Cameron Hanes - Keep Hammering Collective - KHC 009 - Nicholas Hammond

Episode Date: March 2, 2023

Nick Hammond, aka “Nick the Trainer Dude” will praise God and smile as his flexes up on you. His loving and infectious spirit distracts you from the pain and challenges he’s overcome. In some ways, Nick’s story reminds me of Job in the Bible, and along those lines, despite his suffering, Nick never gave up his faith in God. Nick Hammond is a beacon of hope.   Follow along: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cameronrhanes Twitter: https://twitter.com/cameronhanes Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/camhanes/ Website: https://www.cameronhanes.com   Follow Nicholas Hammond: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nickthetrainerdude/ https://www.instagram.com/salvationnutrition/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/Nick-The-Trainer-Dude-Personal-Training-studio/100057526806920/ Website: https://salvationfitness.org/   Special thanks to our sponsors.  MTN OPS Supplements: https://mtnops.com/  Use code KEEPHAMMERING for a free BCAA when you purchase $75 or more First Light: https://www.firstlight.farm/ Use Code Cam15 for 15% off your first order Leupold: https://www.leupold.com/  Black Rifle: https://www.blackriflecoffee.com/  Use code KEEPHAMMERING for 20% your first order Hoyt: http://bit.ly/3Zdamyv Bass Pro / Cabellas: https://www.basspro.com   Timestamps: 0:00:00 Introduction 0:01:00 Happiest man ever 0:03:00 Nick’s endeavors 0:03:58 Tough early years 0:07:51 Had to be something better 0:09:30 21 years old: Things got hard 0:11:49 The Rocky Mindset 0:15:20 Don’t ever give up 0:17:10 Must be nice 0:19:25 Food stamps for 13 years 0:21:15 10 years of grinding 0:26:30 Didn’t know I could be beat 0:28:00 Missing teeth 0:31:40 Power of prayer 0:35:00 Giving 0:38:12 Fire of 2020 0:41:50 Getting back to work 0:45:00 Cam’s influence on Nick 0:50:20 NYE shame 0:54:00 Cam standing up for his friends 0:56:30 Don’t wait to be great 0:58:50 Being a dad the second time around 1:00:20 Nick’s Pisgah challenge 1:04:30 Taylor Spike 1:06:48 Connecting with people 1:09:00 Nick’s purpose 1:15:00 Keep moving forward 1:17:02 Sponsorships

I'd like to mention a long-time partner of mine, Mountedop supplements. I take their products every day, and they keep me performing at my best year after year. I should also note that my son, Truitt, works for the company, so I have firsthand knowledge of their focus on faith, family, and fitness. Makes it really easy to partner with the company whose values align with mine. They have a special deal for you guys right now for the podcast launch. If you use code, keep hammering on a problem. purchase of $75 or more, you get a free Keep Hemmering BCAA and my new signature flavor pineapple.

I'm all about high-level performance, and the BCAs really help me perform. Black Rifle Coffee Company is a company that's very easy for me to promote because I drink coffee all day, every day. But more importantly, they are a huge supporter of the veteran community and are a veteran-known business, so they have my full support. Use code Keep Hammering for 20% off your first order and 20% off subscription to the coffee club where you get exclusive coffee blends and merchandise. All right.

Well, this is a Keep Hammering Collective with Nick the trainer dude. What up, what up. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing awesome, man. Doing good. Just feel pretty blessed to be here today with you and it's just a great day. So I'm feeling awesome right now.

Well, I mean, I've been wanting to sit down and tell your story. Help tell your story. you've been doing an amazing job. But I want to make sure we get out your journey. Yeah. And I was thinking about it today. There's certain people in your life where, like, I just remember being at work in my old job.

And they'd say, hey, there's some buff guy here looking for you. Or if they knew you, they'd be like Nick the trainer dude is looking for you. And instantly, I would like be in a better mood. Because I'm like, oh, when I see you, when I see you, when I'm, I see Nick the Triner, dude, you're always smiling, always happy. And I'm like, okay. And I was thinking, God, I wonder. So, like, when my tax guy calls, my CPA, he'll call and he'll be like,

Cam, this is Wade Bell. And I'm like, oh, my God. So, and it's not bad. It's just, I know it's going to be, I got to pay more money. There's a situation. A situation. And so, like, you are the opposite of the bad situation. Yeah.

Nick is always, what I've always said is like, you've seen. seem like you just won the lottery every day. Every day. That's, dude, do you know how lucky you are just for that mindset? When I was younger, I didn't, you know, but as I've gotten older and just living more life for sure, I feel pretty blessed to have that ability to just constantly be happy, right, even in the midst of just hard, hard things, you know? But that's also what makes a great story, though, right?

And I remember the first time I ever went to your work, right? And I was just like, you had that pull-up bar in there. And I would just like go over and do pull-ups. And for me, it was like, oh, my gosh, you get to go to Camhane's work and do pull-ups in your little cubicle, right? Yeah. You sit in this little box for like eight hours. And I would leave and go run the mountain or something. Keep hammered.

I know. I know. Yeah. It's, yeah. So we had, that was my life for a while. Long time. And you'd come. And, yeah.

I mean, I was definitely jealous of, of, you had a lot of freedom. seem like but still you know hey everybody has to work everybody's got to work right yeah you you work as hard i mean you're up what time did you get up what time do you get up normally normally normally 245 right every single day and then you go train and then i go why go try to get a workout in run the mountain or lift and then i start training my job at 4 30 in the morning 5 okay so just i'll catch everybody up so you are a personal trainer yep you own a gym you own max muscle supplements here in town. Well, it's called Salvation Fitness and Salvation Nutrition now.

It was Max Muscle, but we changed it over when I took over Max Muscle. But forever, we didn't have a name of the gym. It was just Nick the trainer, dude. So we decided to like, hey, my wife's like, maybe we need a name. They're like, what's the name of your jam? And I'm like, Nick the trainer, dude. So finally, she's like, we need a name. So we got a name.

It's like Salvation, Fitness, and Nutrition Center kind of because we got a little store where we sell products. And then we have the personal training on. the other side and all on the same little building but this has been years in the making of this right as you know right i know so it's like that is i mean for people who don't know that that all sounds great but how the hell did nick hammond get there to be a business owner yeah owner of a gym have the beautiful family that's not how it's always been huh no it uh it definitely i was been thinking about this a lot lately just because you asked to hey come on let's let's talk let's share your story and it's like and then when we did you know eight hours of running and hiking the

other day we had a chance to talk about it but yesterday I was thinking of myself and when I was 17 years old I had a baby right and so and I grew up pretty rough I had a I had a pretty rough upbringing nothing consistent some just a lot of drugs and poverty in my family and so there I was it's 17 years old and it was a high school drop out um I had no no parents around they were non-existent they were high or on drugs just gone. So I was kind of by myself. And at 17 years old, I get a girl pregnant. And in that moment, I just, I'm like, what am I going to do? I don't want to live like this. There's got to be another way, right? And so it's 17 years old. I was getting high. I was causing a lot of problems. I enrolled myself in a in a rehab program called Looking Glass, a local company here.

And I started going to rehab, you know, when this girl was pregnant, it's 17 years. years old and I enrolled myself back into high school at Churchill high school and I had to go to this teen parent program which was pretty I don't know if you ever been to a teen parent program right I didn't like the adult parent program right I think you went to one LaMaz class right oh just laughing the whole time so I'm like here I am I'm 17 right and I got this like three month old baby and I'm gonna and I'm gonna go to high school which I was never good at school because I didn't have a good childhood of like I went to probably 20 elementary school as my family moved so much. There was nothing was consistent, right? Everything was hard. And so here I am. It's, I'm 17 and I'm carrying this baby and like a little baby pack because I got to

bring the baby to be a part of this team. Like on hangover. Like how they're taking the baby in the elevator. But I'm wearing like dickies and G. Nikes because I think I'm a thug steel, right? So my head's to be a thug with the baby. It is, bro. You're rolling the LTD with the baby. And so I show up and there's 30 girls in this class in high school out of all Lane County. I'm the only dude. None of these other dudes are there. They're off just impregnating these girls, right? Hang it out being homies, right? And here I am like, okay, I'm going to change my life. So, you know, I'm 17. I'm going to high school. My day started at 245 in the morning at 17 years old and I'd get up and I had a yellow Huffy bike because my license got suspended. So I couldn't afford a car or had a car. So I rode my bike from River Road here in town

to downtown Eugene and I pumped iron because I always wanted to be a bodybuilder. What was it, Jim? And it was called Ironworks Gym and Pacific Nautilus is what it used to be downtown. It was just this hardcore gym upstairs, right? And so I couldn't afford a gym membership, so I'd sneak in the back door. But like I just, I started my day lifting weights and then I ride my bike back home and I'd get the baby and then I'd ride the bus all the way to high school, go to school all day. Then I'd ride the bus back to meet the girl who became.

my wife that I had the baby with. And then I would ride my bus all the way to Springfield and wash dishes. And I was just thinking about it yesterday. That's where it started, right? Like I was 17 years old and I was busy 20 hours of the day and just to like survive. I was like I got to go to school. I got to get this job. I was making like $4.10 an hour washing dishes.

And at night I would miss the last bus. So sometimes I had to ride the bike all the way from like Springfield clear out of a river road. Oh my gosh. But like I would just get up and do it again, you know? And that's where my life started, right? What made you get up and do it again? To be honest, like an honest answer was I wanted to be a bodybuilder, right? I didn't know anything else.

I didn't have people in my life that were like good examples or live. I just knew that I didn't want to live in poverty. And I knew and we were. We were on food stamps. I was barely living, you know, I was 17. Yeah. And there was no people helping us out, right? I just knew that there had to be something better.

I just, I believed it with every ounce of energy in me. And I just knew that God just had something different plan for me, but nobody was going to hand it to me. And I just started doing that, you know, for a long time for like a year and a half. I woke up and I eventually ended up leaving high school when I only had a couple credits left because I just couldn't pay the rent. So I got a second job and I dropped out of high school. And now I'm 18, 19, working three jobs, barely paying the rent. Now I'm living with this girl. We have a baby.

We're not married. And then by the time I'm 21, I have two more girls. Wow. So like 17 to 20 was pretty chill. If you call that chill, right? Like I used to push the baby on a stroller to the laundromat with bags of laundry, right? Just do our laundry and then go get groceries in my backpack and carry him. home. But to be honest with you, at that time of my life, the vision of being a bow hunter

and a vision of being a bodybuilder is all I could think about. Yeah. Like it like, and I was neither. Right. Right. But I just wanted to go. You had a dream. I had a dream. And it, it got me up every day at 245 in the morning when I was 17 and it still gets me up today. Like I get up at 245 in the morning at 43 three years old. And, but, and that's how, that's how it started, right? And then at 21, things got hard. Like, because there was three babies. There was no education. There was no people around. Nobody knew who I was. I was missing my teeth. Remember when I met you, I had no front teeth, right? Like, and I had to smile. So when you ask, like, how do you smile? I'm like, bro, I didn't smile for like eight years. I never smiled because I was ashamed of it, you know, and you're missing your

front tooth and you're working three jobs, but you want to be a bodybuilder, you know, like, and I never smiled. I was like, how could it be this hard, you know, because I'm 21 and I'm literally working three jobs for seven or eight years. I never had a day off. I didn't have Christmas off, Thanksgiving, holidays. I just had to work every day at minimum wage to pay rent every single day, every single year for a long time.

But all those years led up to. that vision of being a bodybuilder. When I was 17, I applied for a bodybuilding show. And then I found out I was going to have the baby. I threw it away. I crumbled it. The best part is, though, at 25, I'm broke still. I'm poor.

I mean, I don't got nothing, bro. I'm like, I don't, I kind of, I've read your book. I know about you and you've been inspiring me for a long time. We'll talk about that in a minute. But like, I go do that same bodybuilding show that I was going to do when I was 17, when I was 25. and I win the entire show. Like eight years, I'm just grinding in the midst of hell. And it was that literally a month later, I start working at the bow rack.

And I became a personal trainer. All in the same like month. And I just, I look at what happened. And it was like you had this dream and this vision of your life. And all I ever wanted to do was go bow hunting and like be a bodybuilder. And the minute I fulfilled that destiny. of what I wanted to do when the time I was 17, it instantly came to me. Like literally a month later, Wayno at the Bowrack is like, I'm shooting Bow League and that's

another story if we want to get into that. But I'm like, this poor kid down at the Bowrack trying to like just shoot a bow from the pawn shop that I bought for 80 bucks, hoping they don't make fun of me in there. But those years were tough, you know, they were. Is that, when was that show or you had to sleep outside? That was it. Yeah. That was a one.

I was 25. I'm repoing cars for a living. That was one of my jobs, and I merchandise beer and wine. So I get up at 2.45 in the morning, and I merchandise beer and wine till one, and then I go repo cars till like midnight. And then I would sleep for three hours, and I would do it again, do it again. But I would squeeze in some training sessions here and there, right? How did you eat enough?

I did it. I was 25, right? There was no food or money. I was just a beast. And I don't, we were talking about that the other day. I don't know that you ever get that back. Right. That grind.

That high of the tiger. We talked about Rocky getting soft. Yeah. I can't remember who we were talking about or why we were talking about. But it is hard to replicate that grind on the way up the mountain. Once you get to the top of the mountain, staying there is one thing. But it's hard to like be as hungry coming up. No, you can.

And in that particular bodybuilding show, I went to this show. And I don't know, for those of you listening, like, at a bodybuilding show, normally people go and they get a hotel room and they, they weigh in the night before and they got all the stuff ready, right? I literally slept in the casino in front of the doors of the, of the venue and woke up at 7 a.m. and weighed in and then competed. And then that night, bro, it was like, it was one of the best nights in my life, right? Because it's been going on for years.

I've been dreaming about it. And here I was, I was the champ. I won my class and I won the overall novice division. People were taking pictures of me and bringing me their cameras and showing me, like, look at you. And I was just like, I'm missing a front tooth. And it was then when I started smiling though. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, it was like, I literally was sleeping on the floor of the venue. And I had to be to work in like six hours back to repo and cars because they didn't care that I wanted to be a bodybuilder. Right. And, and, and, but that was, that was

when I really believed that you could do anything you want. And it might have taken me eight years. And all I did was when some local bodybuilding show. And, and, uh, and, and, uh, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, and, some local bodybuilding show. And in the scheme of things, it's not that big of a deal. And I had to go back eight hours later and go repo cars and go back and merchandise beer and wine. But from that moment on, when I remember one guy, I was merchandising beer and wine and he was like talking crap about the crackheads in Springfield missing all their teeth.

And my head was down and I'm like shuffling bottles, you know? Yeah. And I just looked up at him with a big old smile in my missing tooth, but I'm yoked, you know? And he's just like, oh, sorry. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, so I guess that, that proved to you that dreaming did, I mean, the dream came true. Your dream came true.

So it's like it gave you, I guess, confidence and having faith, huh? Having faith, absolutely. And the confidence. And again, you go to those, the two things in my life that I can't ever do again was that bodybuilding show. And I competed 20 times since then. And it never felt the same. Yeah.

And then in 2011, I finally killed a bull elk. in the wilderness, which I sucked at for a long time. Yeah. And I've killed some bulls since then, but nothing. Those two moments for me personally, outside of having all my children and my wife and like the things that I have, nothing. I've never felt that feeling ever again. I've chased it.

Yeah. But I've never felt it because it was something that took so long and nobody understood that grind, but it was like, I know there's simple things, but they were getting me out of bed. Yeah. And when I did those two things, they changed my life forever because it just taught me like if you don't ever give up, if you just keep hammering. Yeah. And whatever it is you're doing, it will happen.

It just might take 10 years or 20 years or whatever that is, you know. Well, I mean, you put in the time, you put in the work. Yeah. And it's like, yeah, it wasn't like winning Olympia, but Olympia wasn't even on your radar probably. He's like this show. And here, you know, we have, this is a great community, great community. Absolutely. But to us and to me, too, it's like if I could get my picture on the wall or on the board at the bow rack, that's as big as it gets.

It's the best day ever. I get that you winning that show, it might as well been in Olympia. Oh, to me, I was Mr. Olympia. Who cares? Yeah. Yeah. Because it's like, and like you putting up a picture of a kill on the board at the bow rack, what does that mean? Nothing, but it's the best day ever.

It is. to have the picture board in there. And by the time I ever killed anything, there was no more picture board, but I still took one in, you know what I mean? Because I was like, egg this up. Yeah, I know. Been wanting to make that board for years.

Yeah, because I worked in there for like four years, looking at everybody's pictures, still never killing anything because I suck at it. You know what I mean? I think they had to take it down because people were like poking out my eyes. Oh, they were. When I worked in there,

and all your pictures, they were like scratched on. Everybody was hating on camp back then, even before you were a beast, you know, You were a beast, but it was just back then. But it's all just part of that journey, you know, and those years of literally working three jobs and trying so hard just to do something, it just, it's turned me into what I have today, right?

People look at me now, like my ideal schedule right now is I work like three days a week and then I have four off and people, everybody, people who don't know me, they're like not compared to you, but it must be nice. It must be nice, right? Like it must be nice just to have all this time. And I'm like, you have no idea what I had to do just to get a day off. Just a day, you know? And now it's still hard, right?

There's a lot. We'll probably talk about in a little bit. I mean, I'm living in a camp trailer. You know, my power went out at two in the morning, right? But a lot of those years leading up to it just calloused me for like climbing 11 summits or 12 summits or 10. And yeah, it's hard, but it's just another eight-hour grind, right? It's like that mental toughness like your hat says or your shirts say it's all mental. And it's just no more truth to that than just going through.

But without that vision, what are you doing? I don't know. Like you every, I really believe that everybody has something inside of them that they want. Me too. But they're just scared of it, you know, because it's going to take a hundred thousand more times than you think it's going to take to get there. and people just stop. Yeah, there's no shortcut to the top. No.

And yeah, I understand it does get hard. It feels overwhelmed. It feels like there's no hope. And so people quit. They just would have stuck with it. Yes. You know, and that's, I think, have you seen where your story and your experience has helped other people?

Oh, absolutely. At this point in my life, there's probably not a day that goes by that someone doesn't, you know, message me or just tell me in person how their life has changed from what I I've done, but also what I get to do with my life now is I, as a personal trainer, I have 60 to 100 people in a week that I'm in contact with, right? And I'm like, we're just working out, but really, I'm a life coach. Yeah. We're like, hey, we're going to do this today. We're going to, I've helped hundreds of people lose hundreds of pounds and, and just marriages and kids, relationships, and all these things are just so much better. People got better jobs. And it wasn't because we just went to the gym.

It was because they came in and they were like, I want to do this. And I'm like, okay, well, let's go here. And I don't know when we're going to get there, but we will get there. Yeah. I don't care who you are. Because I know, as a matter of fact, if you just keep going and going, you're going to end up. You're bound to get there. You're bound to get there.

I lived on food stamps for 13 years. And that's crazy. Yeah. When I think about it now, like I couldn't eat without the help of the government for 13 years. And I had three jobs the entire time. That would, a lot of people would think what's the point? That's why people in poverty don't come out. And everybody outside of there doesn't understand that if they've never lived it.

But they're just like, I'm just going to stay here. Yeah. Because if you had to, if you had three jobs and it still wasn't enough. I mean, most people are going to have three jobs. No, they're not going to have two jobs. So yeah, it does kind of take that. There has to be a glimmer of hope. And people just don't have the hope, it seems like.

No, and the bodybuilding and the hunting, it kept me going. Like every year, it was like after I won that bodybuilding show, a year later, I won the Oregon State Championships. And then a year later, I went to the Emerald Cup up in Seattle. And it was 2007. I went to this like, oh, I'm ready for the big dog, you know? I'm going to go to the big show. And I go there and I get crushed. I take seventh place at this show.

And I'm like, everything is just sucked out of me, you know? Like, here you were the local champ, the state champ, and then you just get worked over, right? And in that particular bodybuilding show is 2007, I didn't win that show until 2017. 10 years later. 10 years. I tried four times. And every time I went, I took seventh place. Oh, my.

In 2011, in 2015, or no, 2007, 2011, 2015, I took seventh place. And then in 2017, I won. How? Well, I mean, what was it, what was a difference? The difference was, is we were talking about the rocky thing. And even though, like, I was tough, I got soft. Yeah. And so I won when I was young, when I was hungry, I was coming up. I was sleeping on the floor at the hotel room. But now all of a sudden I had hotel rooms. I'm Nick the trainer, dude. I own a gym, you know, I'm pumping iron. And I'm like, but I'm, and I look good. Yeah. But it wasn't here anymore. It was gone. And I had to look at myself year after year. I'm just losing. and losing. I'm like, why? And then finally, I was like, where's that dude who rode his huffy bike with a baby on his chest to high school? Right. With no one around. No one cared who you were. No one knew who I was. Yeah. And I just did it with this passion that was so strong. And I found that guy. And I was like, that guy. And the week before that competition, I lost both of the most important people in my life within 18 days. My grandparents kind of raised me because my,

situation growing up was rough and when i was a kid at like 15 i have pictures of my grandma posing in her in her kitchen right because i wanted to be a bodybuilder yeah and um she died a couple weeks before that bodybuilding show and then grandpa died like 18 days later and it was like that journey though they were dying already right and that journey was just like bro what are you doing these people are dying and you have this vision and you're just being soft or you're eating a little extra potato chips or whatever it was right and i just didn't do it that time and i literally showed up there and i was that confident kid again and i was 30 something by this point and i win it wow and it was just like dude you just took 10 years to do something you know not one year not

six months not 20 workouts right 10 years yeah of hard workouts right not running i wasn't running then i was just lifting every day. And hard. And I don't think people understand. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I tried, I tried your diet one time. I got kind of lean for me or whatever. But people don't know that, you know, people might say, well, one or two extra chips.

Is that really going to make any difference? It's like at that level. It makes a difference. It does. Because you know you're not just doing that one time. No, you're doing it both. As soon as you have one chip, you're like, you're like in the covers by yourself. You're just shoving chips.

Yeah. Because it's the discipline in it, right? And so like here you are 10 weeks into a diet and you have one chip. Your mind just got weak. Oh, yeah, I'd one. Let's have another. You lost. And it's not the chip.

Like, I'm shredded right now. I just had some tacos this morning or something. You know what? I don't know. I eat everything. Yeah. But it was my mindset, right? And that was what was happening in all those years.

I was being soft. Where when I was poor and I was young, I just ate two pounds of chicken and ate red potatoes was every day. There was all I could afford. Right. I didn't eat one other thing and I was winning. But then I got a little more money. I'm like the trainer. I'm training people. People are throwing me some chips. You know, like I'm eating a little extra. And so I had to go back to that kid, right? But you can't replace that. Right. In the grind, no matter what level you're on, whether you're just a local guy like me trying to win a big amateur bodybuilding show. And in the bodybuilding world, no one knows who I am. And I've competed 22 times. I've competed on the national

level taken fourth. I've won every local show there is to win. I've lost every show. And no one knows who I am. Then Mr. Olympia doesn't know Nick the trainer, dude. And partially because drugs are involved on a high level. And I took them for a short period of time when I was young because I thought that was going to be the way to win. And the funny thing was, is while I was taking the anabolic, I never won a show. Really? The only shows I've ever won were just me training with nothing. It's pretty odd, right? Because I, in my mind, I looked better, but I was being, for me, it just wasn't what I, it wasn't my journey. It was part of my journey, but I had to, I, I just had to look at my family and my life and

make some decisions a long time ago that that wasn't part of who I was anymore. When you were, so taking the anabolic, were you heavier though? Oh, yeah, yeah. Like when I first, when I first met you, like I was working at the bow rack. Yeah. And I was probably like, I got up to 220. Whoa. Right.

And I'm 5.6. Like right now I'm 170. You know, I do remember, now that you say that, I remember, I remember. you must have needed money, but you're posing out by the street. Yeah, I held a sign out on Pioneer Parkway, like, because I needed gas money to get to the body for the show. Yeah. So I had the guys from the Boerack hold a sign.

This is posing for dollars. So I stood out on the Pioneer Parkway in the middle of the city, like trying to collect some gas money. Right. So I could get to a vibe so stupid. But I made like $3. Oh, my. And it was hot. Oh, but you were huge.

I was, yeah, I was just like, I took all. those years of training and then I applied the anabolics with the food and the learning more and then it just enhanced it but I it was still it wasn't the mindset wasn't as tough right and so that was the difference in all those years later was I wasn't winning because I didn't look better I didn't believe it yeah when I won that first bodybuilding show and I won the mr. Oregon I had 26 guys in my weight class and I was 170.1 pounds and when I went to that show I didn't even know I could be beat. And I'm broke.

Yeah. Wayno at the Bowrack handed two days before that bodybuilding show gave me my paycheck. It was $700. I went to Albertsons to get some more chicken. I leave my wallet on top of the car. Oh. I'm brain dead, right? I'm getting ready for this big show.

Yeah. You're just depleted. I lose my wallet. And so only money I have. I don't have a savings account. I'm 26. I've been working all these jobs, but now I'm working for Wayno with the Burrack. He hands me my paycheck.

I cash it. get some chicken. All my money's gone. I call Wayno. Wayno borrows me 700 bucks, right? And that he just paid me on my paycheck. But I'm like, wait, oh, I got to get to this bodybuilding show. So anyway, I get up to this bodybuilding show and I win this thing. And I just, but I didn't know that I could be beat. And that was the difference. Yeah. Yeah. Later, the internet came out. I started looking at other guys. You're worrying about other people. And I started losing. Yeah. Isn't that crazy? It's crazy. It's crazy because you're worried about it's just that. So it's it's in your mind.

I mean, it's all in your mind. Yeah. When you think you're unbeatable and you don't need different, you are unbeatable. You're unbeatable. I thought, I mean, I'm five, six and 170 pounds and I thought I was Arnold. You know, he's like six, four, two 80, bam. But in my mind going in there.

Yeah. And when I look at that video of that particular show and they're like scrolling across, everybody looks awesome. But the confidence level in my face and my smile. with my missing front tooth up there look kind of scary, but I was so confident that it was just like, bam, you know, like it was the deal, right? Hoyt archery has been my bow hunting sponsor since 2005. And personally, I really don't care what bow you shoot, what brand it is.

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so the elk will live a pretty low-stressed life, and you can taste that in the meat. They're offering listeners of the podcast a 15% discount using code cam 15 at state club. Dot firstlight. The link will be in the show notes of the podcast for those interested. When you talk about that, it does, it gets me thinking something as simple of smiling. Because I've seen people with bad teeth and they smile, you know, or they cover their mouth. Yeah. And I, you know, what you had to go through mentally, that had to be hard.

Yeah, it's super hard. It's like people take for granted like I got on my teeth. It's just like it's not even a thing you think about. Right. So if you don't, I can't, that had to be. Well, by the time I was 21 and it wasn't from a drug use, it was just my parents didn't take care of my teeth when I was little. But at the time I was 21, I'd lost 12 teeth. I still have none in the back of my mouth.

I don't have any teeth. They're gone. And I had to sleep with homeless people when I was 20, 17, 19. because I'd get an abscess in the tooth and I got no money. The jobs I had were minimum wage. They don't give me health insurance. And so there was this place that would pull your tooth. But you had to show up at 3 o'clock in the morning and get in line.

And then I'd show up at 3 o'clock in the morning in the cold. I'd wait a few hours. I'd go into this place and they would pull my tooth and I'd get back on the bus and go to work because I had no other option. So I had lost like 12 different teeth in my mouth by the time. I was in so much pain. And there was no reason to smile. I just kept believing that something had to be better.

And finally, were you faithful at that time? There was in and out of faith. Like, I have a strong faith now. But I did when I was young, but my life was so hard. And my wife's life was so hard. It was hard to, like, there was no, we weren't going to church. And I always believed, like, something inside of me when I was young was just like, man, there's got to be a God or something out there that's just bigger than what we are.

Did you pray? Not a lot. And I, and the funny thing is, is the years later around that, probably like 28, 29, things got really hard. And I was married to that girl for 13 years. You've met her. And we, she was homeless when I met her. She was 15.

I was 17. We both grew up pretty rough, right? So here we are living this life. And around like 28, 29. I'm deep into the anabolic addiction and I'm smoking a lot of marijuana to calm myself down from the anabolic addiction while I'm working the three jobs and I'm trying to live and my wife gets an addiction to heroin and life gets crazy, right? But that's when the faith got really strong. It got harder at that point at the same time. But those 13 years of all that grinding still led to some hard things and bad decisions. Yeah. And I had to work out of those in the later years in my life. But that's when the faith.

got really strong and and one of the stories like a testimony was the teeth thing right so Eric McCormick yeah he's master right I'm living with him uh and another guy because his wife had or girlfriend fiance at the time it passed away and so it's just a rough time right I'm my wife takes off I'm 30 I have three teenage daughters it's kind of when I met you right I'm I'm living with three girls Nick the trainer dude just this like beast of a human like trying to raise three daughters. I'm missing my teeth. Shit's a hot mess, you know?

And I go with Eric for the first time, and I go on a hunting trip. He never been hunting, really, except when he's a kid. I take him up to Oak Ridge, and we're driving around. And I'd been praying a lot. This particular year, it was 2011. It was the year we'll get into that story when I kind of met you more than I knew you. And I just felt God was like, you need to pray with this, man. And this particular day, he's cussing.

God. His wife just died. Downed. He watched her get carried away in a casket, right? Like, it was a bad deal. And he's like, just all the things like about God. And that day was the first time I ever prayed with someone. Because God was just like, I prayed with them. And I'm like kind of scared, but he's my buddy. So I prayed with him. I came home. There's no joke. Can't make this stuff up to where I was living. I was living in someone's house with my daughters. This guy was dating a dentist who went big will, alter beast, right? So he's dating. I remember her. She was kind of shredded too. She's shredded.

Yeah. She was hot, shredded. She's a cool chick. Renee Watts. And I get home from praying. I never prayed with anybody before my whole life. She comes up to me. And now all that, I just kind of told you about my teeth.

I've never, she comes up to me and she's like, hey, I want you to come to my office tomorrow. I'm going to help you fix your teeth. And I'm like, unreal, right? I'm like, ah. So I go there. In the next six months, she fixed my entire mouth and I got a front tooth. Wow. The minute, 20, 30 minutes or hours, not just a short amount of time after I prayed with someone for the first time.

It's powerful. It's powerful. And earlier that year, I had saved up $2,000. My wife was living on the street addicted to heroin. She had no front teeth. I thought that if I gave her my money to fix her teeth, that maybe it would help. And I did not like this woman. Right.

But God was like, give this woman your money. Even my daughter's like, you're crazy. That's all the money we got. And six months later, someone blessed me with, you know, do you know anybody else who ever just got free teeth?

Yeah. No. You know. And I, you can't explain that in any other way to me other than here I was nine months earlier. I finally had $2,000 saved up. I give it all the way to someone to fix their teeth.

And nine months later, I'm getting free teeth and I'm smiling. You're not going to convince me that there's not God. Yeah. Or some, sort of higher power after I did what he asked. Yes. I prayed with someone.

And now Eric is a big believer. And if you talk to Eric, right? And on that day, he was not. Right. Right. And it's just that, those scenarios, right? Yeah. Of that part of that, of your life that, where I'm just, I wake up every day and I give thanks.

Yeah. And you talk about the smiling and just you have to, right? It is, that is proof. I mean, the more you give, the more you'll receive. And I mean, you gave and you received. And I received. And I never read the Bible much. I still haven't, to be honest with you.

I'm a big believer, but I just, I'm not very good at reading. Didn't really go to school, so I don't read a whole lot. You know what I mean? I probably need to read. I see your daughter in the house. She's like, I'm like, what are you doing? She's like, I'm reading. I'm like, I go probably read more the sported than I read, you know, my whole life.

But you and me both. Yeah. That's all she does. But it's just that I realized then on that particular moment in my life that if I give, and I gave every dollar I had, I was broke again. But I just thought, oh man, maybe she'll do better. It didn't help. Right.

She still got high. And that's another story. But that was just another. But that's okay. Because we can't, we can't give in banking on, hey, I'm going to get it back and more. I mean, that's not why you give. That's not why you give. If you give and that's your intention, it's not going to happen.

It's not going to happen. You literally have to give for just the reason of giving, right? And you have to give with no expectations. and doesn't matter what the person you're giving to does or does with it. It's just what it's your journey and you helping someone else. And over the last 10 or 12 years, as I became more successful and made more money, I'm giving all the time. I just, all, everything I got.

I just give it with people. I actually just gave a car, a car to the same lady who I bought teeth for. Really? My wife, my ex-wife. Yeah. She didn't have a car. Okay. And I'm like, I'm like, wake up one day.

I got this little Honda, right? It's like beat up, but I drive it for like a putter. Yeah. And I'm like, God's like, you need to give that car away. And I'm like, no, God, I like this car, right? So I'm telling my, my kids, I'm like, hey, I'm going to go to Burger King. I'm going to set outside. I'm just going to give this car away to someone.

And then my middle daughter, who doesn't have a good relationship with her mom, but she has a lot of faith. She's like, you need to give that car to mom. And I'm like, no. Yeah. I can't give this car to mom, right? Like, this is no deal. And I hadn't talked to her in years. She's around, but I find her.

She's like, what are you doing? And I pick her up and I hand her the keys to this car. This is just last summer. And I drive her back to the gym and she drops me off. Now I got no car and I give my ex-wife this car, right? The funny thing is, is one of my teeth in the back is years later, started hurting. And it was right before this big race I was going to do last year. I started throbbing.

And I knew this other dentist, another trippy story about God, right? And I call this guy and I'm at it. And he's like, oh, just come. come down to my shop and meet me there at Saturday. He brings a guy in. He sits there for six hours and molds me a tooth, fixes it and sends me on my way. A week after I give my car away to the lady that I can't stand.

Yeah. Ten years after I bought her some teeth, it's still repaying me. Yeah, that's amazing. Right? It's amazing. It's just, it's when you wake up one day and you give all faith and you really believe and you give the glory, I just, you'll never convince me that it's, that it's not the way.

But those first four years of being a believer or what a, I don't know what they call it, because I don't do a lot of like the scripture reading, but like just praying and believing, I became homeless. I lost my wife. She got addicted to heroin. I slept on floors. I slept in cars with my three daughters. It wasn't.

So it was an immediate fix. No, it got harder. Yeah. It got harder for like three or four years. and then one day it got better. And then it got better and better. And now, like, you look at my life now, I got this beautiful wife and these kids

and these businesses and all this stuff. And it's like, oh, Nick the trainer, dude's living the dream. Ballin. Living good, baby. You know, taking trips with Big Joe. Well, I mean, but your attitude never changed, at least from what I saw, from when I met you in 2010, 2011. You've been even, I mean, and so it has,

It hasn't all been gravy because we had a fire coming through here. Big fire is weird because where we sit in the valley, normally the wind comes from the west and it's from the coast and it's blown to the east. Well, we had a big fire and the wind had switched and it blew to the west. It did. And so it blew that fire down into where people lived, which is where you lived. Absolutely. Yeah. And it was Labor Day weekend.

I was on a bow hunting trip with my wife and my two buddies. and we were on our way back and there was some smoke going on and stuff. There'd been a lot of fires that year anyway. You know, it was pretty rough. So we get home in like 5 p.m. We've been hunting for four days on Labor Day weekend, me and my wife and the boys and we get home

and it's smoky everywhere, but we just kind of go to bed at about 9 o'clock that night. We've been home for four us. We're exhausted. I got to get up and go to work. And at 9 our power shuts off. Didn't think anything of it. Power shuts off there all the time a lot.

Where you live up the river. We live up river in the mountains, right? And it was windy that night. We knew it was a storm, but just didn't think anything of it. And at midnight, I get a text message, and it's like emergency evacuate, like right now. And I go outside, and there's the highway look like Armageddon. Like, you can't even pull on my driveway. And there's ash coming everywhere.

And I'm like, oh, there's a fire. Right? And I go inside. I wake my wife up. I'm like, we got to leave now. And the only thing I had was my bow because it was in the truck from hunting. and a bag of like some hunting supplies and one laundry basket my three dogs and the kids and we jump in the truck and we head into town we go sleep at the gym because that was where we went and it

took us about two hours to get in right and that's about what 20 30 miles it's 20 minute drive 25 minute driving it took two hours because there were so many cars trying to get in and leave it felt like a movie was unreal the cops were going the other way firefighters were going into it and the next 12 hours we just kind of set around in awe, you know, like what's happening, what's happening. And then later that night, the first night, one of the firefighters, I know a lot of them, uh, called me and explained to me that my house was burned down to the ground. He sent me this pitcher. And there was nothing. And I like, I just fell to my knees, you know, and just started crying. And like, I had to go tell my wife, like,

hey, we just lost everything. Like there's nothing. There's like, there's nothing left. Everything is gone, you know. And I'm a pretty positive guy, right? Like, I've been through some stuff, and I, but going over to my wife and letting her know that everything we had just worked for for the last 10 years was gone. I have valued myself on becoming a hunter, right? And I got like a few animals in my trophy room, burnt. Everything's gone. The kids is, just everything, right?

There's nothing left. There's a big bunch of cement. What do you do? When you told her what happened? I just held her, you know, for a while. And then, of course, I couldn't sleep that night. And the next morning, like, I just got up and I went to my gym and I started cleaning my gym. It's 6 o'clock in the morning.

And I was crying like every hour. I'm just like bawling and then I'm cleaning. And then people started showing up, you know. And I just went to work. And I started, they're like, we don't need to. And I'm like, no, I need to. you know like it's gone it's they're nothing i do about it right now yeah i remember my wife that day she's like hey can i just have one day of you not being positive because i just want to be mad

for one day yeah and i'm like i'll give you one day but i said tomorrow we're going to wake up and we're going to go to work and we're going to live our life yeah because there's nothing we can do about it it is out of our control and it is hard and i'm sorry that we just lost everything and I lost everything for like the third time in my life this was a little different. It was in my new life with this wife and these beautiful little boys and they never experienced. You were living good.

You were making good decisions. Everything. Everything was right. I could see somebody questioning why me now. You know, I mean, you could be, you could turn into being the victim and being mad.

Mad. Because I'm living right. I'm doing everything right, God. Yes. Why did you take this from me? Why? Yeah. And I asked that.

I'm not going to love. lie like those thoughts went through my head but I just thought back to that kid again. I'm like bro, you got to keep hammering. Yeah. You got to show up. You got to go be. You're a positive influence for human beings in God's creation. Like it's not your time to sit here and why me.

I wanted to. Don't let me lie. Like my house burnt down. I saw, didn't you make a post and you were praying that was that morning? That was that morning. I was sitting in front of my gym like bawling praying like just couldn't control it. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Just breaking down. I was gone on a hunt. I was in Colorado. And yeah, I'll never forget that. Because you are great at praying. It is one of your gifts.

I love praying, yeah. And it's so genuine, it's heartfelt. But at that time, it was the same genuine and heartfelt, but also heart-wrenching because you lost everything. Yeah. You were in pain, but you're still praying. Yeah. And that's what made it so powerful to me.

Yeah, and it was, but that was like the reality of life. We talked about that the other day on the mountain, right? Like even at our worst day, it's still pretty good. Yeah. We, in this day and age in 20, 23, probably in most places in the world, and there's a lot that's not, but in most places, our worst day is still pretty good, right? It is. And I just reminded myself of that and I was like, you just got to keep going. There's something better.

There's got to be, and I just look back at all those situations I went through in my life. how hard it was, but I just kept waking up. And I had a vision and I kept trying, you know. And to be honest, like, you know, you were such a big part of my life before you were ever part of my life. And I picked up your bow hunting trophy blacktail book. I don't even remember where I bought it, like the sportsman's warehouse or something. I don't even remember what a year it came out, but it was years before I met you.

Yeah. So I'm reading this book because I want to kill a buck, right? Still haven't killed good bucks. I stopped. Besides the point, we don't need to talk about my hunting skills, right? You're the man. But I carried this book around for years. I like carried it with me on hunting trips.

Like, all right. There's a track. Like still. It's a heavy book too. It didn't work. All right. I didn't make good decisions.

I did a hard back. Yeah. Super thick paper full color. So if you packed out around. I backed it around for a long time. And I remember the coolest part for me and one of the biggest parts in my life. And as I was driving here today, I was kind of tearing up just getting even,

we're friends. I can come over here anytime. I come to your house whatever I want. Right. but like I carried your book around for a long time before you ever knew me. I drove past the Boerack and I felt ashamed because I was young and poor and had no money. I didn't go in there for like two years because I didn't think I belonged. And then I just and now like you and Wayne these people in this book, you guys are like my best friends.

And it's not real. You know, like there was a time where you were just people I read about in a book. And this morning I was talking to Wayno and now I'm on your podcast. It's not real. And you can't tell me that hard work, envisioning and believing in something doesn't pay off. Because there was just a time where I remember you coming in and I'm working at the bow rack and they're like, Cam's here. And I'm like, oh, I'm making your arrows. And Wayne's like, don't mess them up.

And you talk about nerves, you know. And then, you know, I remember the first time I killed this elk in the wilderness, you showed up. up to my gym that I was working at and you handed me a Ridge Reaper, I think, T-shirt. Yeah. Yeah. There was the best day of my life, bro. Like, I just killed a bull, which was awesome. That's a big deal. And you were just such a big part of a lot of people who listen to this and a lot of

people over the years that you've inspired that you don't even know. You were at that time before there was social media. You were that for me. And then to have you go out of your way to come to my gym and just, hey, good job. and then I remember later that week you made, you're like, I'm like, hey, let's work out. And you're like, come run with me. And I'm like, you remember making me run those mile repeats?

Yeah, over at South Eugene. Oh, my heart rate. You put these, strap this heart rate thing to me. Yeah. And he's like, all right, you're going to run a mile and you're going to rest three minutes, four times. Yeah. And I was like 190. Yes.

It was redlined. Yeah. And then you came and worked out with me. And then for a lot of years, we just, because our schedules worked and we just worked out together, you know. And it was, it was such a big part of me moving forward in my life and accepting not being ashamed of where I came from. Yeah. To just go be you and to just become friends with you because you're just the most genuine guy as well. You have such a presence in the world now that it's people who knows what everybody thinks something different.

But when I was living that over those next couple years and hanging out with you and I still didn't have any money, you're like, hey, come to my house and get some boots so you can go hunting. Or here's some binoculars or here's a backpack. I think everything I had was like, I was like, all my buddies always joke, oh, you're Cam Hayne sponsored, are you? I'm like, you just, you know, because you didn't do it because someone asked you to or it was just. And you would, I remember for years, a true story. I had shoes. I couldn't afford shoes for like years. I couldn't even buy a pair of Walmart shoes for like 15 bucks.

And I'd wear plastic bags in my shoes so my feet wouldn't get wet because there was holes in them. And then when I met you, you'd like show up with like four pairs of underarmor shoes and drop them off. And I'm like I felt like I was on the top of the world. You know, like here I was living this hard life. And now I'm making these changes. And I got people like you and these other people blessing my life. It just, it was unreal. you know, all the way down to the house burning down.

And the next day, you're like, hey, let me get you some clothes. A lot of people help. But you just, you were such a big part of that for me, my whole life. And you're still a part of my inspiration, even though we're like buddies, right? I'm up there doing 10 summits last Friday. That was impressive. And you were just in my mind, like, go do this, bro. Yeah.

Like, nobody cares. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, you help me too. I mean, I remember that the first time we lifted that was at, what, international? It was like 24-hour fitness or something like that. Yeah, yeah. And we got a picture over there kind of by the square. I remember Big Will, that's where he used to kind of go and be crazy over there.

And I think he did 100 squats of 225 or whatever he did. But we got a picture over there. Yeah. Or maybe it was on the curl machine. No, that was our first picture. You brought me some shirts. Yes. And it was like a sacrifice reward shirt.

And I'm missing my front tooth. But I didn't care. Like I'm jacked and I'm hanging out with Cam Haynes. And I think one of the boys, they were little then, but they came in with us. And it was probably Tanner. I don't even remember. They came in and worked out and took our picture. And I remember leaving that day.

And it was just like for me having to look up this because I didn't have people to look up to. I didn't have a dad's. My mom was married five times before I was 12. Like you were a role model in my life. And Wayne was a role model in my life. And I kept looking at you guys over the years and was like, what are they doing? You know, how do I live like that? And I just kept looking at your guys' lifestyles.

And I just, it's how I'm living now. I live your guys' lifestyle. But it's because I created that in my life, right? I found you. I seek you people out. And I just was inspired by the way you guys just consistently live your lives. And I'm like, I want that. Yeah.

You know, how do I live like that? It wasn't this money thing or this. It was just, I just wanted to live like that, you know? Like I remember it was New Year's Eve. I used to smoke a lot of pot, a lot of pot. A lot of pot. Even then, I was smoking a lot of pot when I knew you. I just hit it really well, but I smoked a lot of pot.

I'm driving over to New Year's Eve party at wane into Cod's house. Still smoking a lot of pot. You're there. There's all these people there. And for you listening, this isn't a New Year's Eve party. This is like a family get together where the men are talking. about they're hunting for the next year, talking about your businesses, your ideas, where you're going to fish, where are you going to hunt? And I'm rolling from the gym training people.

And I stop by the house and I smoke a joint. And I go over there and you're there and all these people are there. And I'm asking myself, I said, I looked at all of you and none of you were high or drunk. The women were outside trying to get some drinks. None of these men in this circle drink or party. It's not what you do. But here we are in New Year's Eve. And me and you were playing some stupid dress up game. I have a picture somewhere with like the Elsa frozen or something. We got some stupid wig on, right? And that night, it was the last time I ever got high that was 10 years ago.

And I woke up that day. And I was like, you're, I was lying to myself. Like, you say you want to live like these men and you aspire to live this life. But you have to go get high just for you go hang out with them. Bullshit. Yeah. I was being weak. Right.

And I woke up that day. And I never got high. again because I was done lying to myself even though I was doing all these good things but it was still my vice right and everybody has a dilemma like oh weeds good whatever I don't care smoke weed it's not it was my point it's not the point the point was I was being weak and from that day my life has never went backwards ever because I just woke up and I was like I'm never going not give a hundred percent into my life again and if I have a vice it's gone wow that was it I didn't know that.

It was a true story. You and Wayne there and I looked at you both and you were just sober. And you were talking about going hunting next year. And that was 2011. And then it was 2012 going into that year. Yeah. Or going into 13. It was 10 years ago right now.

Right. That year I met my wife. I opened my gym. I went on an out-of-state elk hunt with Wayno. I borrowed $1,500 at 29% interest, by the way, to go hunting. with Wayno out of state. But everything I'd been dreaming about came true. And I told God on December 31st, I said, I'm going to give you one year of being sober.

And if you don't dramatically change my life, I'm getting high forever because I love smoking weed. You know, I love it. And on December 31st of that year, I have the three daughters and all that hard life. And now I got this wife and this new girl. On December 31st, we're at the doctor's office and I find out I'm having a son. And God's like, here you go, here's a son, here's a wife, here's a business. Stay sober. Never got high ever again.

And I never will. Never. I want to sometimes. Because I just like, the weed stores right next to the gym, everybody's smoking. I'm like, ah, I can just get on one. But I can't because it wasn't the point. Right. My life dramatically changed because I asked God.

And I've been praying for a couple years at that point, right? But you were just at so many different parts of our relationship and these other men in my life for just a part of that process. But yeah, it's, you know, you bringing all that up. It's one reason I think I'm very protective of my friends. I know you are. Because people can talk shit about me. Yeah.

Whatever. It's been happening for a long time, over 30 years. Yeah. But when, because I know what you went through or people used to talk shit about Roy sometimes even. Yeah. And it's like nothing makes me. more mad when I see just this hate that's just unnecessary. There's no reason.

And because I've never even really thought about it, but it's like you saying all that and all that. It's like how many people are just like you that just need a little bit, just a boost? And then they see now with social media, they see somebody taking a shit on them or all the time. And it's just like how many dreams are you fucking up? Because of that. Yes, because you just can't be nice.

Yeah. I mean, I just was irritated last night because we had Dale Brisby out here and he's shooting a bow. And people are like, what it's like his first day shooting a bow and people are like, oh, correct. And I'm like, what the, can you guys just chill out? Can you chill out and just say, hey, good job. And so it just, you telling that and then it's like always been a big thing for me. It's like hate on me, yes, fine.

But these guys who are given their best, fucking let them. Let them be. Let them be supportive. And it's hard for people to do that, you know. And I mean, I'm just a nice guy. People have a hard time hated me because I'm so, I just love you all, right? And I remember about that particular thing, you got in this big situation with one of your magazines because you put an article in there with me in it. I remember years ago.

It was like a great day for me, by the way. Like I'm in the magazine. And there was some of these people. I don't know the exact story. but they were hating on us, right? Or making fun of me or something like that. I didn't care. Like what?

I didn't even bother me. But you were just livid that these people would go out of their way to do this. And it's just people, right? They're just. I never wrote for that magazine again. So it's like that's how much it means to me. But it's just like I just don't, I don't know. Life is fucking hard.

It's super hard. And it's in this day and age, like to have a friend like you and to like just be where we're at. And because people don't know you. I've gotten to know you over the last 10 or 12 years on some level and we spend a lot of time together on and off. But we're just dudes that take care of our family and we get up in the morning and we just try hard. And we're not doing it for any other reason. It's not for money. It's not for social status.

It's just because there's this desire inside of us to be great. Yeah. And if we don't try every day, what's the point? Yeah. People die today. Yeah. They're dead. Yeah.

They're dying right now. Right now. Mm-hmm. And you're waiting until tomorrow. Yeah. It just doesn't make sense, you know? And getting and surrounding myself with guys like you and Waino and then this is other great men in my life. It's got me to where I'm at today.

You know what I mean? Through all these different triumphs. And yeah. And it's still hard. I'm living in a trailer right now because the house burned down. But you are having a house built. I am building. the house with my bare hands.

How sweet says, Nick the trainer dude is going to have a brand new house. But you're working for it too. It's good. I have never owned a home. I'm 43. I didn't never. No one taught me. Right.

Still, don't know how to, I can't get a long. I don't know. I don't own a home. But I worked at a bank before too. I did work at a bank with my missing front tooth. That was hilarious.

I owed the bank money when they gave me that job. Really? Yeah, because I sold the, the manager of the bank of gym membership. He calls up the gym and he's like, hey, I need to get some prices. I want to come work out.

I'm like, sorry, bro. We don't get prices over the phone. And he's like, well, then I'm not coming in. I'm like, cool, where are you at? He's like, I'm at work. I'm at the bank. I drove to the bank and I sold the guy a membership at the gym. And he was so impressed that like for two years, he's like,

you got to come work for me at the bank, you know? So I leave the trainer, dude, and I go become a banker. That wasn't good. It was fun. Two years I worked at the bank, but really? Yeah, yeah. And I had a fake tooth by then. I had to take it in and out.

Yeah. But I was still smoking weed at the time, right? So I forget sometimes because I go outside and like smoke a joint, go back in, handle people's money, not good, right? And then I forget to put my front tooth back in. It was a hot mess, you know. It was just another time in my life where I was just living, right? Trying to, trying to be great, you know.

Well, and one thing that I do for your journey now, and I see it, I see your boys. You're raising your boys. You know, you've had three daughters when you were very young. Yep. And now I see these boys and they seem so happy. Yeah. They seem so energetic. They're little beasts.

Yeah. I mean, how is that being a dad now the second time around? Basically, you've been dad for your whole life. Basically your whole life. Ever since I was a kid. Yes. Is it different now? 100%.

There's a lot of, uh, um, at first there's, I don't know what the word is, but like I was, you know, because of the relationship with my daughters, even though I have a great relationship with them, right? We all just love each other so much. But I felt guilty. because I get to give the boys this different life. Right. You know, but there's just so much love, you know, and there's just like, I fished with them.

Like, my life exists right now because of them. I don't care anymore. I've done everything I wanted to do. I'm only 43, but I did so much cool stuff. Yeah. When I shouldn't have been able to. Like, I go do things for them. Like, they're the reason I, like, I'm just, I want them to win.

I want them to smile. I want them to suffer. I want them to work hard. And, but I love, I love it. I love being a dad. We just had a baby girl on Christmas Day. Like I have six kids now. I have six grandkids.

Like I'm 43. Right? Like and but being a dad now is, it's the same. But I get to spend time with them. I didn't get to spend time with my girls ever. Right. I just didn't get to. I was three jobs.

I never saw him. I never. I was never home. And Maddie has been, I love Maddie. I mean, what is her Instagram? Mad booty.

Yeah. Yeah. Because she got the booty. You know what I mean? Like mad booty. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, she is just one of a kind.

And I love seeing you guys happy. I love seeing your kids happy. I love Nick the Trinity journey. And it was so special the other day. So you were in a contest with Sean Remington's. Yeah. Got another trainer. Yep.

You guys started on February 1st. The goal was to climb 50,000 feet. And whoever got there first in the month of February was the champ. Right. There's no trophy or money. But our little mountain over here is a thousand feet. What is it? It's a thousand feet.

Give or take what the GPS says. Some days it's 9.96. And some days it's a thousand 20, but it's a thousand feet. In about a mile and a half. 1.4. Yeah. Right. So it's like you guys were hitting that mound.

Hard. And it was neck and neck. We were like down. Well, you were out there with me. You didn't know this was going on. You were just like, hey, let's get some summits in. I'm like, cool. I got to get something in anyway.

Right. And then, but Sean was ahead of me all the whole time. because I'm, I'm, I'm busy. Right. But I'm getting summits in at two in the morning, nine at night, 10 at a time, whatever. I'm just getting them in. But I'm still behind.

Four thousand feet. I'm behind. So I'm like seven or eight summits, which is about a 45 minute round trip when you're fresh for me. And about 55 when you're tired. Yeah. And you and I, you did 11 and I was at 9.

And I got one more in and a half. And I was on my way back. down and Sean only had two to go. Yeah. And he comes from work and I see his headlamp coming up in the dark. What time was that? It was like 9 o'clock. It was like 8.39.

Yeah. No, no, no. That when I saw it was about 7.30. Okay. When I saw it, we finished about 9. But it was dark. It was dark. It's dark. It had been out there since I met you at noon, right?

And it's dark. And but when I saw his headlamp, like, I was relieved because I was like, oh my gosh, it's done. Yeah. But at the same time, I was crushed because I just grinded 50,000 feet almost just to be a thousand feet behind him. Yeah. But it was so cool just to like be living and just have a competition with someone.

A healthy competition. For no reason. Right. And everybody's like, you're crazy. And I'm like, why? Because we're climbing a mountain. Yeah. I even had a guy this month was like, you're being a little too healthy.

And this is a smoker and a drinker. Like he's out of shape. And he's like, I think you're just being too healthy. I'm like, is there anything like too healthy? You know, but it was just awesome. And watching another man like, sacrifices sold just to beat me. Yeah.

Right. For nothing. He's, he's tough too. He's tough. Yeah. That's a lot of grinding. I did 25 summits in from Friday at 7 p.m.

till Wednesday. To Wednesday at 7 p.m. I did 25 summits in like 63 miles on a mountain. There was like 25,000 feet of climbing. I know that. I mean, I've cramped the, the night.

Like no one knows this, but like after you left and I made it. get back to the gym. I had to sleep on the couch. I cramped so hard that I belly crawled to the bathroom and I was biting the couch because I was in so much pain. But no one's there. I'm like belly trot in those tendons in my legs because I, the last hour, we were drinking all day. Remember we were peeing and drinking and we were good? I forgot I didn't drink for like an hour and a half. Well, that caught up to me. And it didn't while I was working. But when I was done, I got up to go pee at midnight and I moved off the couch and my legs.

locked up and I'm belly crawling and I'm like, why? I'm like into so much pain and I was like, you're such a ding-dong. You could have just been in bed at your trailer with your woman. You know what I mean? And here you are laying on the gym floor at midnight. And I got to work in four hours, you know, I got people coming in just ready for me to be motivating. Right. You know, the whole deal, you know, but it was just, it's the grind. It's fun. Now it's over and you're like, what's next? Yeah. No, it's, we, I don't know, that, that little mountain, it's so, I mean, My brother's always there. Always.

We saw Tanner there. Tanner, like, I'm there. Here comes Tanner in some white socks, which I haven't seen anybody wear since like 1980, right? And some shoes that look like crocs, but he said they were something different. I don't know. He called them bands. Yeah, but they had holes in them. They were like plastic crocs.

And it's snowing. Yeah. He's just casually cruising up the mountain twice. And then we were talking about, so my brother's there all the time. too. But we haven't seen him in a few days. We haven't seen him in a few days. We called a check on him. He's good. But he, I looked up his stats, he's climbed 117,000, or 118,000 feet of climbing, your brother, since January 1st. This was four days ago. Right. And over 420 miles running. And this dude has a full-time job.

Yeah. He's, he's, yeah, he's one of a kind for sure. He's tough in the mountains. That's why people, I always wondering, I asked a sheep guide just last night because I knew Taylor had been putting in a bunch of miles, but I'm like, I wonder how a sheep guide who that's what he does for his job compares. And so I asked him, but he's one of the most famous sheep guides there is, but he didn't know. And I didn't know if people track it. Yeah, because everybody's wearing watches and stuff. Yeah. I just knew Taylor, you know, he'll get 500,000 feet of climbing a year.

Yeah. I mean, it's just what he does. And it's just like, I don't know if people realize how much work that is. That's so many miles. It's so many. And why he's so good at running. Yeah. It's just who he is.

I mean, at that point, I had put in like 76,000 feet this year. This was a few days ago. Now I'm at like 85. And all I've done is gone to the mountain. Yeah. I've literally been there at one, two, three o'clock in the morning a lot this year. And this dude's 50,000 more feet ahead of me. Yeah.

It's just, but it's that same desire, right? You talk to Taylor and he lived a certain life and made some decision. that weren't great. And he changed it. And it's the same thing. And it's why it's so cool. Like I love health and fitness. I love what I get to do for my life and helping people like change their life.

And it just boils back to like moving and having a desire. And it was the vision of what I wanted out of my gym and how I made it happen and what I get to do with my life and what you inspire people to do. Like I remember you told me one time you were at a trade show and you're Cam Haines, you're the bow hunting guy. But no one talked to you about bow hunting. They only talked about running. Yeah.

Yeah. You're like, it was so weird. Everybody just wanted to talk about my 200-mile run and they weren't interested in the big bull I killed, you know? Right. I mean, whatever means we have, we can connect with people. We can, I think that's the message to what I see in you is like connecting with people because everybody knows Nick the trainer dude. Everybody knows your smile. But you can make people better.

Yeah. And what I've always said, if we're not here to make a positive impact on the world, then what's the point? What are we doing? That's what we're supposed to be lifting each other up. Absolutely. And you exemplify that better than anybody that I know. I mean, like I said, when I see you, I'm automatically up. And it's like, that's so valuable.

I mean, I appreciate you so much for what you offer the community and what you offer me. Well, I appreciate that. And I just, I love you, man. It's been a, it's just awesome. I'm just a blessed man to have everybody a part of my life to be here, to share part of my story. just but even just more than that it's just like uh it's just it's just life is pretty cool man and and it's it is hard everything about it is hard and it's hard right now but it's so cool when you just get up and you just go be your best you know and and and for me faith is a big part of it

and just waking up and giving glory to god and just like today my worries are not mine they're yours i'm just going to go have fun and if i feel like praying with people i'm going to praying if I have to give my car away. I'm going to give my car away right or whatever it is. You know, my wife, she's always like, man, you give away all of our money. I'm like, I don't care. You know, like it just like, I just, it watching other people smile. What is better than that? I don't know. Because it's hard. Yeah. No matter who you are, I don't care who you are. You'd be the wealthiest person, the hat, what, smiling. And I didn't for so long. Mm-hmm. That it's why, you know, you know, no, and no one saw me then.

You know, no one knew me, but I just was hiding. I was scared. What, what is the, I'm doing all those jobs and all this stuff? What's the purpose? What's the purpose? And even now, like, I suck it running. I'm a crappy bow hunter. I'm getting better.

When we ran together that first time you met me, it's like, that was pretty good pace. You're the good runner. I'm moving awesome and I feel good. But I'm not like, I'm never going to be like the world's best bodybuilder or the world's best bow hunter or the world's best runner. But I keep, you say it a lot of the people. people say it and I've had to realize it to myself. I'm like,

you're just a man with a great heart. Yeah. And that's your purpose, bro, is share that love. And I do these things for me, these weird, hard things because I want to do them. But I'm realizing as I'm aging, like my purpose is to just hug people,

make them feel better and give you hope because I don't care where you're at in your life or how hard it is. there's a better day coming. There is a better day coming and you just have to go through that storm, baby. And you've got to smile while you're doing it. Yeah. Because there is a better day.

And I'm realizing at this point in my life that I'm not going to go win a hundred mile race and I'm not going to be the top bodybuilder in the world or my best bow hunter. I mean, I've hunted like 20 years and killed like six bulls, you know, like I'm still going to go. Yeah. And I'm going to try. And I still haven't killed bigger than a two point buck in 20 years. I've killed a lot of two boys because I can't not shoot. Yeah, I understand. But that's not my purpose.

You always talk about like your passion for bow hunting makes you live, right? And it has your entire existence. And I kept wondering, what is it for me? Is it bodybuilding? Is it ex? What is it? And it's just, it's stopping on the street just like I did the other day. And I just see someone struggling.

And I just get out of my car and I give him a hug and I hand him some chips and I'm like, go get some lunch, buddy, have a great day. Yeah. And they're like, why are you give the gas station guy like 20 bucks? And he's like, oh, my best day ever. You know, that's my purpose. That's, I mean, that is a beautiful purpose. Yeah.

And I love it. I mean, it's that giving heart. It's that loving heart. If that's, I don't know if there could be anything more powerful than a purpose like that. Yeah. You are living it. You are doing it. You make me better.

And I appreciate you. I appreciate you, man. And I thank you very much for just having me here. And it was an honor to be here just being with you. I appreciate it. Well, I'm excited to watch you to keep crushing it. And you're going to get 100 mile or,

first you're going to get 100K, then you're going to get 100 miler done, right? Yep. I got three planned. I got a 50K in one month. And I'm going to go test myself. I've been running a lot. And I'm going to take this month.

and train a little differently than all the summits. I'm going to still get lots of climbing in, but I'm going to do some more running on flat and just incorporate it all. And then I'm going to go race 50K, which a year ago was just like, let's finish a 50K. So I just want to see what time I can get. And then in July, I'm going to go to 100K. And with like 12,000 feet of climbing,

and the last 4,000, I guess, are at the end. So it's going to push me. And then I signed up for 100-mile August 26th with a buddy of mine. Big Joe. Big Joe. Yeah. And I'm just so pumped right now to, like, go on this journey. I am having a hard time because I like being jacked.

And I think I'm still jacked, but I feel, you know, because you know me, right? I just feel skinny. And I don't care, though. I'm just like, I'm lifting still. I'm doing my thing. I eat eight times a day, whatever. But this is what I'm doing right now. And as long as I can stay injury free, I'm going to go through with this.

And then I'm going to go hunting. Yeah. And I'm going to try and kill a couple of bowls. And I got a brand new. house and I got to replenish the mountains in there. You know what I mean? So I'm going to go and my boy gets to hunt this year for the first time and I'm just so pumped because he's nine. And I get to go like take him and use some mentor tags and like I'm just so blessed. You know what I mean? To be where I'm at in my life. And it's just such a it's all of it is awesome, man. It's just great.

I'm I'm happy that you're so happy. It like it warms my heart. I love hearing the stories. I love hearing of the big goals and I know you're going to crush them. And even if you don't, you're going to be smiling. I'm still going to smile. Because we've already overcome so much. No, I was talking with Sean yesterday after he crushed me and I'm like sitting there like, but I was like there's never going to be like you said it like the 100 miles going to be the hardest day ever, right?

And I thought about that a lot and I'm like, it's going to physically, it's going to push me. But I, but because I've already lived such hard days, right, it had nothing to do with fun. Right. There can never, I'm never going to live that hard pain again. Yeah. Right. And it was why like when the house burned down, I'm just up the next day, mopping the gym floor. Let's go to work. Because we're just going to keep going. People are going to die. People are going to get sick. We all have things, right? You have to keep going. Yeah. Until your day is done. Right. And if you don't know what your purpose is or you don't know what that thing is, keep going until you find it. But sitting around, thinking about it is not going to get you there.

No. You have to go do three hard jobs that mean nothing to find out that you don't want nothing to do with those three jobs. And I do believe that. I do believe God he can, he'll, he's going to reward effort. So if he sees you not doing shit, you're probably not going to get many blessings. Not many. But if you're working, that effort will be rewarded.

Absolutely. At some point. Who knows how long it'll take. Maybe it takes 10 years. Like you said, you had harder days after you had faith. But eventually, here we are. It got better. And, you know, I was thinking about that, that race will be your hardest day physically.

But the difference is, is that pain will be temporary. Yes. Where when you were grinding and you were in pain, you didn't, you didn't know if it was ever going to end. I did it. I really didn't know. I questioned it a lot. I cried a lot. It was sad.

Like, and I didn't know. You know, when I was in rehab, when I was 17, I cried so much. They gave me like this bottle of shampoo when I graduated. They said no more tears. because life was just hard. Yeah. And I was only 17. I ain't even started the hard stuff yet,

but just the way I was raised was hard. There was some bad stuff, right? That's a whole other podcast, right? There was just a lot of stuff. And then how I was raised, it was hard. Yeah, I bet. And, but it, it, it, it, uh, it, we just, we just keep moving forward, you know, and, and enjoying.

And having that goal out there, though. Yeah. Like, that's exciting. You know how long I wanted to run 100 miles because of you? Like, honestly, like for a long time. And it is scared. the living shit out of me. Like, I'm still scared, but I'm more confident because I keep doing hard stuff.

And I'm like, that day I did the first 10, I built in the house with a buddy, we're doing it together. So I worked 10 or 12 hours on the house, hauling sheets of plywood. Then I went and did the 10 summits. Then I didn't sleep. And then I hold more sheets of plywood for 12 hours. And I was like, oh, this was 48 hours of getting ready for 100. Yeah, right. I was on my feet.

It was all training. Oh, it was miserable. Yeah. But it was just training, right? And I'm like, but having that vision, just like those bodybuilding shows or how I opened my gym or all these things. And you, you constantly every year have, I don't know them, but you know them. I guarantee you already know what you're doing this year or what you're going to go attempt. Yeah.

And that's where people make the mistake, right? You're, pick something. Yeah. It's hard. Yeah. It scares you in every aspect of your life and then go do it. Yeah. And if you fail, get up and try.

again. Yeah. Yeah. Just keep hammering. That's why I love your stuff. Everybody in my whole life, I always wear your stuff, right? And they're like, why don't you wear your own stuff? And I'm like, I don't, what is my stuff? I'm just a trainer dude. You can't get anything better than keep hammering and nobody cares work harder. Right. Or yesterday I wore must be nice. I love it. Well, I mean, let's keep setting those big goals. Yep. Let's keep crushing it. You keep making people smile. I appreciate it. And it's going to be a win. It is going to be a win.

I appreciate you. I love you too, man. Thank you. Cabellas and Bass Pro Shops is a sponsor of the podcast. And that's especially powerful for me because I remember when Cabellas came to town, came to Springfield, Oregon. And I actually played a role in the opening of that store. Instead of cutting the grand opening ribbon with scissors, I shot it with an arrow.

And it was just a monumental thing. I mean, everybody here in town was talking about, hey, are you going to go to Cabell? Can you believe Cabellas is coming here to Springfield, Oregon? So I know what a staple, those giants in the industry are. And it's actually, it's one of the first places people go when they're looking to get geared up to become a hunter as they go to Cabellas and buy everything they need. So I'm very excited that we've partnered together and we can help open up those outdoor and hunting opportunities to listeners of this podcast. Loophole optics has been providing my binoculars and eyewear for the last few years. I like that it's an Oregon company, and they make such high-quality glass.

That's all I've really used. And if you can't find what you're hunting, it's going to be tough to kill. So loophole optics has really played an integral part in my success these last few years. Thank you, Loopold, for supporting the podcast.