EntreLeadership - #336: Run the Mile You're In with Ryan Hall

Episode Date: August 19, 2019

The road to success for Olympic athlete and American half-marathon record holder Ryan Hall has been paved with countless miles—and way more failures than successes. But surprisingly, he wouldn’t have it any other way. In fact, Ryan says every challenge and disappointment was pivotal in his journey to become one of the greatest long-distance runners in the world. Tune in as Ryan shares how he has applied the lessons learned on the track to leadership, life, and his spiritual walk with God.   entreleadership.com/podcast Run the Mile You're In by Ryan Hall Ryan Hall's website The Passion Paradox by Brad Stulberg and Steve Magness Episode #288: Dr. Henry Cloud—5 Keys to Future Success 10 Days to Get Back on Track Review this episode for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card   Want expert help with your business question? Call 844-944-1070 and leave a message or send an email to [e-mail]. You could be featured on a future podcast episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Being able to laugh at your failures is the most freeing thing in the world. Because then you're not afraid to take the risk. You're not afraid to fail because you will fail if you take risk. Helping business leaders grow themselves, their team, and their profits. This is Entree Leadership. Now here's your host, Ken Coleman. Coming to you from the Music City, this is the broadcast of leaders by leaders, four leaders.

Thank you so much for joining the conversation. Well, we get two great conversations for you this episode. The first, Alex sits down with Ryan Hall. You runners out there already know that this guy's the Michael Jordan of distance runners. The greatest distance runner in American history. Really good stuff. You're going to love it. And then Daniel Tarty, you know him well.

I call him the Grand Puba of all things, Entree leadership. He joins Alex in the studio as well for a very important topic on finishing the year well. So let's get to it. You know him well now. He's Alex Judd, our entree leadership coach, and of course, the host of the Entree Leadership Summit and Entree Leadership Master's Series. Alex, welcome back. Thanks so much, Ken. Glad to be here. Now, I know the backstory on this. I don't know how many of our listeners know that you are an avid runner, to say the least. I love to run. You're a marathon maniac. How many marathons have you run? I have done. I just did my 19th two days ago. That's amazing. So this had to be a little extra special for you, given that you understand. And here's a guy who takes distance running to another level.

Oh, this was surreal. Ryan Hall has ran the fastest half marathon and marathon time of any American ever. But perhaps more impressive is the level of passion and purpose and vision and intentionality. He brings both to running, but also everything else he does. I learned so much from this conversation. I know our audience is going to as well, whether you run or not. So here's my conversation with Ryan Hall. So I want our listeners to hear the story of Great Bear Lake.

That's kind of where your story into the running community really starts. So give us a little bit of context of what that story is and why that matters so much to you. Yeah, there's something that fell back on over and over and over again, you know, because my road was filled with way more failures than successes. So people often ask, like, how did you get through all those tough times? Because, like, there was long stretches, like three years at Sanford where I was terrible running, you know? So it's like you got to like keep getting yourself back up, keep believing. And so falling back on this original vision is what kind of got me through those moments.

And so to tell you this story, I was 13 years old, hated running. It's playing baseball, basketball, and football. I had zero desire to run. my dad, he was a runner, and he'd watch me, like, run the bases in baseball and PE. Like, I'd run, like, good times for the mile, even though I hated it, you know? Yeah. But I always kind of like to push myself, even if I didn't like something, you know? So I ran fast in eighth grade.

But didn't enjoy it at all? Hated it. Yeah, I hated it. So then one day I was going down to a basketball game. And the problem here is I'm in eighth grade. I'm five foot tall and a hundred pounds. So, like... Going to a basketball game.

Yeah, trying to play basketball. I was, like, sitting bench. Like, I never got to play. and I would hustle and be running like crazy in practice. And no matter how hard I tried, like, that was just like too big of the obstacle for me to overcome. But I remember just kind of looking out over the lake in my hometown and just feeling like God just kind of planning this weird desire that seemed very much like outside myself

to try and run around the lake. And it's 15 miles around the lake. So it's a pretty big journey for a 13-year-old. This is not a pawn. And you just said, like, I want to run around that. Yeah. So I went home. I told my dad what I wanted to do.

And like I said, he was a runner. And so I'm so grateful he wasn't just like, listen, let's start with like three or four miles. But instead he's like, all right, you feel like that's what God's telling you do. Let's go do it. So we laced up our shoes the next Saturday and went out as a super long, super slow, very painful, blistered feet. Like the whole thing, you know, had to stop multiple times. So up to that point you hated running. Did you hate that?

Yeah. You hated that. Yeah, yeah. And like, even throughout my career, like, you go in and out. of hating running, like within a run. Like for the first, like half of you're like, this is so great, this is so great. And then like five minutes later, you're like, this sucks. Get me out of here.

So there's always a little bit of love, hate. But at that point, like, I still just didn't enjoy running. But you finished. You did the 15 miles. So I finished. Came home, collapsed on the couch, super tired. And it just felt like I was telling me, I've given you a gift to run with the best guys in the world, but I gave you that gift so you could help other people.

And that was the moment everything changed for me. And that was the moment. I believe that that was my destiny, was like, to go to the Olympics and to run in the games and run with the best guys in the world. So spent the next 20 years going after that and just learned, oh, man, so much through all the struggles, all the good times, like everything,

just encounter God over and over and over again and got to the end of it and decided I should write a book to share it with people. Yeah, no kidding. So you were 13 years old and you had a vision for what the destiny of your life was going to be. Yeah, which is super powerful because people often ask me like,

were you surprised when you qualified for the first Olympics or set the American record in the half marathon? And I'm not trying to be like proud, but the answer is always like, no. Like, I believed it from the time I was 13. So that's so powerful, you know, because I believe that what you believe about yourself is going to come out of you.

So at that moment, I started to believe that, and I started to act totally differently. So I went to bed earlier. I started eating better. I started obviously training, you know. But my whole life, lifestyle shift, all my friends, like I stopped being friends with all my friends, not intentionally, but just because I was going after something that they weren't.

I mean, you said it changed your life, right? You said your actions immediately changed. Where does that take you? So I had initial success right away. And I think that's something, you know, like to say, like you don't know what your calling is your vision, where you should go. I think that's something to pay attention to. It's like, if you have an inkling that this might be the road that you're supposed to travel, start moving in that direction and see what happens. And so for myself, I started running and bam, things started clicking. You know, I went from a kid who was struggling, playing baseball, basketball,

football, like just getting destroyed in all those sports to, like, winning every race. And not to say that's going to be everyone's experience, but if you are having, like, success right away at something, that can be a sign that you have some ability and some talent and some influence in this area. And so I did have that kind of initial, like, really high success. My goal is to break four minutes for the mile when I was in high school. didn't quite get there. I ran 402 at the California State meet. Man, you're slacking, man.

Yeah, no. No, 402 in high school. That's unreal. Did you start to enjoy running at that point, or were you primarily still just enjoying the fact that you were seeing success? Or how do you, like, how do you do that now? Yeah, how do you even separate those, right? Because it's like being successful is fun. No joke. But I think for myself, like, it was that moment of like knowing this was my destiny, what I was called to do. that all of a sudden this became an all-consuming, like, passion, you know? And people often ask me, because with running, you have to be so disciplined with your sleep,

nutrition, your training, all that stuff, you know? And they're like, how do you be so disciplined? Like, I'm struggling with discipline in my life. And I tell people, like, when you're in love with something, it's not that hard to do it, you know? I mean, I have my moments. Like, don't get me wrong where motivation is lagging and I got to kick myself out the door. But in general, like, if I'm this true for myself, spiritual, too. It's like, I want to be, like, excited about spending time with God. I want to encounter God

in, like, really real ways and situations, doing stuff that I like to do, whether it's weightlifting or running or fishing or hiking with my kids. One of my favorite chapters in your book is the chapter titled Sacrifice, and I love how you tie it so distinctly to the topic of focus. It strikes me that when you were making those sacrifices, like, there's no way you knew in the moment, like, I have zero doubt. This is the exact right thing to do for my destiny. You are, there's never a surefire answer. So how do you, I mean, it's a degree of faith and trust. Is it right? And even risk, you know, it's like, I believe this is going to happen. But like you said, I didn't know for sure it was all going to work out. And there was a lot of moments of doubting being like, is all this sacrifice

I'm making? Is it worth it? Is it going to pay off? And kind of what I discovered on that note is it's always worth it. When you're going after something with everything inside you, at least the feeling of satisfaction that I would experience in going after that thing, it was worth it. The journey is worth it. Even if you don't get to the destination that you thought you'd get to, and even for myself, you know, I did run with the best guys in the world.

But there was a lot of things in the sport that I didn't get to do that I wanted to do, like win Olympic gold medal or set a world record. You know, there's all these other things that I didn't experience. but it was worth the journey. It was worth those hard moments and enduring those just to be on that path and going after it. Remarkable. Okay, so whether you know it or not, you're talking to the potential entrepreneur or the business owner right now,

the way you talk about risk and stepping out and doing it. And I know you're talking about starting a business or you are starting a business right now as well, but I like the way that you talk about letting fear drive your actions versus just being bold. How do you reconcile those two things in your mind? You view fear in terms of decision making. Right. So I love the topic of risk because I think that's what set me apart as a runner is I was willing to take risk. And so my wife now we talk about this all the time with training because in running it's really relevant because we talk about high risk, high reward.

And it's like I risked a lot how I trained in terms of like the harder you train, the more you run, your chance of injury just comes way way up, you know? So you got to decide like, am I willing to take the risk to see? the high reward that I'm going for. It's gambling. Yeah, it really is. And for me, like, I loved taking high risk, but, like, it didn't pay off. Like, you know, nine times out of ten times, it did not pay off. Because you'd result in injury or something like that?

Or I'd blow up, you know, and you see this all the time with the African runners who are dominating our sport. Like, there'll be a pack of, like, 50 of them all in the front pack. And some of them have no business being there. But for them, it's, like, a risk they're willing to take. and like 90% of those guys just blow up run terrible maybe don't even finish the race because they went too hot out the game right but what i learned from them the african guys like i look at them and they're not showing any expressions of like excessive joy or excessive like i just blew up and dnft and did not finish yeah and i can't tell because they don't take their failures personally like it's just something that happened to them it's like they're observing a cloud in the sky and where like the westerners like were myself included, I'm wearing it all over me. You know, you can just look at me and be like, oh, he had a bad day today. But I think it comes from how you frame your failures. And this is something that I had to grow a lot

in throughout my career because early on, when I was 13 in playing baseball, if I struck out, I would start crying afterwards. Like, just because I put so much pressure on myself, you know. And then fast forward 20 years and learning to how am I going to view failure and choosing to frame it in a positive way, choosing to see it as an essential step to get me to where I wanted to go. 20 years later, I did this fun challenge where I got into weightlifting, and I wanted to try and bench press my PR in the marathon, so 20-4. I want to try and bench press it 20 times. And so I get through 19 reps. And on the 20th rep, like I'm going up and just struggling so much, you know, I'm like shaking and stuff. I literally get it like, I'm like an inch from like locking out my elbows

and getting it, right? And I can't do it. And so, like, I have safeties on the side so I don't kill myself and I put it back down. But, like, I put it back down and I immediately, without even thinking about it, just started laughing. Like, I thought it was so funny that I could be so close to being successful in achieving this and then not be able to do it. And that's the same kid that cried when he struck out. So that's the journey I went on of, like, how do I view failure? And, like, being able to laugh at your failures is the most freeing thing in the world. Because then you're not afraid to take the risk. You're not afraid to fail because you will fail if you take risk, you know. Your half marathon time is 59-34. You're 43.

59. I would take the 34 though. That sounds very mean. Very good. Very good. So I was going to ask you if those times stand out to you. Clearly they do. What's the mile split on that? So, 433 per mile. Yeah, that was my average pace for the half marathon. That was in Houston? I'm from Texas, so that makes my heart happy. Tell us the story that day. Yeah, oh man, that was one of those moments where it was like it was all worth it, you know, like going through all these failures, all these down hard times, like it was all worth it in that moment. Like it paid off. And this was the American record. American record. So how old were you when you ran this? 23, 24 somewhere right now. Okay, so it's 10 years after you have this vision in their lake. Right, right. And you talk about like 10,000 hours like Malcolm Gladwell's thing, totally like true. Like I had put in about 10,000 hours at that time. But it's one of those days where,

man like things were just clicking and to me like this just reinforces this idea of like running it's it's science but it's also art you know and like sometimes and there's mystery like i don't know why i was feeling so good like my training just gone phenomenal and i was training from my first marathon i wasn't even training for this race but i just felt like a million bucks you know is and i could tell like something special is going to happen my my parents actually they weren't going to come to the race but i stopped through big bear on the way to houston And I asked my mom for a haircut, and she's like, are you feeling good? Because before, like, if I'm feeling really good before big races, I'd always cut my hair. I was like, yeah, I think something special is going to happen. So they got last minute flights, flew out there. And then it was so cool because I talk about like, yeah, I'm out there, but there's a whole team behind me. Well, in this instance, I'm running the race and I'm leading, never had anyone, like, even close to me in the race. But my whole family, they're on the press truck right in front of me.

So I'm literally staring at them. the whole time. I'm looking at my wife, looking at my mom, looking at my dad. For an hour, or just under an hour. It's funny, though, because they're not allowed to cheer from the press truck. So, like, my mom's sitting there, she brought this bell from home, like one of those cowbells, and she's just, like, holding it, like, trying to, like, not make a noise, you know. But I can tell just by, like, the looks on their face, they're like, whoa, this is happening right now. This is crazy, you know? So it was very much, like, I got to experience that with them. I'll never forget seeing my family at the finish line afterwards, and I was so stoked.

Like, I couldn't help, but, like, did a hard fist bump and yelled and excitement. I was so stoked because of the road that I traveled and the journey I'd been on and going after this thing for so many years, and that was the moment that it all became real. That's pretty amazing. I mean, on that day, and I assume media comes out of everywhere talking to you, I'm probably your exposure. goes to a level 100 overnight. I mean, and you are already a very famous runner, but it probably just

gets kicked up another notch. What is the day after setting the American record in the half marathon was like? It was, you know, I was still on the high, you know? But it was an interesting experience because you definitely, like you ride this high for, you know, for me it's like about a week probably where I was like,

man, I can't believe that just happened. Like, that was so sweet. You know, it was like a week of just savoring it, you know? And I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think it's good to savor those experiences. I think a lot of times we don't. Right, we don't allow ourselves to. And that was something my dad ingrained to me when I was getting into the sport. So after every time I'd set a personal record in the mile run, we'd go out and like get an ice cream or smoothie, just do something to be like, let's just take a moment here and celebrate this victory.

I think that's so, so important because that cultivates gratitude in me. You know, when I celebrate, I'm like, man, I'm so thankful. I got to experience this. And so it's really, really important. And I think we allow ourselves to celebrate our victories and not feel like we're being prideful, you know, when we're doing that. So we talk to people that are either working in an organization or that run and own an organization. And I'm a business and leadership coach. So I see them. And the business has a bad month. And they are visibly, they look like they've been punched in the face.

Right, right. And so they are wearing their failure. Right. What would you say to that person that self-identifies was struggling with? Right. Man, if you can just get perspective in that moment, you know, like talking to people that aren't in that struggle that you're in who can be like, listen, like, this is going on, but like I see the light at the end. Like, I'm up here. I can see where you're going. Let me tell you about the destination and what's going to take for you to get there and how this is part of that process. You know, I think that's why we have coaches, right? It's like, because the coach is out of it. He sees the big picture. He sees how it's all working together. And so he's the one that you need to talk to you in those moments. to just give you hope back. It's like in those moments where I'm crushed after race, I just need to be, I need just a little bit of hope,

just a sliver that I can grab onto and hold on to it. Have you heard of it? There's a book out right now called The Passion Paradox. Have you heard of this? Yes, Steve Magnus, yes. Yes, and Brad Stuhlberg. Yeah, so here's what's interesting. They equate passion, and they talk a lot about it

as being like kind of bedfellows with addiction to a degree, and they said like there's a dark side of passion because to a degree passion means you're obsessed. with something and you shut off everything else. It doesn't feel as though you're addicted or obsessed, but at the same time, you're world class. Yeah. Where does that come from?

Oh, that's a great question, because it's such a tricky line to watch, you know? And I think what it comes down to for me is like, how do I value myself? And so what makes me special, what makes me important in my own mind? And that was something I learned my dropped out of Stanford for a quarter,

my sophomore year at Stanford, out. I wasn't sure if I was going to come back. I was just like struggling with depression and all my failures were just like taking the toll on me. Was it related to running? Yeah. Yeah. All like running in the classroom though too. Like I was really struggling academically. Just like everything was going wrong, you know? And at that point like how I saw myself, how I valued myself was all based on my performances. And that's the scary place where you don't want to be. And what I learned is like, I just had to spend time with God and like talk about like getting up out of it and talking to someone. someone who has a bigger perspective.

And then so then your failures, your hard times, they can just be seen as something that's happening to you, but it's not, it's not you. Okay. So speak to how that level of, I mean, that is confidence at the highest degree. How does that level of confidence set you apart at the starting line from the people that are around you? Oh, it's huge. It's what empowers you to take risk, you know?

Like, I couldn't be bold if I'm afraid out there. Like if you're afraid, like, at least for myself personally, I tighten up and I don't perform very well at all, you know. So what frees you up from that fear is can you handle the failure, you know, and having lived it, having gone through so much failure, you realize, yeah, it's not fun to go through those moments. Like, it's really, like, I allow myself to be bummed out for like one day. I actually learned this from my wife. She'd like literally put a timestamp on it. It's okay to be bummed when you have a bad day and you don't hit things and things. and things aren't coming together.

But, like, I'm going to be bummed for this amount of time, whether it's a day or week. And then at the end of that time, like, I'm moving forward. And that was something that also helped me kind of get through those tough moments was I'd literally pull out a calendar and look, like, six months down the road because we'd only do two marathons a year. And I'd plot it out and be like, I'm going to do this marathon, and these are the steps I'm going to take to take me from where I'm at right now

to where I want to go. And that would just fill me with hope. It's like, okay, like, I know where I'm going. I'm back, a back on the road, you know. There's many people that would call you the greatest distance runner in American history. In everything I've listened to or read about you, I've never seen yourself call yourself that. That's an incredible level of humility that I would say, honestly, even in endurance sports is kind of rare. I feel like it's almost counterintuitive to ask this question because I know you're not going to brag about yourself.

But where does that come from? I think an inner satisfaction, you know. I feel like if I'm truly satisfied with how I live my life, what I was able to do on this season of running professionally, if I'm truly satisfied with that, I don't need to, like, wear it and, like, tell people about it and try and, you know, talk about, like, self-promotion. And also, too, like, when you do something,

like, go to the Olympics or set American records, you realize very quickly that it wasn't just you out there. It is just you out there, but there are so many people behind the scenes of that, my coach, my nutritionist, my sports therapist, my massage therapist, like my wife who's encouraging me constantly, my parents, my friends, like, you know, the list goes on and on and on. So you're like, yeah, I did this, but it wasn't, it wasn't just me, you know. Related to kind of having a community of people, and I'm sure there's people you run with, too,

I've always felt like for, I call myself a runner, I don't know if I can even call myself a runner around you, but being very particular about who you're willing to run with, right? And I think that obviously has life implications as well. How do you decide who you're willing to run with or who's going to coach you or who's going to be your nutritionist? Like, how do you filter that? You know, I do it based on relationships, you know, if my friend works with this nutritionist and they're just loving, working with them, then it's like, okay, I'll go there, you know. But it is kind of tricky because the people you surround yourself with obviously, like, affect you so much, you know? So, you know, So, but at the same time, it's like you want to put yourself in challenging situations where you're stretched and caused to grow and where you're being a thermostat and on a thermometer where you're setting the culture.

So it is, you know, just kind of a tricky day-to-day balance. But I would say that, you know, the most important person is your wife, your family. Like, that needs, for me anyways, that has to be like my safe place where those are like my people that want to be around that are going to keep me in check and like make sure that my heart's staying in the right place. and I'm going after the right things. Yeah, because your wife is running at an unbelievably high level. Is she trying to qualify for the Olympics right now as well? Yeah, that's her goal. So we're both 36, and this is actually really interesting.

So we talk about, like, listening to our body and training. I was really bad at it. Like, I would just get a schedule and be like, I'm going to do this no matter what. And she was very much the opposite of that of being, like, listening to her body. If she felt a little ache or pain or she just, her energy wasn't right, she just moves her workout back a day casually, like, no problem. probably drives you crazy. But that's the difference between us.

I was forced to retire when I was 33 because my body was like, no mass. Like, I've given you everything I could give you. There's nothing left. Whereas my wife, like, her body's like, I got more for you. I got more for you because you've been listening to me this entire time. And so whether you're a runner or like doing business, how you feel physically is going to affect what you're doing in the office. So I think that's one of the most undervalued things in our society is rest, sleep. I'm in bed every night 830.

I'm not a professional athlete anymore, but I want to have good high quality of life. So early to bed, early to rise, my nutrition hasn't really changed. Well, it's changed in some ways by still eat really clean. Just because I want to feel good. I want to be able to be the best version of myself. I love that. And because it seems like that's rooted in impacting other people well.

Yeah. It's pretty fascinating reading your story. You've gone from being a, I mean, strictly a performer to now being a coach. I feel like that is a journey that so many professionals try to walk and fail miserably at because it's too radically different roles. But you've done it very well. What have you learned in that? Yeah. Oh, I'm still learning. You know, I'm still on that road trying to be a good coach and still like have things. Like even my wife, she ran the Boston Marathon, didn't have the day she was hoping to have and like, man, I was so bummed out afterwards, not bummed like, oh, you mess this,

up like what's wrong with you but just like bummed for her and like also like wrestling with like what did i do wrong what can we change what can we team like i was kind of like frustrated but like as a coach you need to be that person that's like calm collected like i said out of the out of the storm and seeing the perspective so that's that's like something i'm like currently still trying to navigate because i get so like emotionally attached with my athletes which is great when they're doing really well but it also means like when they're not doing well like it hits it hits me too so i'm trying to like figure out that balance you know of like being connected to my athletes but also being that stable person for them that's not yo-yoing up and down because I know it's like as an athlete like

I was constantly yo-yoing and I need someone up here looking from high point of view and someone to be able to direct me so I'm very much just still trying to figure out the coaching thing but one thing that I wrote about my book is like I feel like that season of life of trying to cultivate my talent and be the very best version of me as a runner. All those things I learned along the way. It felt like when I was going through it, it was for me, you know, for me to experience my own personal breakthrough. But then after I got through it and moved into this next season of coaching,

I realized that, yeah, it was for me, but it was also, like, to share with other people and help other people. So, like, literally, it's my job is to make my ceiling, my athlete's floor, you know, to have them do all the things I did right, right? and to obviously avoid the pitfalls that I fell in from time to time. And that's my heart for my athletes. I'm like, man, I love to coach someone to run faster than I've ever run. Like, that would just thrill me more than probably me running it, you know.

That is so inspiring. And at the same time, I could see our listeners, because this is where I'm sitting, quite frankly, is I look at your mountain of work that you've accomplished. Like, everything that you've done, like, I'm incredibly inspired and I'm outrageously intimidated right now. Yeah. So what would you tell that person that looks at everything you've done and says, like, I am never going to be Ryan Hall? What would you tell that person? Keep your head down.

Focus on the step that's right in front of you. I mean, it's the title of my book, Run the Mile You're in. It's because it was a mantra that I'd pull on over and over and over again. Because literally, like, people don't know this. They see us on the starting line. They think you're all composed, relax. Like, everything's perfect in your mind. Like, I'm freaking out on the starting line.

I'm like, how am I going to get through this? Like, even though I've done it before and been there. before. It's like, how am I going to get through mile 23, 24, 25? Like, how am I going to endure this pain? How am I going to be able to push myself? Do I have what it takes to get me to the finish line and the fashion that I want to get to the finish line in? So, like, I had all these things running through my mind. So I had to pull myself back and be like, don't worry about mile 23, 24, 25. Like, God's going to give you the grace for this moment, for this next step that I'm about to take. But the future grace will be there when I get there, but worrying about it,

is just, it's worse than actually traveling the journey. So I had to constantly pull myself back. Just be present and what you're doing right now. And I still, I constantly, I'm always telling myself that, whether I'm doing dishes or doing an interview or whatever I'm doing, driving my kids around, it's like, just be here now, be present with what you're doing, do a great job with what's right in front of you. Because I can tell you, like, it is intimidating,

standing on the starting line, be like, for this marathon, I'm going to have to run every mile on 445. Like I could have very easily talked myself out of that being possible for me. But when you're just focused on what you're doing right now, that's when it becomes possible. That is so good. We talked about this briefly before we started. It's like one of the greatest runners in American history, probably the greatest runner in American history. Your relationship with your wife seems to be thriving.

You're now a world-class coach. We haven't even gone into this in here, but you adopted four Ethiopian citizens. sisters like you didn't have one kid, you just decided, let's have four all but once, right? And now you're getting into powerlifting and you want to binge press 400 by 40. Like, you were just such an all-in individual. Why do you choose to live that way? And what would you tell to the person that isn't living that way? It's who I am. And I would tell the person who isn't living that way, like, that's fine. Like, be who you are. Be the best version of you. Like, I always got in trouble when I'd compare myself to other people.

I'd look at the Kenyan athletes, the Kenyan guys I was racing against, man, they're so skinny. You know, they're like my same height in like 115 pounds. And I'm like 137 pounds feeling self-conscious about that and be like, I need to be a third weight, you know?

But like, no, when I got my lightest and I started to look more and more Kenyan, I was at my worst. I didn't run well. Like, be the best version of you. And like, what is it that makes you come to life? And be true to that. And so, like, for myself,

for a long time, like, I just love physically pushing myself. And the way I did that was through running. And then when that season came to close, it's like, okay, let me find another way to meet this very real need that I have to be me and physically push myself every day. So I got into weightlifting. And, you know, if that stops being life-giving for me, then, you know, I'll find another hobby. But I do have to monitor myself pretty closely because being all-in kind of guy, like, if I get into something, I'm really getting into it, you know, so I have to create boundaries because now I give myself an hour every day to be selfish. Go do my workout in my garage, you know, like go as hard as I want, go crazy for an hour. But then after that, like the rest of my

day is about other people and serving other people around me. And so I have to put the reins on. People often ask me like, have you tried CrossFit or like Spartan racing or obstacle racing? I was like, man, I know myself. If I try that, like, I'm be all in. And then my family's got to make sacrifices that they shouldn't be making because they've been making sacrifice. for me so that I could get to this point, you know? Wow. What's next for you? So continuing coaching and then we're launching an online personal training business, which literally is like a continuation of this book and the things I was going after. What I learned as an athlete, oftentimes I was trying to control my behaviors, how I was acting when really like I needed to

control what's going on in my heart and my mind, you know? And so what I found is like what is happening inside of me is going to come out physically. And so it's, so true in running, if you are aware of what's going on inside of you and you train, we call it the internal, it's kind of be the finger, it's a five-finger approach to training, a holistic program. But that part of it is what I'm most passionate about is like, let's get a hold of what's going on inside of us because that's going to be physically manifested outside ourselves. So it's kind of like a real world way to practically like take all the stuff I'm hypothetically talking about in the stories I share and be like, now it's like actually apply this

to your own running, whoever it might be that wants to be trained. One of the things that's so remarkable about your story and just who you are and the way you tell your story as well is I think it legitimately has the ability to spark something inside of people that they haven't felt in a very long time or that they've never felt before and probably related to a sense of purpose, like what you had. If someone is listening to this right now and they say, that's me. Like I just had something sparked. Yeah.

What would you tell that person? start moving, you know, kind of like we've talked about throughout this conversation, like, just start going with it and see where it takes you. And be willing to make changes along the way. Like something my coach used to always tell me is like, be like bamboo. You bend, you don't break. And that's so, so important for me on my journey and navigating it, right? Like, you need, like, constant leadership, constant coaching, constant time with God, constant things they're directing you as you go. It's not like, all right, I'm going. And then you start. running full steam with your head down and never like getting advice from anyone else you know like

you need all of that feedback to direct you on your path well Ryan I think I speak for all of our listeners and certainly for myself whenever I say that your story's inspirational perhaps more inspirational is the way you put God at the center of it so thank you so much for taking the time to be here with this today I know I'm better for it and I know our listeners are as well so thank you well thank you for having me Alex I really enjoyed it well thanks Alex for that what a fun conversation that was so much to learn from in that. And we keep the content coming. How about Daniel Tarty?

Now, I have fun with the Grand Puba thing, but the reality is he is our executive vice president of business and leadership. He's a guy that mentored and really guided Sarah Sloan, who's our amazing vice president, Montre leadership. And this guy really gets the playbook. He's been here. He's seen the business grow. And when we bring him on to share content,

you know it's coming straight out of the playbook. And so we wanted to talk to him about finishing the year strong. It's amazing. Here we are. And summer is almost over. Kids are beginning the process of going back to school or getting ready to go back to school. And before you know it, you're going to be in the middle of fall and looking at the last quarter. So this is super, super important stuff.

Very relevant. Here is Alex with Daniel Tarty. Well, Daniel, thank you so much for sitting down today. I'm excited to talk to you because I know you're someone. that is constantly trying to expand yourself because you know you're leading this thing, so you're constantly trying to grow. But we're at this point where it's almost like an inflection point. What do you do just to pause and slow down and really take stock of, okay, here's where we are? Yeah, definitely. So we talk about goals a lot. And I think one of the problems with how we talk about goals in

our society is we almost always associate them with an annual plan. But if you think about it, the calendar is very arbitrary. Like 12 months, one year, in a lot of ways, it's how we run our lives, right? There's a rhythm and a natural season each year. You kind of know, all right, this is what the spring is going to look like. Then we're summer, and that's when you go on vacation. And we like the regularity of that. But we also, as leaders and as entrepreneurs, you know, we can't be subject to this fixed 12-year thing just because our society says, this is how you should keep score. And I think the more complex our teams get, the more complex our business gets, the more frequently we have to evaluate and update our goals. And so just having annual goals where you start the year and

you go, this is what I'm going to do this year, and I'm just going to truck forward the whole year and hopefully it works. That works on some things, right? Yeah. That are really simple. But I think business is too complicated for you to put the goals in the drawer and then pull them out halfway through the year and see how you're doing. I think the cycle time on setting goals and evaluating goals has to go up, the more our responsibility goes up. And so that's the first thing is, if you're setting goals in a way where you're just thinking about the calendar year, you should be every month rolling into what does the next 12 months look like in calibrating your goals and updating against your new desired future for the next 12 to 18 months in light of all the new

complexities that have come into your business and not going, well, a year ago, we said this and maybe we ought to check in on that. I like to look in the rearview mirror, but I really want to be looking at the kind of the out-the-windshield, where are we going and what is the weather forecast look like today for the next 12 months. So you kind of constantly have that rolling perspective of what's 12 to 18 months moving in front of us. Yeah, and around here we talk about Henry Cloud gave us this phrase and we've just totally adopted it and made it ours. I guess you can say we've stolen it from him with unapologetically. He says, what is your desired future state? Where do you want to be in the future? You can't be somewhere in the past. That is what it is.

but in light of where we are today and where we want to be in the future, what does the desired future state look like? And I've grown a lot in this where it's no longer, I need to wait till Monday to set goals for the week, or I need to wait till the first part of the month to set goals for that month. Every hour of every day, I need to be thinking about for this project, this initiative, this team member, what's our desired future state right now over this next season?

And then let's put some goals and make it practical and put some kind of defined objectives or KPIs or whatever we need to kind of keep score, you got to keep score. Yeah. But keeping score is less important about did we always get to the score at the end of the year? It's more that it gives us a direction, gives us a compass, so that we're always on the right heading. One of the things that I really admire about you is you've got this incredible ability to step out of things and really garner perspective.

And I know you use the phrase, renew your mind a lot, and you teach our team that a lot. what are the habits or the rhythms or the things that you focus on, whether it's daily or quarterly or weekly, to make sure you are preserving that perspective? Because, I mean, ultimately, that's an incredible opportunity for you. But I guess, I mean, it's ultimately kind of your responsibility from a leadership perspective. Well, Alex, I don't know that I'm that great at it. I talk about it and I talk about how important it is because when I'm doing it well, it just charges me up. When I take the time to where, and this is so classic, we talk about this a lot. And we didn't invent this phrase either.

but work on your business instead of in your business. Well, let's break down. What does that really mean? Yeah. It's a nice, catchy sounding thing. Like, oh, yeah, I need to work on the business, not in it. But just thinking about on your business strategically on your drive to work in the morning is not working on your business. And then you rush right into meetings and you're down in the weeds.

If your calendar does not reflect time that's set aside to think and to have solitude and to charge your batteries every week and every month in significant ways where you're saying no to other meetings so that you can work on the business. You got to get in that state and really think and plan and strategically evaluate how's everything going. What do we need to be doing differently? And so I blocked time on my calendar a meeting with myself every week, several meetings, and I did it this morning. Somebody asked, one of our board members said, hey, we've got this thing coming up next week. We'd love to get some time with you by next Tuesday. And I want to help this guy. It's an awesome project. I want to be a part of it. And it's not in one of my top three critical priorities right now, and I'm a little bit behind on a couple of them.

And I have some time baked in between now and when he wants to meet that I'm literally not in a meeting except with myself to work on those things. And it's so hard and it's so tempting, Alex. I'm like, oh, I want to tell this guy, yes, because I look at my calendar and go, technically, I can fit it in. Yeah. But then I start thinking about, oh, that's going to cut into my work on the business time, and that's going to sacrifice my critical objectives right now. And I'm not going to, I'm going to let other people down on the things that I'm committed to.

And so it's such a discipline that emotionally you're always like, I want to say yes, I want to be there for everybody. I want to be known as somebody that's dependable. But when you get into this discipline and this habit, realizing no one else is going to protect my time for me. And that time as a leader is our most critical asset to what we can bring to the business. Because if we aren't setting aside that time to work on the business, no one else is ever going to do it. And we're never going to have good goals. We're never going to have that compass. And without the compass, we head off in the wrong direction.

and we waste two years in the wilderness, when have we slowed down enough to go the right direction the first time, everybody would have gotten there together in the right spot. Yeah. We see it all the time in coaching clients from around the country that they get all excited on January 1. And of course, because everyone gets excited on January 1st, that's a cakewalk.

But then, I mean, you know, they're going throughout the year, and specifically with the business, they kind of get into this desert season right around July or August or September a lot of times. and they're close enough to 2020 that they don't necessarily think they need to readjust or reinvent themselves or almost convince themselves of this idea that I can just wait till January 1st again. What would you say to that person? I'd say it's very normal.

And I would say in our society, the calendar sets the priority for the masses, but leaders set their own priorities regardless of where society's at. And so to be a leader, you have to lead yourself. out of the July funk. You have to lead yourself out of the two o'clock afternoon slump. You have to lead yourself out of the Sunday night doldrums. You know, these things that most people that have a J.O.B, and they're just waiting for the calendar to kind of say, oh, I need to pay attention now. It's Monday. I need to pay attention now. It's January. Oh, school started back. I should probably get back in the gym. Those are followers. They're following society. They're following the calendar.

And there's seasons to life that are natural for the masses to follow. And that's fine. Those aren't bad things. Those aren't bad people. But leaders, go first on the hard things. Leaders set the pace. They set the pace for themselves. They set the pace for their team. They disrupt themselves if they're in a funk. They figure out how to get recharged. They figure out how to get new inputs. They figure out how to get outside sources so that they get themselves fired up and get out of the funk that the rest of society is in. You know, the Bible has a great line on this. It says, don't conform to the pattern of the world, but be transformed by renewing your mind. The world has a pattern for you. And if you want to follow

the pattern, you're a follower, not a leader. leaders don't conform. They transform themselves by renewing. They make it new, new information, new content, new perspective, new habits of I'm going to work on the business, not in the business. And so I don't want that to sound oversimplified. That's really hard to do. Yeah.

And I've been practicing that for 10 years, and I feel like I'm just now kind of getting good at it. But take the first step, commit to what am I going to do next week? If I can get 30 minutes next week to work on the business and not in it. If that's hard for you right now, get 30 minutes. If it's hard for you right now to get four hours, get three hours. Yeah. If you're doing this for a few years and you've been used to it and you're like, yeah,

I'm upset my monthly goals all the time. Okay, well, how do you take it up a notch? What is it that you're conforming to right now that you need to go, no, I'm not going to follow. I'm going to lead. There's kind of a line that gets crossed every once in a while where it's like it becomes a little bit of a guilt and shame-based thing where it's like, man, if I'm not working hard all the time or if I have an off day,

I feel bad about myself as a person. So how do you kind of weigh I need to work hard, but also I need to show myself grace and recognize not I'm a human being? Right. It's a great question. I think we beat ourselves up a lot. We get in our head and we can get on the death spiral of the shame fest where we go, well, I didn't do that and I didn't do that. And I've got this intercritic that just says, I'm never going to be enough.

And when I listen to that inner critic, man, it's a dark demon. And that's when I, from a negative standpoint, start chasing things. and I white knuckle and I double down and I just try to overpower instead of realizing, you know what, my career and my performance there, it doesn't define who I am. I'm a husband. I'm a father. I'm a friend. And so I think you have to have enough perspective about how you define success for yourself

being much broader than how's the business doing, how's the team that you're leading. Those things are going to ebb and flow. And if your emotions and your identity ebbs and flows with the season of your business, you are too narrowly defining what it means to be a successful person. So you've got to be a whole person. That's the first thing. And you've got to look at all the areas of your life and especially the ones that are lasting, like your relationships, and go, how are those? If those are going good and the business is struggling, I can relax a little bit.

But if all my identity is tied to how's the business doing, how's the leadership thing? And I'm an entree leader and I'm a business owner, you're going to have a hard time ever feeling like you're enough. And then the second thing I would say is when you're setting goals inside your business, set enough that you can miss half of them and still win. This is the mutual fund analogy, right? You can't bet on a single stock. But if you have enough stocks and on the aggregate, a lot of them are going really good, you can't, you don't have a crystal ball. If you only set one goal and you have one strategy and one option to win, you're going to be disappointed when the one thing that you had failed because everything you had failed. But if you have 100 goals and you got fitness goals and you got team goals and you got some new revenue. things that you're launching. If you've got some new efficiency things that you're putting in the business, you got all this stuff going at the same time and you got the team going. Not to have chaos, not to freak everybody out, but if you have enough intentional targets, hey, you can miss a few. And you're still going to win on the net. You're also going to learn on the areas that you didn't win.

Exactly. Okay. So we're heading into Q4 of 2019. If people are saying, okay, I want to not just be a follower, I want to be a leader, and I want to shake myself up to make sure I finish this year well. what are the practical actions you would say you should take these steps to make sure that you not Q4 out of the park? Yeah, I think you ask this question, and it's the question you just keep asking every day. And that is, what's the next right thing to do? What's the next right thing to do today? And if you get into this thing of like, well, the year's half over, I'll just wait until January to start thinking about living intentionally again. Great, go be a follower.

But if you're going, I want to be a leader. I want to leave myself first. you have to get out of bed every day and go, what's the next right thing to do today? I can't fix yesterday. Yesterday's gone. I can control tomorrow, but I can control what I do today and I can do something a little bit different that's a little bit more effective today that's going to set me up for success tomorrow. And all the tomorrows lead to launching in the track January 1st coming out of the blocks hot

and you're set up for having a great year next year. But if you're waiting until January to think about what does 2020 look like, all the leaders are gone at that point. You've, they've, your competition is thinking about 2020. They're thinking about Christmas next year right now. You know, I mean, these are the leaders. These are the culture shapers. These are the people who are getting way out ahead of it and going, where are we really going?

And what do I do today? And today is one day out of 365 that it's the first day of the next 12 months, regardless of where it falls in the calendar. So stop thinking about the calendar as an annual thing. Think about it as this is the first day of the next 12 months every single day of the year. Woo! I'm ready to go run through a. Rick Wall, and I know our audience probably is as well. Thanks so much for your time today. We're

better for it. Well, we love that our business leaders out there are listening. Appreciate you guys listen to this podcast. We believe in what you're doing. And I want them to know that they're the reason I get out of bed every day. They're the reason I set goals because we think that they're heroes. We believe they're the backbone of our economy. We believe that leadership really, really matters. So give yourself some grace. Give yourself some applause. Don't beat yourself up too much. But think about the team you're serving and figure out how to take this to a new gear. That's what we're trying to do for you guys every day here on this podcast. So we appreciate you guys listening. Heck yes. Let's go. Thanks, Daniel. Thanks, Alex. Simply put, we don't have to wait till January

to shake up our year and get back on track. And that's why our team created this 10-day challenge that we're talking about finishing the year strong. Again, it's a 10-day self-guided challenge. We're going to send you a free downloadable journal that will walk you through a different task, a different goal, a different challenge every single day that will really feel. We'll really focus on the principles that Daniel was talking about in that conversation. So if you want to walk through this 10-day challenge, text finish strong. That's all one word, no spaces, finish strong to 33-44-4-4. Again, to get that journal, finish strong, no spaces to 33-44-4 or click the link in the show notes. Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Entree Leadership podcast if you did. We'd love for you to give us a five-star review. And tell your

friends to subscribe. Now for a chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card, you can review this episode by clicking the link in the show notes. Be sure to follow us on social media as well at Entree Leadership. Well, that's going to do it. So on behalf of Alex and the entire Entree Leadership team, thank you for listening. We'll talk with you again very soon. Hey, if you enjoy this podcast, you should check out other great podcasts from the Ramsey Network, like the Ken Coleman Show. to a recent Gallup poll, nearly 70% of Americans are disengaged at work. If you dread going

into work every Monday morning and you're just trying to make it to the weekend, the Ken Coleman show is for you. Everyone has a sweet spot. Your sweet spot is at the intersection of your greatest talent and greatest passion. We will help you discover what it is you were born to do and then will help you create a plan to make your dream job a reality. You matter and you have what it takes. Join the conversation on the Ken Coleman Show. To hear full episodes, just search Ken Coleman wherever you listen to podcast or go to Ken Coleman.com.