Speaker 1: Hello, everybody, Welcome to Summer House with Sam. I'm your host, Sam,
Speaker 1: I y Ella, and today I'm very blessed to be
Speaker 1: at one of my favorite places in the entire world,
Speaker 1: Mousetrap Fitness, the home of CrossFit Mousetrap. And not only
Speaker 1: am I here at this location recording the very first
Speaker 1: episode of Summerhouse with Sam, but I am joined by
Speaker 1: one of the owners of Mousetrap Fitness, the home a
Speaker 1: CrossFit Mousetrap, mister Allen Thompson. Hello, sir, doing very well,
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and thank you for joining me
Speaker 1: here today.
Speaker 2: My pleasure, and this is legit setup.
Speaker 1: You literally owned the studio that we're currently and now,
Speaker 1: oh I do want to make sure I mentioned you
Speaker 1: are co owner, yes, of Mousetrap Fitness, the home across
Speaker 1: at Mousetrap, along with your amazing wife. Again, I want
Speaker 1: to thank you for joining me here today because Mousetrap,
Speaker 1: as you well know, means so much to me personally,
Speaker 1: as it does to so many other people as well. Yes,
Speaker 1: I have been a member and a coach here since
Speaker 1: the early early days of twenty sixteen. Okay, so now
Speaker 1: it's been well over a decade It's absolutely changed my life,
Speaker 1: and I want to just personally, we've got an opportunity
Speaker 1: to thank both you and Katie for that.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you for being a great coach.
Speaker 1: I'm happy to do it, happy to do it now.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I do want to touch
Speaker 1: on before we get into the serious, serious questions guys,
Speaker 1: is that you and I, I feel are similar in
Speaker 1: many ways.
Speaker 2: A lot of ways. Yeah, I agree, And.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you know this or not, but
Speaker 1: you seem to be a quiet person.
Speaker 3: Would you describe yourself as such?
Speaker 2: Depends Yes, I can understand why you're saying that, but
Speaker 2: I think it depends on the topic the moment. I
Speaker 2: can go on my rants from time to time. I
Speaker 2: think I have a lot of opinions and thoughts that
Speaker 2: are you know, I say, unpopular or not in alignment
Speaker 2: with you know, typical societal norms, and I'm just trying
Speaker 2: to be you know, cognizant of that and respect people's
Speaker 2: time and effort and energy and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Now, when you say typical of societal norms, are
Speaker 1: there any specific things you're referring to.
Speaker 2: I mean, one example that comes to mind when my
Speaker 2: wife and I first met and we started talking about
Speaker 2: gift giving. I just went on this whole sort of
Speaker 2: tirade about I don't you know holidays and how they
Speaker 2: become corporate sponsored events and you know, Christmas now, Christmas
Speaker 2: shopping is now authorised between August and December and all
Speaker 2: the things. And so we ended up setting a gift
Speaker 2: giving budget. Was this early on, like early on in
Speaker 2: our relationship, because the premise is basically, you don't have
Speaker 2: to wait for the holiday to forget the thing. True,
Speaker 2: They're just going to charge you more on February fourteenth, right,
Speaker 2: we can go get it on February.
Speaker 1: Twelves, on February fifteenth.
Speaker 2: The best time to buy Halloween candy is the day
Speaker 2: out November first, rant and raving about that. You know,
Speaker 2: I've kind of keeping myself or Katie, here's it, but
Speaker 2: that's like, that's probably typical.
Speaker 1: Well, you know that makes me smile. And the reason
Speaker 1: why is because that is a very, if I may,
Speaker 1: a very gen x thing. It's thinking about how corporate
Speaker 1: American corporate greed have taken over holidays, things that were
Speaker 1: supposed to just be so fundamental, not necessarily basic, but
Speaker 1: just based on other things.
Speaker 2: Do you do you I don't know if you had
Speaker 2: a similar experience. When I was a kid, my first
Speaker 2: job was at movie theater and I remember that they
Speaker 2: were looking for people to work on like half a
Speaker 2: day on Christmas, and my mom was like apocalyptic. She
Speaker 2: was like, you are not working on Christmas. It's it's
Speaker 2: a special day. They can go get somebody else. And
Speaker 2: I was like, I'm I was like okay. But because
Speaker 2: then back then most things were closed of course Christmas Day.
Speaker 2: Of course you look today, nothing's closed, Like everything's open.
Speaker 2: And just this transition from like Christmas used to be
Speaker 2: this thing where we recognized the holiday and it was
Speaker 2: almost the exception to be open.
Speaker 1: Now, yeah, people were shocked if something was open on Christmas.
Speaker 1: I get the maybe first half of Thanksgiving because everybody
Speaker 1: needs to run to the store for that one or
Speaker 1: two things they forgot they thought they had. And to
Speaker 1: that point, there were many, many years, especially being here
Speaker 1: in Orlando, being part of the hospitality industry, the parking
Speaker 1: industry specifically, where it's like, okay, you're working Christmas, And
Speaker 1: for the longest time actually as an adult working in
Speaker 1: that industry, my wife and I just accepted it as
Speaker 1: part of you know, it is the way it is
Speaker 1: living here Orlando. Of course, living here, working where we do.
Speaker 1: I could have gone and got a different job somewhere
Speaker 1: that wasn't open on Christmas, but I didn't. Now it
Speaker 1: wasn't until much later, not very long ago. Actually that
Speaker 1: post CrossFit. To be honest with you, that I said,
Speaker 1: I'm not working Christmas Day any longer. And it wasn't
Speaker 1: so much because of or for me, or even for
Speaker 1: my wife, but it was more for other people that
Speaker 1: it who found it very important for us to be
Speaker 1: present on that day. Yeah, that makes sense, you know
Speaker 1: again going back to where gifts don't necessarily need to
Speaker 1: happen on major holidays, same thing. We can visit any time,
Speaker 1: but it's a little more special to people, sure, on
Speaker 1: those days. And if it means giving a little more
Speaker 1: of myself, then so be it. I'm a very selfish person,
Speaker 1: like a very very selfish person. But again, I do
Speaker 1: like making other people happiest me, so I want to
Speaker 1: make sure we do that now.
Speaker 3: Gen X, yes or no?
Speaker 1: You are to me a younger on the young side
Speaker 1: of Generation X, would you agree? Or I definitely fall
Speaker 1: into Gen X just based it's like a horoscope thing.
Speaker 1: You read your horoscope and you're like, well, that could
Speaker 1: you know, be for anyone, But it's entertaining gen X.
Speaker 1: I think many people have a lot of characteristics. You know,
Speaker 1: we don't trust the government or big business. You know,
Speaker 1: we're very focused on making sure that we're big impaths.
Speaker 1: You know, we're making sure that other people have what
Speaker 1: they need, that sort of thing. But again, that could
Speaker 1: be anyone of any age. Technically, it just seems to
Speaker 1: land a little bit more for us. Now there's a
Speaker 1: specific reason I brought that up. That's why I have
Speaker 1: written note gen X and again similarities between us. People
Speaker 1: find you to be a quiet person. I did as well.
Speaker 1: How long have you and Katie owned Mousetrap Fitness twenty
Speaker 1: twenty shout out to Lex Olsen coach Lex, thank you again.
Speaker 1: Without an introduction between you guys, this may not be
Speaker 1: happening right now. So we're grateful there and maybe we'll
Speaker 1: save that story for a little bit later. But in addition,
Speaker 1: like so that's twenty twenty two, we're halfway through twenty
Speaker 1: twenty six now, so over four years now. Initially in
Speaker 1: meeting you, it was more of kind of a passing thing.
Speaker 2: Though I wasn't coaching.
Speaker 1: I was I was still a member and hit or
Speaker 1: miss attending classes that.
Speaker 2: I think you would fill in from time to time.
Speaker 1: So in meeting you, you seem like a very quiet person. Now,
Speaker 1: I like to challenge myself in being able to have
Speaker 1: a conversation with people, and I wish I would remember
Speaker 1: our very first conversation because it had to be something
Speaker 1: very surface level.
Speaker 2: I imagine it was probably our wives that made us
Speaker 2: talk to each other or something. You know, like you
Speaker 2: get to a certain age and you're married, and like
Speaker 2: the wives start dictating like relationship building, and like well,
Speaker 2: I'm just like, like my wife will say, Hi, this
Speaker 2: is so and so they're they're the appropriate age and
Speaker 2: appropriate minds. She's vetted them right, right, right. She thinks
Speaker 2: this person might be yeah, you have their sealing approval,
Speaker 2: you may continue, right, And then so I'll be like, oh, okay,
Speaker 2: Katie said this is okay for this person to talk to.
Speaker 2: So my guess is that's probably how it may because
Speaker 2: I'm not. I'm not an outgoing person by nature. So
Speaker 2: I'm sure she's like Alan, this is Sam, and this
Speaker 2: is Cindy, and there about our age.
Speaker 1: For the rect of you guys, are I would say
Speaker 1: significantly younger, but thank you for that.
Speaker 3: Anything more than a year to me is significantly younger.
Speaker 1: No, And you know what, that's a good vetting process
Speaker 1: because I base a lot of things off vibe. But
Speaker 1: it seems cool, you know. Again, that is the extent
Speaker 1: of my analysis, you know. But in having conversations with you,
Speaker 1: I don't know at what point, And because even though
Speaker 1: I approach people, even though I talk a lot to
Speaker 1: the detriment of others, sometimes yeah, I am still guarded. Sure,
Speaker 1: and whatever information I you know, convey or share again
Speaker 1: gen x, you know, But like at some point it
Speaker 1: must have been and I really think it was some
Speaker 1: sort of pop culture conversation probably, you know. And one
Speaker 1: thing I absolutely remember talking to you about was the
Speaker 1: A Team. I'm talking about the original show from the eighties,
Speaker 1: the A Team, And then at some point we talked
Speaker 1: about Voltron. Now, if you're listening to this and you're like,
Speaker 1: how did I end up either with this as a
Speaker 1: YouTube recommendation or a recommendation for this podcast? Congratulations, you
Speaker 1: are of a certain age, okay, you know the A
Speaker 1: Team was early eighties Voltron was definitely early eighties. It
Speaker 1: was an animated show. There were two versions, and I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask him this question. Now, there were two versions.
Speaker 1: There was the lions and then there were the vehicles. Right,
Speaker 1: do you have a preference lions? Same? Same? Nice? Nice
Speaker 1: that makes you feel better? Man?
Speaker 2: Did you see the remake they put on Netflix?
Speaker 3: I saw that, I know of it.
Speaker 1: I didn't watch.
Speaker 2: You should watch?
Speaker 1: Do you recommend highly? Folks? You hear that Netflix Voltron
Speaker 1: and it's.
Speaker 2: A couple of years old now, but it was it
Speaker 2: was pretty good.
Speaker 3: I love to hear it because that way I don't
Speaker 3: have to wait a week.
Speaker 1: Remember, yeah, I could crank them all out in a
Speaker 1: weekend if I try hard enough. No. So at that
Speaker 1: point that actually, you know, for anybody to listen, that
Speaker 1: us getting to know each other, you know, and then
Speaker 1: from there we've had some pretty good conversation deep And
Speaker 1: I do want you to know I appreciate everyone because
Speaker 1: I would think that, you know, as large a community
Speaker 1: as Mousetrap Fitness has, you know, I know, sometimes we
Speaker 1: tend to click up a little bit, you know, Oh
Speaker 1: that's so and so spot or that's who so and
Speaker 1: so hangs out with you know, or oh, aren't they
Speaker 1: friends or aren't they dating?
Speaker 3: Or whatever the case may be.
Speaker 1: So, I know not everyone has had the privilege of
Speaker 1: the conversations that we have. Far beyond the A team
Speaker 1: and Voltron. You know, there have been some really like
Speaker 1: impactful conversations. You know, people may be wondering, like, who
Speaker 1: is this allan guy? Okay, he co owns mousetrap with
Speaker 1: his wife Katie, which is wonderful. It makes a big
Speaker 1: impact on me. You're not originally from Orlando.
Speaker 2: Right, No? No, I grew up in Saint Louis.
Speaker 1: Oh really, I don't think I realized that in Missouri.
Speaker 2: Huh, grew up in St. Louis.
Speaker 3: So you've seen the arch.
Speaker 2: I've seen the Arch. I've been up in the I
Speaker 2: was gonna ask, have you been to the top? Yeah.
Speaker 2: They put in a little egg and they it's like
Speaker 2: an egg shaped thing and they at least it was
Speaker 2: I don't even know, forty years ago, Lewis. So my
Speaker 2: parents were in the military, met in the military. We
Speaker 2: spent some a couple of my really early years in
Speaker 2: Germany and then settled in Saint Louis. My parents got
Speaker 2: a divorce pretty early on in our time at Saint Louis.
Speaker 2: So single mom, three kids did the thing until I
Speaker 2: was called to do something else.
Speaker 1: Okay, and how old were you when you were called
Speaker 1: to do something else?
Speaker 2: Seventeen years old. I got on a plane to West Point,
Speaker 2: New York, having been back except to visit.
Speaker 1: That's interesting, that's really interesting because I grew up not
Speaker 1: in Saint Louis. I grew up in It's called LaBelle
Speaker 1: Florida Guys La b e ll E Bell Home of
Speaker 1: the Fighting.
Speaker 2: Cowboys co Cowboys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it is two stop lights. And I always have
Speaker 1: to preface it by saying, you know, I am grateful
Speaker 1: and appreciative having been raised there. Yep, I do not.
Speaker 1: I don't go back to visit. I still have family
Speaker 1: and if they absolutely needed me, and I know you're
Speaker 1: listening and watching right now, just text me and send
Speaker 1: me a signal that says, hey, come visit, and I will. Okay,
Speaker 1: But it's just in my opinion. You know, that was
Speaker 1: a part of a chapter in my life, yep. And
Speaker 1: I have moved on from that chapter. So again, I
Speaker 1: don't know if you feel the same way about Saint.
Speaker 2: So there's no real reason to go back for me.
Speaker 2: The family kind of went our separate ways. Uh huh.
Speaker 2: My mom ended up, you know, passing away, and my
Speaker 2: brother he was in the Marine Corps, so he went
Speaker 2: out and did that thing. My sister was in the Navy.
Speaker 2: She went off and did that thing. The cousin that
Speaker 2: grew up with us, and she ended up going to
Speaker 2: West Point, going off into the Army. So everyone kind
Speaker 2: of just dispersed.
Speaker 1: And you mentioned west Point, New York. Yes, now, let
Speaker 1: me ask you this, what is in west Point, New.
Speaker 3: York that drew you there? Don't think you're gonna be slick?
Speaker 2: Got the United States Military Academy at west Point is
Speaker 2: at west Point.
Speaker 3: So that's where you went to school.
Speaker 2: That's where Yeah, that's where I went to school.
Speaker 1: That's amazing and that is beyond a flex. Okay, is
Speaker 1: it absolutely for someone who has only heard of west
Speaker 1: Point in pop culture or you know, is that like, oh, absolutely,
Speaker 1: this guy right here, you know how amazing a flex
Speaker 1: that is to be like, yeah, I went to west Point.
Speaker 1: But the fact that you don't use it as such
Speaker 1: is even more impressive to be because I would be
Speaker 1: wearing a shirt that said I went to west Point
Speaker 1: twenty four to seven I'd work out in it.
Speaker 3: I'd wear it to church.
Speaker 1: I don't even go to church, but I would wear
Speaker 1: it there just so people be like, well, he served
Speaker 1: at like the most amazing frigging military academy that there is.
Speaker 1: Sorry Navy, and sorry, I'm just saying it's pretty impressive.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: I never and that's again, very big of you, man,
Speaker 3: if you don't.
Speaker 2: I just think it was like the expectation for us
Speaker 2: as kids, like you're gonna go and you're gonna do
Speaker 2: well in school and be you're gonna likely you're going
Speaker 2: to go to the military. And that's why we had
Speaker 2: so many of us go to the military. So my
Speaker 2: brother ended up going to the Naval Academy.
Speaker 1: He was like a year in Annapolis.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, and he got so many you know, kudos
Speaker 2: and this, that and the other. Thing about it was like, well,
Speaker 2: I can do that.
Speaker 3: If he did it, you can do it, right.
Speaker 2: That was sort of the thing that was going on. So,
Speaker 2: but I don't know, it was always an expectation for
Speaker 2: us to do well, do well in school, and go
Speaker 2: if not go to one of the academies, go to
Speaker 2: RTC or something to do well.
Speaker 1: So well, let me ask you this. Do you know
Speaker 1: the acceptance rate for West Point?
Speaker 2: I couldn't even tell you.
Speaker 1: It's got to be it's got to be like very limited,
Speaker 1: very small, you know. No, So again that's amazing and
Speaker 1: again and a flex you know, whether you think so
Speaker 1: or not. Yeah, I'm telling you I'd wear I'd be
Speaker 1: gifting people. Hey, a guy who gave you this shirt
Speaker 1: went to West Point, you know, like the whole deal.
Speaker 1: Like absolutely, so kudos again.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: And not only are you an entrepreneur, right, not only
Speaker 1: are you co owner here at Mousetrap Fitness Home a
Speaker 1: crust mouse Rap, but you're all you also have another
Speaker 1: job I do you're Let me make sure I hit
Speaker 1: Google correctly. It has you as the chief operating officer.
Speaker 2: Right, that's correct. Yep. For rip it Sports, Yep, that's correct.
Speaker 1: Can you tell me a little bit of about rip
Speaker 1: it So, by the way, is not sponsoring this podcast,
Speaker 1: but I'm just throwing it out there.
Speaker 2: Rip it is a sporting goods company that sells products
Speaker 2: for specifically female athletes and female athletes only. So we
Speaker 2: are in softball, volleyball, tested some things in soccer, but
Speaker 2: primarily softball volleyball, and we own a couple of brands.
Speaker 2: We own the tax A car volleyball brand, the Ringer
Speaker 2: softball cleat brand, and then you have the RiPP It brand.
Speaker 2: And yeah, where you can find us at Dick Sporting Goods.
Speaker 1: And don't be afraid to throw commercial out there. It
Speaker 1: didn't bother me one bit. Yeah, he if you sell
Speaker 1: one set of cleats, I'm taking that as a win.
Speaker 3: No, that's amazing.
Speaker 1: And again from Sting, ended up ended up at West
Speaker 1: Point right. You went to school there.
Speaker 2: Spent some time in the army, so I did five
Speaker 2: minutes five years active duty, did a couple of years
Speaker 2: in the reserves. So I ended up being activated from
Speaker 2: the reserves and deploying two Iraq for a year. Technically,
Speaker 2: diployment was a little bit longer than the year because
Speaker 2: they got to train you up and do all that
Speaker 2: kind of stuff. So overall eight years service and yeah,
Speaker 2: in the military.
Speaker 1: Now I'm just smiling because I okay, so veteran, let's
Speaker 1: throw that on there too. I didn't even think about it.
Speaker 1: You went to the military academy, obviously served, you were deployed,
Speaker 1: so you're a veteran again.
Speaker 3: Thank you for your service, absolutely.
Speaker 1: And you did all of these things, then you end
Speaker 1: up in Orlando.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is.
Speaker 1: Again, this is one of those things.
Speaker 3: This is one of those things.
Speaker 1: So this is when you're you're hearing a story and
Speaker 1: then there was a jump and then here we are. Oh.
Speaker 2: After I got out of the military, I kind of
Speaker 2: bounced around.
Speaker 1: I didn't quite know work wise, job kind of thing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I didn't quite know what to do with myself.
Speaker 2: So I just made some random goal about making as
Speaker 2: much money as I could. It felt like the right
Speaker 2: thing to do at the time. I said, well, I'll
Speaker 2: just try and make six figures as quickly as I can.
Speaker 2: So that meant get a special skill and then change
Speaker 2: companies every eighteen months or two years.
Speaker 1: So you needed your thought process was developed one specific
Speaker 1: special skill and then utilize that to allow you to
Speaker 1: jump around to different business or like to work for
Speaker 1: a different companies. Right.
Speaker 2: I think that was a prevailing sort of career strategy
Speaker 2: at the time, like get really good at one thing
Speaker 2: and then levers at one thing from company to company.
Speaker 1: And so people have a general idea about what year,
Speaker 1: what timeframe.
Speaker 2: Oh, this is two thousand and five.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, so early in the two thousands yeah,
Speaker 1: I consider that, earl.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So yeah, so I ended up had I had
Speaker 2: a sort of a mindset. I think the military helped
Speaker 2: me do this for operation that led me to a
Speaker 2: manager job. They were offering training on the six sigma
Speaker 2: process improvement stuff, and I took a couple of because
Speaker 2: I worked a couple of projects I did pretty well,
Speaker 2: they said, hey, you should do this full time. I
Speaker 2: was like, how much does it pay? They said eighty
Speaker 2: eighty thousand or ninety thousand. I was like, that's closer
Speaker 2: to six figures.
Speaker 1: So I.
Speaker 2: Remember, I ended up buying a six Sigma for Dummies
Speaker 2: book and my two little projects that I've worked, and
Speaker 2: flew up to corporate office in Seattle for an interview
Speaker 2: and nailed it. And it happened to be interviewing with
Speaker 2: a naval academy.
Speaker 1: No way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's all you need, so you need.
Speaker 2: To do so they said, yeah, you're good. So now
Speaker 2: I just spent the bulk of my career was centered
Speaker 2: around improving processes, finding waste, eliminating or sorry, driving efficiency,
Speaker 2: that type of thing.
Speaker 3: So that so and again you'll have to forgive me.
Speaker 1: Okay, so six sigma, can you tell us what is
Speaker 1: six sigma.
Speaker 3: So what is six sigma?
Speaker 2: Yeah, so basically it's a level of quality that is
Speaker 2: very difficult to get to, but you're trying to achieve, right,
Speaker 2: So the technical definitions three point one four approximately three
Speaker 2: point one four defects per million opportunity. So if there's
Speaker 2: a if you have a million opportunities to make a thing,
Speaker 2: or there's a million parts to making something, you're only
Speaker 2: allowed to have three point one for defects per million opportunities,
Speaker 2: million opportunities. It is very expensive to get to that
Speaker 2: level of quality, so you typically only see it in
Speaker 2: like low corporate medical devices or whatever. But it's just
Speaker 2: a methodology that provides a framework on how to achieve
Speaker 2: that level quality.
Speaker 1: Okay, and the company that you were hired into without
Speaker 1: naming the company itself, what what did they do? What
Speaker 1: did they manufacture?
Speaker 2: Yeah? They were they were a manufacturing company. Was a
Speaker 2: company called at the time, a company called pack are
Speaker 2: They ordered They owned a company called Peter Built, which
Speaker 2: makes eighteen years Excuse me, I didn't know anything about
Speaker 2: making eighteen wheelers, but they were just looking for someone
Speaker 2: who could, you know, manage a team, which I could
Speaker 2: certainly do. So, Yeah, so I just got really smart
Speaker 2: and six sigma and process improvement and a bunch of tools.
Speaker 1: Had you ever admitted prior to this conversation that you
Speaker 1: bought a book on it, just studied the book and
Speaker 1: then just went for the interview.
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm sure I've told somebody we need.
Speaker 1: To know that, right, but it just let I mean,
Speaker 1: opportunities out there if you're willing to make it for yourself. Absolutely. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that is one like exactly what you just described.
Speaker 2: I can remember thinking I'm not qualified for this job.
Speaker 2: But again, my focus was singular on you know, how
Speaker 2: do I get to that six figure number, because at
Speaker 2: the time it was like this magical you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, a trillion? Right, Yeah, I understand that too. I
Speaker 1: absolutely understand that too. So you worked for them, you
Speaker 1: stayed there or did you do what you'd had in mind,
Speaker 1: which was jumping from one opportunity to another every couple
Speaker 1: few years.
Speaker 2: I ended up working for them for about in that
Speaker 2: role for eighteen months or so, and then I went
Speaker 2: to a different company in a different state, similar role,
Speaker 2: but just higher pay. Company called from Micah Countertop. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1: I didn't realize that was an actual brand yeah. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: well like Kleenex, right, yeah, yeah, I had no idea,
Speaker 1: and then I just thought it was the you know
Speaker 1: that stuff that.
Speaker 2: Count of top stuff now and it's the actual company.
Speaker 1: I was father in laws freaking out as he's listening
Speaker 1: to this because he is like in construction, so he's
Speaker 1: probably rolling his eyes right now.
Speaker 3: Sorry, Phil, all right.
Speaker 2: I was only I was only there for a few
Speaker 2: months because I was a part of a reserve unit
Speaker 2: that got activated. So now I'm going to Iraq, which
Speaker 2: was you know, interesting in the whole story in itself.
Speaker 2: And yeah, yeah, but so while I'm deployed.
Speaker 1: Sorry, man, I just think it's fascinating. Yeah, so then
Speaker 1: I had to go to war. I'll be back.
Speaker 3: It's amazing.
Speaker 1: Meanwhile, I'm just twiddling my thumbs hanging out, you know
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff. But it's impressive because I know
Speaker 1: it helps develop who you are as a person. Sure,
Speaker 1: so you had you got deployed.
Speaker 2: Got deployed, and I make it. I guess I'm pretty
Speaker 2: blase about it. It was a while ago at the time. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I can remember sitting on a cot in Kuwait right
Speaker 2: before we're supposed to, you know, cross the border on
Speaker 2: the helicopters, and I'm like, you know, you know, let's go,
Speaker 2: no go. This is really when you yeah, when you
Speaker 2: cross the border, it's gonna be people shooting at you.
Speaker 2: And you know, so it got it got real, real,
Speaker 2: real real. But you know, we you know, got out
Speaker 2: of helicopters, We landed in and we did our job.
Speaker 2: Everyone went over that, came back and came home. So
Speaker 2: by all counts, it was a successful deployment. But so
Speaker 2: while I'm deployed, you know, came up on that time,
Speaker 2: what do I want to do next with my career?
Speaker 2: You start seeing all these opportunities while you're over there, contractors,
Speaker 2: d O D, government jobs, et cetera. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: you know, I could take this six sigma thing and
Speaker 2: leverage it with the Department Defense potentially started looking at jobs,
Speaker 2: and it turns out that the Pentagon was looking for
Speaker 2: a six sigma certified people to come in and do
Speaker 2: the same type of work. You know, I don't know
Speaker 2: if people know this Department of Defense, among other things,
Speaker 2: it's a it's a business. So they buy, they sell,
Speaker 2: they move, equipment, all the things. So ended up going
Speaker 2: and working for the Department Defense for a while doing
Speaker 2: a six sigma thing. And I finally achieved my figures
Speaker 2: at twenty eight eight at twenty eight, So then that's
Speaker 2: to be applauded.
Speaker 1: That's great because this is fascinating to me, Like what
Speaker 1: keeps pushing you? I know you had the goal of
Speaker 1: six figures? But was that like a driving force the
Speaker 1: entire time up to that point? Up till twenty eight.
Speaker 2: Well, we had been I grew up pretty you know
Speaker 2: poor in some cases. I knew, like we shopped at
Speaker 2: Payless and all that stuff, and we didn't have Nikes.
Speaker 2: We had psych Psyche's or they.
Speaker 1: Had the most amazing pair of black plastic shoes with
Speaker 1: a little silver metal tip. I got it Payless, Okay, amazing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I'm right there with you man and so sch shoes, yes.
Speaker 2: And I just I didn't want to be in that,
Speaker 2: you know position again, you know what I mean. So
Speaker 2: it was just like, how do I, you know, make
Speaker 2: as much money as I can? You know, I did
Speaker 2: not understand how I needed to. I didn't know how
Speaker 2: to keep that money.
Speaker 1: But nobody ever talked about keeping it, right, that was
Speaker 1: the whole goal up to that point.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, So looking back on it, like that was
Speaker 2: I think the first I have a little fallacy. I
Speaker 2: don't know if you've ever heard that arrival fallacy. It's
Speaker 2: this idea that once you you set a goal, you
Speaker 2: achieved the goal, but you're not happy. You suddenly looking
Speaker 2: around going okay, like, now what do I do?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well, it's funny that you say that, because I
Speaker 1: call that now what?
Speaker 3: Now what?
Speaker 1: Okay, you made it, so now what? And people, I
Speaker 1: think need to plan for that moment. Yes, you know,
Speaker 1: okay what happens when you get there? A lot of
Speaker 1: people are like, well, onto the next thing, enjoy the moment,
Speaker 1: celebrate it, then move on to the next thing. Yourself
Speaker 1: a time frame it, don't don't give yourself a ten
Speaker 1: year time frame to enjoy it.
Speaker 2: I have a slightly different theory.
Speaker 1: Let me hear it.
Speaker 2: You have to begin to enjoy the process.
Speaker 1: Okay. I like that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the joy part of it up to that.
Speaker 2: The joy is in the work, the j always in
Speaker 2: the doing, not the achieving, because you may may not
Speaker 2: ever achieve the thing.
Speaker 1: I like that.
Speaker 2: I like that, and that's what I love about CrossFit.
Speaker 2: It's like it doesn't really matter where I'm at on
Speaker 2: the leader board, if I make some of my quarter
Speaker 2: finals or whatever, I get joy out of just the
Speaker 2: doing the running. Like I might set a goal, but
Speaker 2: it's not like you know, I think I talked about
Speaker 2: this on one of our podcast episodes about missing a goal.
Speaker 2: It's more about I got up, I said I was
Speaker 2: going to do the thing. I did the thing, and
Speaker 2: I enjoyed doing the thing regardless of what happens though,
Speaker 2: as far as the outcome goes well.
Speaker 1: And I apologize for not mentioning this sooner. Yes, mention
Speaker 1: your podcast.
Speaker 2: Oh, my wife and I have a podcast called Cheese
Speaker 2: Curds and Coffee.
Speaker 3: Cheese Kurts and Coffee.
Speaker 1: Guys, go subscribe right now, YouTube and wherever your audio
Speaker 1: podcasts are available, all right, make sure it happens. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And to me, that's also fascinating because and I'll jump
Speaker 1: back into the other part too, but it's fascinating because
Speaker 1: most people don't realize or haven't had a very long,
Speaker 1: in depth conversation with you, Yeah, so that they may
Speaker 1: be surprised when you are willing to talk so much
Speaker 1: and so frequently. Let me just ask you this and
Speaker 1: then we'll move on on this specific thing. Is is
Speaker 1: it that are you waiting for people to approach you,
Speaker 1: to initiate a conversation, or do you just not talk
Speaker 1: to people?
Speaker 3: And that's a fair question, I think.
Speaker 2: So when I'm in the when I'm in the gym,
Speaker 2: I'm usually doing something.
Speaker 1: And for the record, if you're not watching right now,
Speaker 1: Alan Thompson is jacked, Okay, let me just say that too.
Speaker 1: You know what, bro, I wouldn't even wear the West
Speaker 1: Point shirt because I'd be walking around with no shirt
Speaker 1: on all the time. Like I'd be going to the
Speaker 1: grocery store. I say, you need a shirt one?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, I.
Speaker 1: Get it, and people are like, I'm not gonna go
Speaker 1: over there.
Speaker 3: He's in the middle of a set.
Speaker 1: He's doing this thing.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: I'm just that guy who's like, what whatever.
Speaker 2: I'm listening to an audiobook more I trying to solve
Speaker 2: a question that I have in my mind, you know,
Speaker 2: between sets. So it's like my workout time is like
Speaker 2: working out and I'm swimming up the river stream trying
Speaker 2: to figure something out. So I try to It's not
Speaker 2: that I don't approach people, It's just that I'm consumed selfishly,
Speaker 2: yeah about what you know, things like that, going.
Speaker 1: And you're allowed, you know it, it's your time, right,
Speaker 1: and going back into enjoying the process. You know, we
Speaker 1: have both known a lot of people who have taken
Speaker 1: up running, maybe as an accessory to CrossFit overall and
Speaker 1: getting a CrossFit or to run. You know how difficult
Speaker 1: challenging that can be, right course of course, of course,
Speaker 1: But every once in a while it'll go in waves
Speaker 1: and you'll see people like I'm gonna do this half marathon,
Speaker 1: or I'm going to sign up for this marathon or
Speaker 1: Dopey Challenge and all this kind of stuff. And I
Speaker 1: think people, again, they just want to have other people
Speaker 1: suffering together in a positive way. I'm gonna sign up too,
Speaker 1: so they'll continue to do that. But I like to
Speaker 1: let folks know, hey, enjoy everything up to the race itself.
Speaker 1: But the race is the celebration for all the hard
Speaker 1: work that you put in, so enjoy it along the way,
Speaker 1: the good days, the bad days, the days you're like
Speaker 1: I'm never doing that again, or the days that you
Speaker 1: just ran your peace are. I think it's very important
Speaker 1: to just appreciate and value that before you get to
Speaker 1: your finish line.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Now, you mentioned just a bit ago that you listen
Speaker 1: to audio books.
Speaker 2: I do obsessively.
Speaker 1: And how many audiobooks would you say you've listened to?
Speaker 2: I think my I think my audio library is up
Speaker 2: to two hundred.
Speaker 1: That's amazing, that's amazing.
Speaker 3: I'm not laughing at you because it's just amazing.
Speaker 1: Now, two hundred and eighty.
Speaker 3: Again, I put that on the back of the shirt.
Speaker 3: There's gonna be all. It's gonna be like NASCAR. When
Speaker 3: you're done, you're gonna have the West.
Speaker 1: Point thing on the front. Two hundred eighty audio books
Speaker 1: on the back. Just all kinds of deployment. But okay,
Speaker 1: so do you recall the very first one that you
Speaker 1: listened to?
Speaker 2: Sure? So, to make a long story short, after the Pentagon,
Speaker 2: after I left the Pentagon, started a business that lasted
Speaker 2: twelve minutes, maybe a little bit longer than twelve minutes.
Speaker 3: Fift Again, I'm not I'm not laughing at the time.
Speaker 1: It's because I know how far you've come and so
Speaker 1: in that in that time, I know it had to
Speaker 1: be very difficult for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was a it was a weird story if
Speaker 2: you had time for it. So I am in and
Speaker 2: at a theater for my job. So I'm back and
Speaker 2: forth to Iraq. I probably took the flight from DC
Speaker 2: to Kuwait half a dozen times, and I'm just kind
Speaker 2: of getting burned out about it. And I remember I
Speaker 2: was out there by myself. I was out of the
Speaker 2: military specifically, but I was. I was doing this. I
Speaker 2: was a GS civilian for the d D, so I
Speaker 2: traveled a lot by myself. And so I'm in Kuwait
Speaker 2: or I'm in Iraq, I'm working on a project. I'm
Speaker 2: counting containers and doing all this other stuff. And a
Speaker 2: rocket attack starts and normally alarms go off, and there's
Speaker 2: this anti machine that starts firing to shoot down the
Speaker 2: rockets coming into the camp. And the protocol is you
Speaker 2: supposed to get up, grab your gear, head to a bunker,
Speaker 2: right because there are live rounds coming into the camp
Speaker 2: to try and kill you. And I, for whatever reason,
Speaker 2: I decided not to get out of bed. And I
Speaker 2: was just like, I'm not getting up, even though every
Speaker 2: day alarms going off, this, that, and the other thing.
Speaker 1: Now, let me try to set the scene because again,
Speaker 1: I hear fireworks in the backyard yep. So you're hearing
Speaker 1: all this stuff happening around you, yep, and you're just
Speaker 1: laying there.
Speaker 2: I'm just laying there. I think, I like.
Speaker 1: Hands behind your head, kind of laying on the pillow
Speaker 1: kind of thing. You know.
Speaker 2: I was in bed and I was thinking to myself,
Speaker 2: doesn't matter if I get up or not.
Speaker 1: Okay, why did it not matter to you at that moment?
Speaker 2: I don't know. It's a good question, Like I just
Speaker 2: I didn't care. You get so accustomed to like this
Speaker 2: wasn't like a one off thing, like until we're coming
Speaker 2: into the camp. It was a pretty irregular occurrence, so
Speaker 2: you're desensitized to this. In retrospect, I started thinking about,
Speaker 2: like why thinking it up? Out of that out of
Speaker 2: that bed, and you know, you start thinking about you know,
Speaker 2: you're seventeen years old, you're at West Point, you're on
Speaker 2: a run, and one of the first things they teach
Speaker 2: it was how to sing cadence when you're out on
Speaker 2: a run. So you guys sing together and you start
Speaker 2: singing about like, you know, death and your death, all
Speaker 2: to prepare you for a life that you're about to
Speaker 2: go into where people dying is it's part of the business.
Speaker 2: It's sad, it's terrible, but it happens, right.
Speaker 1: So letting you know that it's more than just a possibility, correct, right, that.
Speaker 3: It's a reality.
Speaker 2: So anyway, so I get up. The next day, three
Speaker 2: people were killed during the artillery, one of them getting
Speaker 2: out of the shower, and I thought to myself, like,
Speaker 2: why didn't I get about it? Is like that could
Speaker 2: have been me. Why didn't I go and go to
Speaker 2: a bunker? I was like, am I so desensitized to
Speaker 2: this stuff now that it doesn't even motivate me to
Speaker 2: get out of bed? And the answer was yes, obviously.
Speaker 2: About two weeks later I put my put in my
Speaker 2: two week notice and decided I was going to start
Speaker 2: this business that I had read one book called Emaith revisited.
Speaker 2: It wasn't audible. It's like old school, burn through all
Speaker 2: my savings running this business.
Speaker 1: And so what was the business itself?
Speaker 2: So it was I think Uber, maybe Uber was just
Speaker 2: starting or something like that. But what the idea was
Speaker 2: to provide personal trainers to businesses. So basically we would
Speaker 2: vet personal trainers and big wigs or rich people would
Speaker 2: come into town, stay at a hotel. They want a
Speaker 2: personal trainer, yoga instructor or whatever whatever. There was also
Speaker 2: office buildings that wanted to offer a service were like, hey,
Speaker 2: you work in our office building, we can have you.
Speaker 2: We can have a personal trainer come and do personal
Speaker 2: training with you. So our job was to get the trainers,
Speaker 2: manage the trainers, and then deploy them to the different opportunities.
Speaker 2: So that was the that was the business idea. So
Speaker 2: most of that was you know, me doing me doing
Speaker 2: the training, and at the time, my partner, my girlfriend
Speaker 2: at the time, she would do some of the training.
Speaker 2: But then we couldn't get to all of it. So
Speaker 2: then we had to bring on some training and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. But you know, we hired too
Speaker 2: fast and too much money and empty.
Speaker 1: The expansion, right, yeah, the expansion. So okay, you how
Speaker 1: old were you at this time? Okay, that's a young man.
Speaker 1: I mean you're still a young man now, but you
Speaker 1: know that's a young man right there. All right, So
Speaker 1: twenty nine. At what point? What happens from twenty nine
Speaker 1: to two thousand and twenty two? I believe April, did
Speaker 1: I say that right? Twenty twenty two? Because I find
Speaker 1: just based on you know, the limited time we've interacted
Speaker 1: over the past four years, like you seem very very
Speaker 1: disciplined to me, very structured and it always fascinates me.
Speaker 1: And more than that, I'm always impressed by it because
Speaker 1: I am the complete opposite.
Speaker 3: Of that, you know, And so I've fooled you. I'll
Speaker 3: take it. You're doing a great job.
Speaker 1: Yeah, because again just based off you know, our conversations
Speaker 1: or you know, I see your social media posts and
Speaker 1: they're always impressive. You know, I'm always able to take
Speaker 1: a nugget of information, and so it's just like seeing
Speaker 1: someone having similar beliefs. I think, you know, similar backgrounds,
Speaker 1: both being married, and so I see that, Hey, you know,
Speaker 1: good grades, you know, West Point Military, served big time jobs,
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. Impressive, you know, and so
Speaker 1: to see something not work out for you, I'm always like, well,
Speaker 1: how did that happen? Now you're mentioning the too big,
Speaker 1: too soon kind of thing, you know, with the business
Speaker 1: that you had, so you know, like where do you
Speaker 1: go after that?
Speaker 2: So you can pick any place you want to move?
Speaker 2: Ended up moving down here to Orlando, Okay. Eventually got
Speaker 2: a job at rip It because I said to myself,
Speaker 2: I want to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: I think you knew that it was still that hunger
Speaker 1: was still in there.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because I think I had gotten burned out of
Speaker 2: the government and the DoD and just working.
Speaker 1: I mean, you can call that a major corporation, right,
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: And and I'd spent some time in bigger companies and
Speaker 2: it just became clear to me that that was not
Speaker 2: the right place for me to be successful. So I
Speaker 2: ended up looking for people that I could learn from,
Speaker 2: to entrepreneurs. And so when I was looking for jobs,
Speaker 2: I was just looking to leverage my six sigma training
Speaker 2: in a in a you know, smaller company. And that
Speaker 2: meant the you know, six figure dream kind of went
Speaker 2: away because again I had achieved that goal and quote,
Speaker 2: I wasn't happy, right, So I ended up here in Orlando.
Speaker 2: I started with rip it, and I met the Postings,
Speaker 2: the two brothers who started the company, and just leaned
Speaker 2: in to try and understand, like how were they so
Speaker 2: successful at running a small business? And they know this,
Speaker 2: But I tried to, you know, steal every idea.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: The plan was to steal every idea I could and
Speaker 2: then go do my own thing. And I was like
Speaker 2: teen years ago.
Speaker 1: And so at what point and I am piggybacking off
Speaker 1: a social media posts that you had recently? I understand
Speaker 1: that one of the books audio books that you listened
Speaker 1: to was let me make sure I'm reading this right,
Speaker 1: the Seven Habits of Highly Affected People. Yes, And how
Speaker 1: did that impact you?
Speaker 2: Well? So, just to give you some context when that
Speaker 2: book was sort of introduced to me, right, it's all
Speaker 2: about I think impact is about timing and your willingness
Speaker 2: or your ability to absorb information. So I had hit
Speaker 2: my proverbial rock bottom. So I think you know you
Speaker 2: you you gave me the compliment that I was very
Speaker 2: I'm very disciplined and successful. But that's really only true
Speaker 2: in like one aspect of my life right at the time. Okay,
Speaker 2: so I did well and structured environments like the military,
Speaker 2: like the military, like school, I could, you know, you
Speaker 2: tell me what I'm being assessed against? And I can,
Speaker 2: I can, I can reach that, I can, I can
Speaker 2: get evaluations those sorts of things. Looking back on my life,
Speaker 2: anytime I was outside of a structured system, I was
Speaker 2: all over the place, personal relationships, running a business. I
Speaker 2: didn't have a structure, and I was terrible in that space.
Speaker 1: And do you remember having that realization.
Speaker 2: I remember having that realization later in life, but not
Speaker 2: at that moment, not then when I was in it,
Speaker 2: I was just in it. I'm just fighting fires and
Speaker 2: paying bills and swimming upstream, right, you know, you know,
Speaker 2: doing the thing.
Speaker 1: And for anybody listening or watching, you know, that's what
Speaker 1: if you're in it.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, Because people see people and they see them successful.
Speaker 3: They only know the the post.
Speaker 1: Finish line, right, Yeah.
Speaker 3: They don't see everything they had to deal with prior
Speaker 3: to that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So, the the girlfriend that we started the business
Speaker 2: in DC with, we ended up getting married and things
Speaker 2: were just not going well, and eventually we got divorced.
Speaker 2: She was a alcoholic and she's doing really well now,
Speaker 2: which I'm happy for her, but just it was just
Speaker 2: a tough time for us. And so in the process
Speaker 2: of that divorce ended up, you know, we had to
Speaker 2: leave the place we were living. She moved out of state.
Speaker 2: I ended up having to move to a close to
Speaker 2: the job because I didn't have a car. We were
Speaker 2: a one car family. She took the car. I was broke.
Speaker 2: We were broke. We were we were month to month,
Speaker 2: paycheck to paycheck, and then like this one disruption of
Speaker 2: like moving and then do you have her some last month? No,
Speaker 2: the last month of course, So I ended up having
Speaker 2: a rent a room, like I said, pretty close to
Speaker 2: the job, so I could, you know, walk to and
Speaker 2: from work, and then bought a bike, like a bike
Speaker 2: to and from work.
Speaker 3: You say bike, you mean bicycle?
Speaker 2: I mean bike. You were pedaling doing the whole thing. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely.
Speaker 2: And so I'm going through all this and I have
Speaker 2: a job that's pretty good. I'm not making six figures.
Speaker 2: I think I'm making I don't know, fifty or sixty
Speaker 2: thousand dollars small company, right, Yeah. But these two brothers
Speaker 2: that hired me, like they seem like they had it
Speaker 2: all together, not just from the fact they were running
Speaker 2: a business, but their family life seemed successful. And at
Speaker 2: one point I just asked them. I was like, like,
Speaker 2: what do you like, how do you do this? And
Speaker 2: they looked at me, like.
Speaker 1: Do what before you continue? Do you you remember asking
Speaker 1: them that question?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I remember walking into Jason saying like, like, how
Speaker 2: are you guys so successful?
Speaker 1: No, the reason I asked that is because imagine if
Speaker 1: you hadn't yeah, you know what I mean? And that,
Speaker 1: to me, it's like the mind blown emoji, you know
Speaker 1: what I mean. Imagine if you had not done that well,
Speaker 1: but you were bold you may not think of yourself
Speaker 1: that way, but you took the chance.
Speaker 3: I'm going to ask, because they could have laughed you.
Speaker 2: Off, right, they could have.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it should have been like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: It work? It worked, Yeah, they want those type of guys.
Speaker 2: But it was like, honestly, I was at my wits end, man,
Speaker 2: Like again I did I had done the assessment right,
Speaker 2: I was like, apparently I'm smart, I like I work hard,
Speaker 2: but those things did not yield like they yielded this
Speaker 2: fair enough, this situation.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we're looking at the math quay.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so the math a math right. So I'm like,
Speaker 2: something's not right here. So I decided to say, hey,
Speaker 2: you guys seem to have figured out what are you doing?
Speaker 2: And that's when Jason recommended, Hey, you need to read
Speaker 2: this book. Here's audible, here's this app. I don't this
Speaker 2: app listened to this book. So I had plenty of
Speaker 2: time when I was walking my ass to Yeah, I
Speaker 2: was walking to work. I was I was walking to
Speaker 2: work to start listening to books. And that was the
Speaker 2: first book. And like I said, it's timing, it's you know.
Speaker 2: I was in a position where I was able to
Speaker 2: hear the.
Speaker 1: Message, right, you had to be open open to.
Speaker 2: The receiving the message. And like, I devoured that book, man,
Speaker 2: I think I knocked it out in like one or
Speaker 2: two days.
Speaker 3: That's amazing, it's amazing.
Speaker 1: I love to hear that.
Speaker 3: I love to hear that.
Speaker 2: And then it was like one of the other cool
Speaker 2: things was Matthew and Jason I would eat lunch together
Speaker 2: and so I'd be listening to these books in this
Speaker 2: book or in other books, and I'd come back and
Speaker 2: be able to talk to them about it, like, hey,
Speaker 2: I think you know this chapter was talking about X
Speaker 2: y Z, how do you guys do that? What do
Speaker 2: you guys think about that? And then today so they
Speaker 2: would give me feedback or how they apply it and
Speaker 2: that sort of thing. So it wasn't just listen to
Speaker 2: the book and you know that's it. It was listen
Speaker 2: to it, talk about it, simplify it, apply it, and
Speaker 2: see if it yielded a better outcome for me.
Speaker 1: That's again just the fact that you were willing to
Speaker 1: you know, during your quote lowest time. Yeah, yeah, and
Speaker 1: you found time to improve yourself, whether you realized that
Speaker 1: at the time or not that that's what you were doing.
Speaker 3: I like to think you were.
Speaker 1: I mean, you tell me, were you Just like, well,
Speaker 1: let me listen to this and see what I if
Speaker 1: I get anything from it.
Speaker 2: I think the I think the thing that made sense
Speaker 2: to me at the time was I spent all those
Speaker 2: years working, you know, doing six sigma and one of
Speaker 2: the one of the things they talk about, we talk
Speaker 2: about quite a bit in the space, is about identifying
Speaker 2: root causes as to why things happen. Right, So I
Speaker 2: just like try to apply that to my life as
Speaker 2: opposed to, like something happening in a business, Why is
Speaker 2: this happening? Why is this happening? Why is this happening?
Speaker 1: Right?
Speaker 2: Trying to identify the root cause, and then once you
Speaker 2: identify that, you start putting things in place.
Speaker 1: To let me ask you this based on that. So
Speaker 1: when you say why is this happening? Why is this happening?
Speaker 1: I am familiar with the seven wise, which is just
Speaker 1: keep asking why, keep asking why do you get to
Speaker 1: the actual reason? Is that similar or is Yeah?
Speaker 2: I mean in my experience we call it five wives,
Speaker 2: but yeah, it's the same, it's the same idea.
Speaker 1: Now here's the thing I said seven, He said five,
Speaker 1: It's probably actually five because I must have seen it
Speaker 1: at one point.
Speaker 3: It's actually has studied this. Let's make it five.
Speaker 2: It's enough wise to get you to something.
Speaker 3: There, or maybe I just need to ask seven. Five
Speaker 3: isn't going to.
Speaker 1: Do it for me?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an enough you asked enough time to get
Speaker 2: to a place where you can take action on the answer.
Speaker 2: That's the that's the Crux store.
Speaker 1: And I love that because you recently posted that knowing
Speaker 1: was not the problem. Right, And if I may, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna read the quote to you. Okay, most of us
Speaker 1: already know that we need to eat better, exercise more,
Speaker 1: communicate more with our loved ones, but we failed to
Speaker 1: take action. Yes, why is that so?
Speaker 2: There was this marketing study that came out probably ten
Speaker 2: years ago that talks about this idea that ninety five
Speaker 2: percent actions that we take from us from a consumer
Speaker 2: standpoint are subconscious. When I even realizing that we're doing
Speaker 2: and only five percent of what we do is or
Speaker 2: what we buy, how we buy is conscious, I think
Speaker 2: widly it's been adopted and I like to believe that
Speaker 2: that translates to our lives in general. That ninety five
Speaker 2: percent of what we do is subconscious, five percent of
Speaker 2: what we do is conscious and what gets interesting is
Speaker 2: a subconscious party. Right. Where do those stories come from?
Speaker 2: Why do we believe the things that we believe? What
Speaker 2: is driving our subconscious? Right? If you take a step
Speaker 2: back and think about this idea that thoughts become beliefs,
Speaker 2: beliefs become actions. We are surrounded inundated every day with
Speaker 2: messages that tell us to buy more things, eat more food.
Speaker 2: We did a presentation to some students over at Valencia
Speaker 2: and try to add up all the days in which
Speaker 2: you're supposed to go celebrate with food.
Speaker 1: Right, guys, For those of you who don't know, Valentia
Speaker 1: is a college here in Orlando area.
Speaker 2: So we're supposed to celebrate on Fridays, we're supposed to
Speaker 2: sell if you're a football fan, you're supposed to eat
Speaker 2: chicken wings and beer on Sundays. Of course, if it's
Speaker 2: your birthday, it's my birthday day, right, supposed to celebrate
Speaker 2: with food.
Speaker 1: He admitted it, guys, I was gonna bring it up.
Speaker 2: Guys, he's doing.
Speaker 3: Hit this podcast as a favor for me on his birthday.
Speaker 1: So thank you very much.
Speaker 2: By the way, some people celebrate for a week, Some
Speaker 2: people celebrate their birthday.
Speaker 1: Month, month, Yeah, yeah, I seen it right.
Speaker 2: All the things maybe added up all the days, and
Speaker 2: like I don't have a ton of friends or a
Speaker 2: ton of family, but all those people are supposed to
Speaker 2: support those people on the days. It's really hard to
Speaker 2: hit your caloric intake number when you're spending all this
Speaker 2: time celebrating as chatbt add up all these days for
Speaker 2: somebody like me, one hundred and fifty days out of
Speaker 2: three hundred and sixty five days you're supposed to celebrate
Speaker 2: with food. That's before you even count donut.
Speaker 3: Day when they bring it to the office.
Speaker 2: National Taco yeah, National Taco Day, Tuesday, Margarite today. So again,
Speaker 2: so these messages feed our subconscious and then we have
Speaker 2: this conflict where I say I want five percent. My
Speaker 2: five percent brain, a conscious brain says I want this thing,
Speaker 2: but my subconscious brain, the ninety five percent, says it's
Speaker 2: it's time to celebrate. And I think that's why we
Speaker 2: have to struggle. That's why I had a struggle. I
Speaker 2: had to deal with the stories that were in my
Speaker 2: subconscious I had to bring those to light and understand
Speaker 2: what those stories were, because though that ninety five percent
Speaker 2: was overpowering the five percent, and I just didn't understand
Speaker 2: what was happening to me at the time.
Speaker 3: Can you reduce that ninety.
Speaker 2: I think you can change that. I think you can
Speaker 2: change the stories. I'll give it an analogy. When you
Speaker 2: are learning how to drive the car. You remember when
Speaker 2: you first started learning how to.
Speaker 1: Drive, Okay, thanks to my sister.
Speaker 2: It took all of your attention right to figure out
Speaker 2: what the right pressure was to put onto the gas pedal,
Speaker 2: to put figure out what the right pressure was to
Speaker 2: slow down and break the car rather than drik it
Speaker 2: to a stop. Entering the highway was a nerve wracking experience, right,
Speaker 2: all those things. But now when you drive, if it's subconscious,
Speaker 2: you're not.
Speaker 1: Even thinking about it, almost to a detriment.
Speaker 2: Well, but you get there safely most of the time.
Speaker 2: So much so, so much so that you can take
Speaker 2: your conscious brain and do other things. You can listen
Speaker 2: to music, you can listen to podcasts, you can be
Speaker 2: on your phone, you can eat all the things that
Speaker 2: were not even in the realm of possibility when you're
Speaker 2: first learning. Right, So if someone can put the messages
Speaker 2: into your subconscious, then you can change the messages in
Speaker 2: your subconscious and we are. We are victims of our
Speaker 2: own success. We don't even realize that. I was talking
Speaker 2: to Katie earlier about this, right, Like, for a lot
Speaker 2: of people when they start working out, eating healthy, it's
Speaker 2: like learning how to drive a car. It takes full focus,
Speaker 2: full effort, one hundred percent, like I gotta I gotta
Speaker 2: work on this thing, high energy.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But for people who come to the cross for gym
Speaker 2: every day or eat healthy as it's far their lifestyle, well,
Speaker 2: now it's like even think about it, it takes. It's
Speaker 2: like you've been driving a car forever. Right, And I think,
Speaker 2: so you cannot reduce You can't change the dynamic of
Speaker 2: five percent conscious ninety five percent conscious or subconscious, but
Speaker 2: you can certainly change what the subconscious is telling you,
Speaker 2: what the subconscious is doing.
Speaker 1: I see.
Speaker 2: So if we can get the subconscious to be alignment
Speaker 2: with the conscious, I mean you can do anything.
Speaker 1: Said that they're both on the positive side.
Speaker 2: They're in alignment, okay, right, Like, so I can set
Speaker 2: a health goal and if my subconscious says, oh you're
Speaker 2: a healthy person, oh you you don't bend to social
Speaker 2: norms when it comes to you know, partying all the time,
Speaker 2: eating on time, whatever, Then yeah, you can. You're more
Speaker 2: than likely gonna hit your health goal right because you're
Speaker 2: you believe it. Even on the subconscious level. Your stories
Speaker 2: that you have in your head are supporting this thing
Speaker 2: that like, Yeah, I'm gonna be a healthy person.
Speaker 1: Now trying to relate that to what I know or understand,
Speaker 1: I'm going to refer that to CrossFit. So let me
Speaker 1: ask you this or mention this. One of the things
Speaker 1: that I've told many people this. One of the things
Speaker 1: I love about being a member here and coaching at
Speaker 1: Mousetrap is that I have seen and continue to see
Speaker 1: people come through the door very first time, maybe the
Speaker 1: first time they've ever worked out or moved in decades
Speaker 1: or at any point. Maybe they weren't into sports as kids,
Speaker 1: and there's always a sense of nervousness, little anxiety, and
Speaker 1: I think the biggest thing is not knowing what to
Speaker 1: do now. I know when I came in, I had
Speaker 1: maybe done some curls, a little bench with my buddies
Speaker 1: in high school kind of thing, but I never really
Speaker 1: worked out. I wouldn't have known how to do any
Speaker 1: of it had I not been coached and shown how
Speaker 1: to do it. Now I love seeing people and I'm
Speaker 1: thinking of several right now.
Speaker 3: You may know who you are who came in and.
Speaker 1: Projected that or shared that, and that I have seen
Speaker 1: them put in the effort, put in the work. But
Speaker 1: it can't just be a casual thing. You have to
Speaker 1: choose to do this sure, and then over time it
Speaker 1: becomes not less of an effort because there's always gonna
Speaker 1: you know, you'll always need to push. But to your
Speaker 1: point about it being subconscious, where Okay, I know this
Speaker 1: is what we're gonna do. I'm gonna come in, We're
Speaker 1: gonna warm up, I'm gonna grab you know, whatever equipment
Speaker 1: I need. I'm're gonna start moving with it, and then
Speaker 1: we're gonna have the actual workout of the day.
Speaker 3: And then they have successes.
Speaker 1: And what I love to do is to cheer on
Speaker 1: their successes because they may not realize in the moment
Speaker 1: how far they've come to them. It's just, oh, I
Speaker 1: didn't hit at PR today. I was hitting my prs consecutively,
Speaker 1: you know, but now I'm not. But I know how
Speaker 1: far they've come. So I cheer and celebrate all the
Speaker 1: little victories. Let's say, you know, and I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times they don't realize it. They've put that,
Speaker 1: you know, just the all the struggles and all the
Speaker 1: successes into that subconscious, so like I can't you know,
Speaker 1: someone may say I might not be able to do
Speaker 1: a thirty inch box jump. Okay, can you do it
Speaker 1: twenty four? All right, let's tire twenty five. And then
Speaker 1: you build up to it and you've done it before
Speaker 1: so you can do it again. Yeah, you know, And
Speaker 1: I think that's really important. Now I may have gone
Speaker 1: off the rails there with what we're saying, but I
Speaker 1: just think making that subconscious a positive or in alignment
Speaker 1: as you said, right, could it be is it possible
Speaker 1: that your subconscious is negatively aligned to your your negative consciousness,
Speaker 1: so it's just negative and negative?
Speaker 2: Yes?
Speaker 1: Sure, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2: I think the biggest opportunity that we have as coaches,
Speaker 2: as people, as people is to bring the subconscious thoughts
Speaker 2: that we have to Like, I think that's our biggest opportunity.
Speaker 1: To explain or give an example.
Speaker 2: Please, sure, that's a silly example.
Speaker 1: I'll no let me hear it silly or the better.
Speaker 1: I think more people can relate to silly.
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, I.
Speaker 3: Hope that's been my whole goal of my entire life.
Speaker 2: We I'll give you a silly example. I'll give you
Speaker 2: I guess a little more serious. Okay. When I started
Speaker 2: dating Katie, we had this ritual where we had to
Speaker 2: go get some version of rice or Chinese food or
Speaker 2: Japanese food on.
Speaker 1: A Friday, okay, every Friday. Okay.
Speaker 3: Do you know how that started? I do?
Speaker 2: Well, so okay, I'm sorry, sorry, no, I got you
Speaker 2: so probably like a couple of weeks. She was like,
Speaker 2: she was down for it, whatever it might be, like
Speaker 2: that early relationship. I'm just trying to keetch you to
Speaker 2: like me. I want you to like you know, that
Speaker 2: whole thing. So she let it go for like a while,
Speaker 2: and then she was like, what's the like, what's to
Speaker 2: deal with this? Like why don't you have to get
Speaker 2: Panda Express every dag on Friday? And I said to her,
Speaker 2: I said, well, you know, when I was a kid,
Speaker 2: my mom like, I love Chinese food. Why do you
Speaker 2: love Chinese food? Well, when I was a kid my
Speaker 2: mom again, single mom, we didn't have a lot, didn't
Speaker 2: do a lot. Fridays she would say, hey, you guys,
Speaker 2: clean up the house, scrub the toilets, vacuum dust, blah
Speaker 2: blah blah, cut the grass, do all the things, and
Speaker 2: if you do a good job, I'll bring home Chinese
Speaker 2: food and like the cheap stuff at the corner with
Speaker 2: the egg rolls and the whole thing. And so like
Speaker 2: this Chinese food became like this thing where like I
Speaker 2: would like celebrate doing a good job, or like my
Speaker 2: mom was proud of me. And so now like the
Speaker 2: story I have carrying around with me is like I
Speaker 2: gotta have Chinese food on Friday night and we would
Speaker 2: have weight loss challenges and I remember, like I can't
Speaker 2: wait till this is over. It's like finally get che
Speaker 2: go back to my life now. I mean, it's a
Speaker 2: silly example, but like this story has been flowing around
Speaker 2: in my head for like thirty something years, forty years
Speaker 2: until Katie asked me, asked me about it and say
Speaker 2: like what is the deal about this? And I had
Speaker 2: never really sat down and thought about it. Right, So
Speaker 2: that's a silly example, I'd say A more serious example
Speaker 2: is that I thought wealth was making one hundred thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a year, not a million dollar portfolio, not you know,
Speaker 2: a multimillion dollar net worth. None of the like that
Speaker 2: was not the context that I grew up in. So
Speaker 2: I never thought wealth or building wealth or being rich
Speaker 2: was ever possible for me. And that was the story
Speaker 2: I carried around for the longest time. And what that
Speaker 2: means is whenever I got money, I spent money because
Speaker 2: it wasn't about the story in my head, was not
Speaker 2: about the story of my subconscious, was not about building wealth.
Speaker 2: It was about making one hundred grand.
Speaker 1: Okay, does that make sense?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And so you had to change your mindset.
Speaker 2: I had to. I had to recognize that the reason
Speaker 2: why I wasn't building wealth was because I have these
Speaker 2: stories in my head that aren't tied to building building wealth.
Speaker 2: They're tied to spending money for earning more money, Okay, Right,
Speaker 2: And so until you raise that stuff to the surface
Speaker 2: and say this is why I'm acting this way, this
Speaker 2: is why I'm doing these things, you're gonna keep You're
Speaker 2: gonna keep on keep on doing.
Speaker 1: Them the same way, the same way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Now, let me ask you this. Yeah, you mentioned recently
Speaker 1: in a post the term let me make sure I'm
Speaker 1: reading it right, Yeah, low.
Speaker 2: Agency, low agency.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can you define what that is?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So, during the course of walking and listening to
Speaker 2: the audio books podcast, I got introduced to this idea,
Speaker 2: this concept of the agency. As most recently I really
Speaker 2: started thinking about it, like what that actually meant, because
Speaker 2: again I was asking myself those questions about.
Speaker 1: I've heard the term, but I never really understood.
Speaker 2: And it's it's become popular in the I guess more
Speaker 2: popular in the personal development space recently. But again it
Speaker 2: started with me asking like why are people like why
Speaker 2: was I successful in systems like in highly systemized places school, Army,
Speaker 2: corporate America? But when the system weren't there, I wasn't
Speaker 2: as successful. I didn't have like I was like I
Speaker 2: was all over the place I was. I was struggling
Speaker 2: to achieve my goals. And so I got introduced to
Speaker 2: this idea of agency and I just started researching the
Speaker 2: heck out of it and to my wife would probably
Speaker 2: admit this, I have become obsessed with this concept. So
Speaker 2: to answer a question, that's a long way to get
Speaker 2: to your answer your question.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a powerful word. I love.
Speaker 2: Agency is this belief that I agency is a skill
Speaker 2: set that you can develop, but it's essentially believing that
Speaker 2: I have an impact on the outcomes of my life, right,
Speaker 2: And so I like to think about agency and sort
Speaker 2: of for for pillars, it it's about goal setting. So
Speaker 2: I have some goal that I'm trying to achieve. We
Speaker 2: as humans do that, but being able to understand what
Speaker 2: my goals are, I have some concept of my future self, right,
Speaker 2: So it's not just about the immediate, but it's about
Speaker 2: also what I'm what I'm gonna look like and do
Speaker 2: and be like ten years from now, twenty years from now,
Speaker 2: whatever that is. Agency also speaks to understanding the total
Speaker 2: cost of things. So when I make a decision, there's
Speaker 2: an emotional cost, there's a physical cost, there's a financial cost.
Speaker 2: And then this final concept I really think speaks to agencies,
Speaker 2: this idea of radical responsibility, like it's not my fault
Speaker 2: that things certain things happen to me, but it's certain
Speaker 2: my responsibility on what to do about it next. Right,
Speaker 2: So those four pillars I like to lean on and
Speaker 2: say this is what agency is, right, the ability to
Speaker 2: impact the outcomes of my life with those four sort
Speaker 2: of pillars. So when you say low agency, it means
Speaker 2: that if we consider agency on a spectrum, I'm at
Speaker 2: the lower end of that. Like I don't consider goals.
Speaker 2: I don't consider my future self. I don't take radical
Speaker 2: responsibility over the things that happen in my life. And
Speaker 2: I don't consider the total cost, right, I only consider
Speaker 2: the monthly payment. I only consider this thing happened to me.
Speaker 2: It's the government's fault, or it's white people's fault, or
Speaker 2: it's black people's fault, or it's rich people's fault, or
Speaker 2: it's the Democrat's fault, or it's Republican's fault. Right, So
Speaker 2: when you start hearing that type of language or having
Speaker 2: those types of thought processes, it's lower agency. I got
Speaker 2: you from my perspective.
Speaker 1: Now just listing everything that you did there. And that
Speaker 1: fourth pillar really hit me hard, by the way, because
Speaker 1: the taking responsibility, Yeah, understanding that things that have happened
Speaker 1: to you might not necessarily be your fault, say, but
Speaker 1: you can take act right. And so I think a
Speaker 1: lot of times, honestly, people get so caught up in
Speaker 1: the day to day, Hey, trying to get the kids fed,
Speaker 1: trying to get them to school, bills paid, and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, that we can forget about the
Speaker 1: importance of that and like understanding the fundamental reasons why
Speaker 1: we're doing what we're doing, or flip that, not doing
Speaker 1: what we need to do in order to better ourselves
Speaker 1: in our situation. Yeah, so with low agency, if you
Speaker 1: find yourself to have it, because a lot of times
Speaker 1: I really think people don't peek.
Speaker 3: Behind the curtain.
Speaker 1: Whether that be just because they're not aware, they don't know,
Speaker 1: or maybe they don't want to peek behind that curtain.
Speaker 3: That's I think that's valid.
Speaker 1: Right, So what do you think people need to do
Speaker 1: if they find themselves in that low agency and they
Speaker 1: do want to make a change.
Speaker 2: Subscribe to my substances.
Speaker 3: It that's perfect the set up. I laid it up,
Speaker 3: he grab it, dunked it.
Speaker 1: I love that.
Speaker 3: No, how do they find your substack?
Speaker 2: By the way, just go to substock and you search
Speaker 2: for build your Proof or what's his name of the
Speaker 2: company that Katie and I started, or Alan Thompson and
Speaker 2: you'll you'll find it and.
Speaker 3: That's Alan Thompson A L L E N H O
Speaker 3: N P S so win.
Speaker 2: So it's difficult, right because to answer your question a
Speaker 2: second way, low agency, it's difficult that you know that
Speaker 2: you're there, right because so much of it again again
Speaker 2: is your subconscious telling you that it's okay to blame
Speaker 2: other people. It's okay to have nothing but monthly payments
Speaker 2: and never consider the total cost. It's okay to yolo.
Speaker 2: I mean, I was talking to a I was talking
Speaker 2: to a coworker of mine, and we were just talking about,
Speaker 2: you know, finances and building wealth, and I was just
Speaker 2: trying to part some wisdom. They probably like, get out
Speaker 2: of here, oh man, But I was just talking about like, well,
Speaker 2: I was curious, like, you know, they're twenty five years old, Like,
Speaker 2: how often to her and her you know, peers sent
Speaker 2: around talk about building wealth. And she said something to
Speaker 2: the defect of life. Well, you know, you only live once.
Speaker 2: You can't take it with you. And I looked at
Speaker 2: her and I said, well, I mean, so long as
Speaker 2: you're not living a life of crime, which you may
Speaker 2: or may not be doing. But so long as you're
Speaker 2: not living a life of crime, you're likely to grow old.
Speaker 2: But her perception was her response to me, the language
Speaker 2: she used was like that's not likely to happen, when
Speaker 2: in reality is very likely that you're going to grow old,
Speaker 2: and that you need resources in order to do that.
Speaker 2: So in a lot of cases, it's hard to know
Speaker 2: that you're making low agency decisions or because you don't
Speaker 2: have that context. I think the easiest thing to start
Speaker 2: with is if you are setting goals and you're not
Speaker 2: achieving them, it's likely that you're making low agency decisions.
Speaker 3: Okay, one more time.
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure everybody caught that part,
Speaker 1: because I think it's very important. If you're setting goals
Speaker 1: but not achieving them, it may be due to low agency,
Speaker 1: low agency decisions, decision making, okay, all right, because you
Speaker 1: are not focused on those four pillars correct, and you
Speaker 1: are just going through your day to day, your routine,
Speaker 1: or you're not focusing on the proper things, right.
Speaker 2: I think low agency can be identified through our language
Speaker 2: and our actions. So if you find yourself saying things
Speaker 2: like when you ask yourself, why am I doing this,
Speaker 2: and you say things like I don't know, or I
Speaker 2: don't care or it doesn't matter, it suggests that you
Speaker 2: are making low agency decisions. Rights. I asked Katie this
Speaker 2: the other day. Now, my wife is committed to increasing
Speaker 2: her testosterone and managing her hormones and doing all these things,
Speaker 2: us the things, And I asked her, what what did
Speaker 2: you have for breakfast? Yesterday, yesterday, and she knew down
Speaker 2: to the tea what she had for breakfast. And the
Speaker 2: reason why she knows that is because she's intentional with
Speaker 2: the food choices that she's making. It's a very it's
Speaker 2: a very high agency, right, Like you think about it,
Speaker 2: She's focused on building protein or consuming protein so she
Speaker 2: can build muscles so later in life she can still
Speaker 2: manipulate the environment that is around her. So in one
Speaker 2: simple case, what a what are you eating for breakfast?
Speaker 2: She demonstrates radical responsibility. She has a focus on her
Speaker 2: future self. She's set some goals because she knows this
Speaker 2: breakfast is moving her in the direction of that goal.
Speaker 2: And she's assessed the total cost, like this small investment
Speaker 2: will just breakfast, right, We'll pay dividends for her.
Speaker 1: So and because you know, I think it's fascinating. I
Speaker 1: love it and I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: at least I think I do. Let's find out, right,
Speaker 1: because I want to know. And for the people watching
Speaker 1: and listening, I think this is really important. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 1: so you know you ask what you had for breakfast? Okay,
Speaker 1: I didn't know where this story was going.
Speaker 2: Oh man, I don't hope you don't.
Speaker 1: Get yourself in trouble. But no, like is it that
Speaker 1: people may need to put more thought and effort into
Speaker 1: just every decision that they make throughout the course of
Speaker 1: the day. Yes, but there it is right there, it is.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: No, Like again, I think a lot of times we
Speaker 1: go through the motions. You know, I don't want to
Speaker 1: speak for everybody, but I can speak for myself, you know,
Speaker 1: all right, time for dinner, time for bed, get up,
Speaker 1: LUNs going off, you know, let's you know, But definitely
Speaker 1: not while I'm coaching at mouse Rep.
Speaker 2: Well done. So again, and this is not a conspiracy
Speaker 2: theory because I don't think things are. I don't think
Speaker 2: companies are. Culture do these things. It's not some grand
Speaker 2: conspiracy theory saying these things are done on purpose, right,
Speaker 2: But they are intentional in the sense that businesses, like
Speaker 2: certain businesses want us to be and say things like
Speaker 2: I don't know, I don't care certain aspects of culture.
Speaker 2: I think culture is a system businesses or systems certain
Speaker 2: parts of the culture want us to be to make
Speaker 2: low agency decisions. So one thing that I learned from
Speaker 2: six Sigma is that you create systems all the time.
Speaker 2: So whatever you're currently experiencing. You have created that system.
Speaker 2: A way to think about it is, if you are
Speaker 2: fifty years old and overweight, you have perfected a system
Speaker 2: that means you eat or you over consume calories, you
Speaker 2: do not exercise enough, and it has yielded the outcome
Speaker 2: that you are now fifty years old and overweight. You
Speaker 2: have perfected it. You Like, you know exactly how much
Speaker 2: you need to eat, where to eat, how much to drink,
Speaker 2: how little exercise to do to achieve that exact physique
Speaker 2: in an exact level of body fat. Well done right now,
Speaker 2: Like the person who was in that situation made that system. Okay,
Speaker 2: the question is why do they do that? Yeah?
Speaker 3: Yeah, you have five wives.
Speaker 2: To figure it out, right.
Speaker 3: But okay, so again.
Speaker 1: Knowing you, Yeah, I find all of this fascinating and
Speaker 1: it's very educational. I think it's great, and I think
Speaker 1: it's important for people watching and listening right now to
Speaker 1: get so right now, I'm just thinking about myself. I'm
Speaker 1: in the car, you know, I'm listening to this podcast.
Speaker 1: It's amazing. The host is really phenomenal and you get
Speaker 1: like super cute, and the guests isn't bad either. But
Speaker 1: like they're you know, consuming this information and they're like, oh, damn,
Speaker 1: I do that. You know, I didn't even realize it.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm fifty and I'm not in the best shape,
Speaker 1: and I don't exercise, and I'm eating my burger right
Speaker 1: now as I'm listening to this. What is the one thing,
Speaker 1: and this is tough, What is the one thing that
Speaker 1: an individual, in your opinion, can do to get them
Speaker 1: moving in a positive direction with systems or just impacting
Speaker 1: or improving their life.
Speaker 3: It's a tough question.
Speaker 1: It's a tough question. It's different for everybody. Imagine like
Speaker 1: the the goal is different for everyone.
Speaker 2: Right if I get.
Speaker 1: Based on six sigma and everything we discussed here today,
Speaker 1: what is that one thing?
Speaker 2: If I had to pick one thing that you can
Speaker 2: do to change your life right now, it is to
Speaker 2: start journaling.
Speaker 3: Now, define that for me?
Speaker 1: Sure, because I have notebooks all over my house and
Speaker 1: some of them have a sentence yep, some of them
Speaker 1: have a few pages, you know, and I you know,
Speaker 1: it's not something that I haven't attempted before. I just
Speaker 1: am not consistent with it. So what you define journaling?
Speaker 2: Mass You open up a Google specially, you type in
Speaker 2: the day of the day, and you list out what
Speaker 2: happened that day.
Speaker 1: Now, when you say list out what happened to that day,
Speaker 1: I got up, yep, I went to the restroom. I
Speaker 1: went to the bathroom, brush my teeth, yep, got to
Speaker 1: the kitchen. You're listing all this stuff.
Speaker 2: List what happened that day?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: And then I want you to list three things that
Speaker 2: you're grateful.
Speaker 1: For, okay.
Speaker 2: And then I want you to list what you plan
Speaker 2: on doing tomorrow.
Speaker 1: Okay. Should all these be separate columns? Again, I'm just
Speaker 1: asking for whoever it could be. It could be stream
Speaker 1: of consciousness.
Speaker 2: Now here's the key. The next day, I need you
Speaker 2: to tell me did you do the things that you
Speaker 2: said you were going to do the day before? You
Speaker 2: made a bunch of promises to yourself the night before,
Speaker 2: saying I'm gonna do all these things. Did you do them?
Speaker 2: And if you didn't do them, why not?
Speaker 1: And it is in that in that Google in that
Speaker 1: Google sheet sheet, why I did not do it?
Speaker 2: To you? Open up the Google sheet type in a
Speaker 2: day and you talk about, yes, you look at your
Speaker 2: list that you made the things I want, the things
Speaker 2: I said I was going to do today did I
Speaker 2: do them? And you answer the question did you do them?
Speaker 2: Yes or no? And why didn't you do them? And
Speaker 2: it is in that moment that you should start asking
Speaker 2: the five whys and start surfacing the stories, the things
Speaker 2: that are preventing you from keeping the promises that you
Speaker 2: make to yourself. And when you start doing that, you're
Speaker 2: going to start to realize, like, I keep making these
Speaker 2: promises to myself and I don't and I don't keep them.
Speaker 2: Why is that happening? It's because subconscious is in conflict
Speaker 2: with your conscious brain.
Speaker 1: Do you find that people tend to make the same
Speaker 1: mistakes over and over again? And I hope using mistakes
Speaker 1: that might not even be the right term.
Speaker 2: So the six sigma in me right says, eventually pattern
Speaker 2: will start to show themselves. On day two, when you
Speaker 2: go in and you list the things that you didn't do,
Speaker 2: you get to the bottom and you list the things
Speaker 2: that the promises that you're gonna that you set for
Speaker 2: yourself for the next day. On day three, you open
Speaker 2: up your journal, typing the day of the week or
Speaker 2: day of the year or the date, and then you
Speaker 2: answer the question I said I was gonna do these things.
Speaker 2: Some of them were a carryover from the first day.
Speaker 2: Did I do them? Why didn't I do them? And
Speaker 2: I promise you you will start seeing patterns. I was
Speaker 2: too tired. I didn't feel like it. That's another one
Speaker 2: of the age. I didn't feel like it. Well why
Speaker 2: didn't you feel like it? Right? You said you want
Speaker 2: to do this thing? Well I got some You start
Speaker 2: And the biggest challenge, the biggest opportunity I think for us,
Speaker 2: is that radical responsibility. We turn the mirror, we look
Speaker 2: at the mirror. It's the man in the mirror, Michael
Speaker 2: Jackson told us. And I love how like Michael Jackson
Speaker 2: now is like in Vogue came back around anyway. I
Speaker 2: hope that haircut don't come back.
Speaker 3: I mean, this is thinning, it's silver. I don't think
Speaker 3: I can pull it off.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm just saying, but you.
Speaker 2: Start, you'll start seeing patterns. That's why that's what happened
Speaker 2: to me. I started seeing patterns in the journal I
Speaker 2: was keeping. And you know, just to talk about journaling,
Speaker 2: there's a negative stereotype to journaling. How So if I
Speaker 2: if I asked a bunch of people to close your
Speaker 2: eyes and like, what do you picture when I say
Speaker 2: the word journaling. Yeah, they might think a pink diary
Speaker 2: or like show me man's man who journals?
Speaker 1: So yeah, the stigma that it that journaling itself has.
Speaker 2: It's almost like there's this story being told in the
Speaker 2: culture about this thing that can really help you, and
Speaker 2: you build this subconscious thing to prevent us from doing it.
Speaker 2: Then we don't have the data to improve our lives.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 2: But you know Marcus really is journaled. Martin Luther King Jr.
Speaker 2: In prison journaled. So journaling is a you know, man's man.
Speaker 1: Yeah. No, do you do you feel that like some
Speaker 1: guys like feel that there's a like a negative or
Speaker 1: almost like uh, you know, like what's a feminine like
Speaker 1: quality to journaling? It's just not masculine?
Speaker 2: Do you know any do you see a lot of podcasters.
Speaker 1: Or I mean, you know talking about to that point,
Speaker 1: I know there was a lot that you know, there's
Speaker 1: the manisphere, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't want to even get we can do this
Speaker 1: again talk about to talk about that because you no,
Speaker 1: Like I think, because I intentionally surround myself with people
Speaker 1: who have a sense of positivity or who are driven,
Speaker 1: you know, I don't think about what that negativity is now. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: you turn on the TV or you start scrolling and
Speaker 1: you start seeing it. But I can just turn it off,
Speaker 1: you know. Like again, I reached a point I think
Speaker 1: towards the end of my thirties going into my forties.
Speaker 1: And I think it also coincided with me getting involved
Speaker 1: with CrossFit and so forth, long before I ever started
Speaker 1: coaching that I just started. It changed my perspective on
Speaker 1: a lot of things. And you know, while I think
Speaker 1: sometimes I need to step out of my little bubble
Speaker 1: to remember, oh hey, it's not like this everywhere, right,
Speaker 1: And so you know, if you're listening or watching right now,
Speaker 1: who's it going to hurt? Who's even going to know
Speaker 1: that you're journaling? You know, at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: that's fair. If all you're doing is improving yourself, then
Speaker 1: you know.
Speaker 2: So the people around you. I think if you lean
Speaker 2: into this will start noticing changes in you. But that's
Speaker 2: what I hope for.
Speaker 1: Again. It's easy, right, or it can be at the
Speaker 1: very least right, But I know, you know, we all
Speaker 1: face our challenges and they're all some them are deep,
Speaker 1: you know, but I think they are you Overcomeable is
Speaker 1: overcomable word?
Speaker 2: I don't know. Katie and I have a word for this.
Speaker 2: It's called figure out able. That's even more non word.
Speaker 3: No, no, no, I've seen that the new Oxford. Yeah yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it's twenty twenty seven version.
Speaker 2: Overcomable is good, but figure out a ble is.
Speaker 3: No, it is pretty good. I like it, all right, sir.
Speaker 3: Let me ask you this.
Speaker 1: And I think we started this by you asking me.
Speaker 1: There's going to be some behind the scenes stuff, guys,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if this was part of it
Speaker 1: or once we actually started the podcast.
Speaker 2: By behind the scenes. Just put it out there.
Speaker 1: Put it out there. It's not gonna behind the scenes
Speaker 1: once it's out there. Just hey, I'm just gonna put
Speaker 1: behind this to try to drive by the way.
Speaker 3: Yeah no, oh, I'm a big fan.
Speaker 1: Oh don't you wait.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have tons of shorts of this man.
Speaker 1: Yeah no.
Speaker 3: But you started by.
Speaker 1: Asking me what my goal was, Yes, all right, So
Speaker 1: we're going to end the questions by asking you what
Speaker 1: is your long term goal.
Speaker 2: When it comes to business or just in general.
Speaker 1: Here we go.
Speaker 3: You tell me, or you can make a list, you
Speaker 3: know a little bit of everything.
Speaker 2: No, I have I have a couple of goals. My
Speaker 2: My number one goal right now is to find purpose
Speaker 2: and meaning in the work that I'm doing. I think
Speaker 2: that the job that I have does quite a bit
Speaker 2: of that, but there's more that I want to do.
Speaker 2: They're so like, there's so often I'm in the I'm in.
Speaker 2: I'll come in on a Saturday, I'll have a great workout,
Speaker 2: be surrounded by fantastic people. We'll grab some Chipotle, head home,
Speaker 2: get in the pool.
Speaker 1: That's the dream, the life.
Speaker 2: It's a life that I never imagined that could happen
Speaker 2: for me. And I want to help as many people
Speaker 2: as I can have the same experience to achieve a
Speaker 2: life that they never imagine possible for them. So, I mean,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 1: What's fascinating to that, Like the day you listed coming
Speaker 1: into the gym, have an amazing workout, surround yourself with
Speaker 1: amazing people, Grab some Chipotle. I'm a fan, by the way,
Speaker 1: go home, have some lunch, jump in the pool. That
Speaker 1: is it again, I don't want to diminish it by
Speaker 1: saying that seems like a simple goal, you know, but
Speaker 1: it's it's it's so beautiful and it's simplicity. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of times people like overlook how amazing that is.
Speaker 2: You know, so I want to I want to help.
Speaker 2: My goal is to help as many people Katie and
Speaker 2: I as the goals, help as many people like live
Speaker 2: that experience. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you.
Speaker 2: Know we were talking earlier about you know, doing this
Speaker 2: full time and be able to travel more and all
Speaker 2: those types of things. So we have goals around that,
Speaker 2: financial goals, health goals, but you know, from a from
Speaker 2: a business standpoint, and like the goal I'm most excited
Speaker 2: about right now is that.
Speaker 1: So that's amazing. And first of all, I just want
Speaker 1: to again thank you for being here.
Speaker 3: Sure, thank you for.
Speaker 1: Joining me the very first episode of Summerhouse with Sam.
Speaker 1: I appreciate so much. And we've talked about doing this
Speaker 1: for a long time. I know I've been been in
Speaker 1: your here for a long time. And actually, if you're
Speaker 1: listening or watching right now, Alan was one of the
Speaker 1: very first people. Actually he might have been the first
Speaker 1: person I'm not married to that I told that I
Speaker 1: am doing this Summerhouse thing. I am doing this can
Speaker 1: please please don't say I am so excited for you.
Speaker 1: Thank you, like.
Speaker 2: You're the right person doing the right thing at the
Speaker 2: right time. I appreciate that, and this is going to
Speaker 2: be great for you.
Speaker 1: I do. I appreciate that, and more than appreciate, I
Speaker 1: value that because that means a lot. You know, I
Speaker 1: am not everybody's cup of tea, or you know what
Speaker 1: I mean. I am a little different than a lot
Speaker 1: of the people that I know. But I enjoyed this
Speaker 1: so much. I love this so much, and let's just
Speaker 1: let's just see.
Speaker 2: Where we going. Different requires higher agency decision.
Speaker 1: Does it? I did not. I didn't know that, but
Speaker 1: I'm proud.
Speaker 2: I'll take that.
Speaker 1: I might put that on a shirt. Guys, think about it.
Speaker 1: High agency. Yes, you either get it or you don't.
Speaker 1: You know, it's like I got it there somebody who
Speaker 1: pointed me. All right. Now, if you know me, you
Speaker 1: know I love questions. I love questions of the day.
Speaker 1: I use them as part of my CrossFit classes as
Speaker 1: far as coaching, and I also enjoy this or that
Speaker 1: type of question. So we're going to play a quick version,
Speaker 1: a gen X version of this or that.
Speaker 3: Okay, there is no wrong answer.
Speaker 1: People listening or watching may not agree, but they're as
Speaker 1: far as I'm concerned, there is no wrong answer.
Speaker 2: Okay, all right, you're ready yeah, all right.
Speaker 1: As quickly as possible. And if I remember, guys, I'm
Speaker 1: going to put a ticking clock to this. Okay, ready,
Speaker 1: three to two one? Here we go.
Speaker 4: Sesame Street or Reading Rainbow, Reading Boom cassettes or CDs,
Speaker 4: CD BHS or DVD's Atari or Nintendo the A Team
Speaker 4: or night Writer.
Speaker 1: Tough one, right, you know.
Speaker 2: Night Writers down, it's just a Tesla eighteen or night
Speaker 2: Writer eighteen.
Speaker 1: Okay, Tupac or Biggie.
Speaker 2: Tupac.
Speaker 1: Alrighty Voltron or Transformers, it's a tough one.
Speaker 2: Transformer.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's tough. That's tough. Name brand or store brand,
Speaker 1: store brand Boom, that's what I'm talking about. Terminator or
Speaker 1: the Predator. We can even throw RoboCop in there if
Speaker 1: you want.
Speaker 2: Predator.
Speaker 1: And finally, and this is a big one, Jurassic Park
Speaker 1: or Rocky and I understand we have to get Katie
Speaker 1: watch Rocky.
Speaker 2: Is that girl?
Speaker 3: Sure she doesn't need to see it?
Speaker 2: You see that?
Speaker 1: Right? Okay? Let me ask you this then real quick,
Speaker 1: and we'll wrap this up. Favorite Rocky movie all time?
Speaker 1: Probably you can include the Creeds.
Speaker 2: Yeah, probably Rocky three.
Speaker 3: Oh, Clever Lang.
Speaker 1: It will always hold a special place in my heart.
Speaker 1: First movie ever saw in a movie theater.
Speaker 2: Yeah, for me, it was Apollo training rock Rocky and
Speaker 2: Apollo teaching Rocky that he can change.
Speaker 3: Did he have low agency?
Speaker 2: He did, Yeah, he did, but he developed the agency
Speaker 2: on the course of that.
Speaker 1: Guy's Rocky three.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So you remember the scene where he finally clicked
Speaker 2: for him. There's a scene in the movie where he's
Speaker 2: running on the beach.
Speaker 1: There is no tomorrow that well, yeah, no, because he's like, tomorrow,
Speaker 1: we do tomorrow. No.
Speaker 3: Well, there's two scenes right, Well, no, there's the one
Speaker 3: with his wife.
Speaker 2: There's a woman his wife when he admits to her.
Speaker 1: Uh huh, he's he's afraid, very scared, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah. So he finally took the mirror, looked back in
Speaker 2: the mirror and said, I'm afraid. Uh huh. And so
Speaker 2: he's do that, He's ready to go.
Speaker 1: I'm not watching right now. I literally just got chills, goosebumps,
Speaker 1: my arms. And I'll tell you why. He said, man
Speaker 1: in the mirror. You mentioned the mirror. There is a
Speaker 1: scene in the first Rocky where he is in his bathroom,
Speaker 1: in his tiny place and he is in front of
Speaker 1: the mirror just looking at himself. And there's a great scene.
Speaker 1: And again file this under the category you didn't ask
Speaker 1: what I'm telling you anyway. Right, there's a scene where
Speaker 1: he is in bed, laying there and he's saying all
Speaker 1: he wants to do is go the distance. He doesn't
Speaker 1: even need to win, he just wants to prove himself worthy.
Speaker 1: And I think, like, again, that gets me every time
Speaker 1: I've seen the movie a thousand times. That scene.
Speaker 2: Now, let's keep going. Okay, this is great, by the way,
Speaker 2: Before let's go, let's go Rocky too. After the birth
Speaker 2: of his baby, his wife says to him, there's only
Speaker 2: one thing I want from you from now. She's like
Speaker 2: to win.
Speaker 1: Win.
Speaker 2: So now his subconscious is in alignment with his conscious
Speaker 2: to win, not go the distance, but win.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Different, Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: Right, different, different story, different outcome.
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then moving into three, he's had the evolution
Speaker 1: where he has been the success that he always knew
Speaker 1: and others who loved him knew he could be the father,
Speaker 1: the husband.
Speaker 3: And then what happens It all gets taken away.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Mickey dies, he transitions.
Speaker 3: Spoiler Sorry, I'm just kidding. It's been out for forty years.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then he starts making low agency decisions because
Speaker 2: his framework, his frame of reference is gone. Yeah, so
Speaker 2: now he's telling him telling, telling himself these stories that
Speaker 2: are true.
Speaker 3: You don't have to do this again with movies.
Speaker 2: Just move.
Speaker 3: We're just gonna talk movies.
Speaker 1: That's all right, awesome, So again, mister Allen Thompson, did
Speaker 1: I get that right? Thank you again for being the
Speaker 1: very first guest on Summer House with Sam. It means
Speaker 1: the world to me. I cannot even convey to you
Speaker 1: how impactful this conversation has been. Guys, if you're listening,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for joining us today. Mister Allen Thompson.
Speaker 1: Where can listeners get more information about everything we discussed today?
Speaker 2: Cheese Curson Coffee. H is our podcast name and our
Speaker 2: YouTube channel. Just search for Cheese, Curson Coffee, common spelling
Speaker 2: and you'll find us and then build your proof on substack.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 3: What about Mousetrap Fitness?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, if you're looking for a good workout and
Speaker 2: you're in Orlando.
Speaker 1: Actually come see us, Come see us, all right, come
Speaker 1: see us as well as every other coach here does
Speaker 1: a phenomenal job. Come meet the community. If you're in
Speaker 1: the amazing Lake Buinnavista Florida area. And if you're like,
Speaker 1: where's Lake Buinavista, Florida, It's the Disney side of Orlando.
Speaker 1: Come on in say hello. We'd love for you to
Speaker 1: join us for a workout. Guys, again, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for listening. I have been sam ay Ella, thank
Speaker 1: you for joining us here Summerhouse with Sam, Stay amazed.
Speaker 3: We'll see you next time.