We teach off of that and filling that app out for those guys.
Speaker 2:So really it's the camp and then if they want to continue the development with us, they go through there, and then we have weekly coaching calls, and so that's some of the things I got going on and, like you said, everything's got to pour back into the football bucket, because that's number one, and so when I'm on, make it Happen. Performance it's the highest form of mastery for myself. I'm putting together systems and it makes me it. Putting together systems and it makes me, it holds me accountable, because I can only lead these guys to the level of accountability, of, of commitment that I have within myself. And then same thing with the football camp, like, like I said, being able to hang out with these NFL guys, all these things it really gives me a ton too, and so, and then also I speak as well.
Speaker 2:So there's, I do have quite a things along, but they're all kind of intertwined right, and it's these base skills that I know that we need to make the impact that we want to make, and so those are all the things that I got going on, and really the whole goal is I don't want my life to be about me. I want it to be about other people. We're all going to be forgotten, and so my biggest goal is to create cultures that live on without me, because that's what I think is the most powerful thing, um, something that continues to impact long after I'm gone. So that those are the goals with with that. So it's been. It's been a busy May, like I told you, getting those things rolling.
Speaker 1:That's a lot going on, man. I don't know where you fit it all in, and you also have a girlfriend and uh, you know. So I don't take it personal, by the way. When I send you a message and it's like a week before you respond, I'm like sorry, I didn't even see it. I mean there's just to let you know. There's plenty of grace over here coming from me.
Speaker 2:I appreciate that, you know, and it's likewise, because I know the impact that you're making and the work that you're doing and I think, even off of that too, a lot of people are like, how do you do it? Or like your focus is spread to thing who not how right. Like the app, like I wouldn't have been able to do it without TJ the camp. We have an incredible marketing team and then I think, at the end of the day, too, this is what people don't want to talk about. With success and creating stuff.
Speaker 2:I put in 10 to 12 hour days with football every single day and I come home and I do this stuff. I go to bed at eight. I wake up before, like I wake up at four or five on the weekends. Guess what I do? I do the exact same thing. Like I love what I'm doing so much. This is all I do. Some people would get nauseous by how much work I do, but that's what it takes, Especially when I want to do all these things. I know that it takes that and it's already been so incredible. Like and that's what I would say to people is you are the most important project that you'll ever work on and I will never regret investing in myself or doing these things. Definitely got to balance a little bit with the girlfriend. You know. Keep that happy.
Speaker 1:But someday, if you have a family, there's going to have to be some give and take. But I was going to ask you for one piece of advice and you may have just said it, but I'm gonna still ask you the question what, what's what? What's one piece of advice that you would want to, that you want either your younger self your younger self to hear, or somebody who you know like is just not quite where they want to be in life. They want, want, they want something more, they want something different.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say to that person first, I think, cause I'm? I'm always not where I want to be, you know? Sure, of course, and I had this incredible breakthrough a couple of weeks ago where I was just beating myself up I'm like not impacting enough, I'm not doing this, the camp's not going the way it's supposed to. And if I'm thinking that way now, what's going to change when I have everything that I want right? What's going to change? Nothing's going to change. And so I would say to that person it's everything that we talked about. It's going to be so repetitive. You're going to be like you know what, shut up, it's the fundamentals. Every single day, it's working on yourself. It's like I said, win the day.
Speaker 2:We say that here at Eastern win the day, find out what those actionables, those, those best practices that you have within every area of your life and do them. Do them, win the day. And when you compound those and stack those wins, it's dangerous, but we talked about it before, right, like you need to see a future that no one else does and believe in that. And guess what? I know that whoever's listening to this I believe in you, ryan, you believe in them. 110% right, and so that's all they need. They need, that's all they need. They can come back to that and just let that fuel their action.
Speaker 1:I love, I love this question what does it look like to win today For myself? No, I'm just saying no, no, no, we don't have to keep going. I'm just saying I'm just saying, if we ask ourselves that question every day, yeah, that's a great question. It's in one of the courseworks that we do with the competitive edge, content right, and it's a preparatory question.
Speaker 1:How many days do we go through in life where we don't know what it looked like to win and then we're not able to record the wins that we actually had right?
Speaker 1:So to ask ourselves that simple question what does it look like to win today? So, man, this is what it looked like to win today for me Was to actually find a way to steal an hour plus of your time and and I thank you greatly for that, and I'm just inspired by you and just super pumped to be able to be at a pace in life where I'm not only being a part of your life as a friend and as a as a peer life as a friend and as a as a peer, but, you know, uh, also be able to kind of take a back seat to watching your life unfold and just being able to celebrate and support and cheer you on. So thank you so much for just who you are and what you bring to the world and in your relentless attitude. Man, it's just uh, yeah, we just need more of it. Right, I need it. I need it in my life. So thank you.
Speaker 2:Oh, I really appreciate those kind words. Like I said to you, you're different, you're very special and I know you say we're peers but you're definitely you know such an incredible mentor for me and just know like I've been going back over that course content and all that stuff that we've talked about. It's greatly impacted my life in so many ways and it's so cool to see your story and where you came from and it's like it's just super inspiring for me too of how you know. Just like you said, you've chased that self mastery process for so much longer than I have and I'm excited to keep following in your footsteps and keep our relationship going. It's going to be really cool I was thinking about this when we listen to this podcast and then when I interview you, when we look back in 20 years. It's going to be really cool to look back at this.
Speaker 1:Well, you mentioned that when the first time I met that something special was going to happen. I think we're just getting started, so it's just absolutely.
