Finding Mastery with Dr. Michael Gervais - The True Meaning of Strength | Chris Duffin

Episode Date: August 17, 2022

This week’s conversation is with Chris Duffin, a world-record holding powerlifter who is commonly known as the “Mad Scientist of Strength”.Chris is arguably one of the strongest pound-for-pound humans in the world – he is the only person to squat and deadlift over 1,000 pounds for reps, has a Guinness World Record for the sumo deadlift, and was ranked the number one powerlifter in the world for eight years straight. However, Chris’ strength extends far beyond the physical domain – in his best-selling memoir The Eagle and The Dragon, Chris tells the unfiltered version of his unconventional and harrowing journey from a boy born in chaos to the self-made man he is today. And that’s what this conversation is all about – how true strength is about so much more than lifting heavy weights. Chris shares how struggle propelled him forward, how he responds to adversity, what it means to be there for others, and how the human spirit can be either shackled by circumstance or freed from it._________________Subscribe to our Youtube Channel for more powerful conversations at the intersection of high performance, leadership, and meaning: https://www.youtube.com/c/FindingMasteryGet exclusive discounts and support our amazing sponsors! Go to: https://findingmastery.com/sponsors/Subscribe to the Finding Mastery newsletter for weekly high performance insights: https://www.findingmastery.com/newsletter Download Dr. Mike's Morning Mindset Routine! https://www.findingmastery.com/morningmindsetFollow us on Instagram, LinkedIn, and X.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Finding Mastery is brought to you by Remarkable. In a world that's full of distractions, focused thinking is becoming a rare skill and a massive competitive advantage. That's why I've been using the Remarkable Paper Pro, a digital notebook designed to help you think clearly and work deliberately. It's not another device filled with notifications or apps.

It's intentionally built for deep work. So there's no social media, no email, no noise. The writing experience, it feels just like pen on paper. I love it. And it has the intelligence of digital tools like converting your handwriting to text, organizing your notes, tagging files, and using productivity templates

to help you be more effective. It is sleek, minimal. It's incredibly lightweight. It feels really good. I take it with me anywhere from meetings to travel without missing a beat. What I love most is that it doesn't try to do everything. It just helps me do one very important thing really well,

stay present and engaged with my thinking and writing. If you wanna slow down, if you wanna work smarter, I highly encourage you to check them out. Visit remarkable.com to learn more and grab your paper pro today. I'm not, I'm not downplaying any trauma or things that have happened to people, but at the same time, understanding these are things that you don't have control of, and they're not what define you. You're defined by your actions and responses to those things. And even if it's been significantly horrible, there's no reason why let it be that, why let that be the defining thing. And that you can still use and leverage what you can from that

to become more resilient, to withstand maybe the things that you don't anticipate that are coming next. Okay, welcome back or welcome to the Finding Mastery Podcast. My name is Dr. Michael Gervais and by trade and training, I'm a sport and performance psychologist. Now, the whole idea behind these conversations, behind this podcast, is to learn from people, to learn from the extraordinaries, to better understand how they organize their internal life to be able to challenge the edges and the reaches of the human experience. And that comes in the forms of business and sport in science, in life in general. And what we're doing is working to pull back the curtain to explore how they have committed to mastering both their craft and their minds in an effort to

understand and express their potential. Finding Mastery is brought to you by LinkedIn Sales Solutions. In any high-performing environment that I've been part of, from elite teams to executive boardrooms, one thing holds true. Meaningful relationships are at the center of sustained success. And building those relationships, it takes more than effort. It takes a real caring about your people. It takes the right tools, the right information at the right time. And that's where LinkedIn Sales Navigator can come in. It's a tool designed specifically for thoughtful sales professionals, helping you find the right people that are ready to engage, track key account changes jobs or when an account becomes high priority, so that you can reach out at exactly the right moment with context and thoroughness that builds trust. It also helps tap into your own network more strategically, showing you who you already know that can help you open doors or make a warm introduction.

In other words, it's not about more outreach. It's about smarter, more human outreach. And that's something here at Finding Mastery that our team lives and breathes by. If you're ready to start building stronger relationships that actually convert, try LinkedIn Sales Navigator for free for 60 days at linkedin.com slash deal.

That's linkedin.com slash deal. That's linkedin.com slash deal for two full months for free. Terms and conditions apply. Fighting Mastery is brought to you by David Protein. I'm pretty intentional about what I eat and the majority of my nutrition comes from whole foods. And when I'm traveling or in between meals on a demanding day, certainly, I need something quick that will support the way that I feel and think and perform. And that's why I've been leaning on David Protein Bars. And so has the team here at Finding Mastery. In fact, our GM, Stuart, he loves them so much. I just want to kind of quickly put him on the spot. Stuart, I know you're listening. I think you might be the

reason that we're running out of these bars so quickly. They're incredible, Mike. I love them. One a day, one a day. What do you mean one a day? There's way more than that happening here. Don't tell. Okay. All right. Look, they're incredibly simple. They're effective. 28 grams of protein, just 150 calories and zero grams of sugar. It's rare to find something that fits so conveniently into a performance-based lifestyle and actually tastes good. Dr. Peter Attia, someone who's been on the show, it's a great episode by the way, is also their chief science officer. So I know they've done their due diligence in that category. My favorite flavor right now is the chocolate chip cookie dough.

And a few of our teammates here at Finding Mastery have been loving the fudge brownie and peanut butter. I know, Stuart, you're still listening here. So getting enough protein matters. And that can't be understated, not just for strength, but for energy and focus, recovery, for longevity. And I love that David is making that easier. So if you're trying to hit your daily protein goals with something seamless, I'd love for you to go check them out. Get a free

variety pack, a $25 value and 10% off for life when you head to davidprotein.com slash finding mastery. That's David, D-A-V-I-D, protein, P-R-O-T-E-I-N.com slash finding mastery. Now this week's conversation is with Chris Duffin, a world record holding powerlifter who is commonly known as the mad scientist of strength. Chris is arguably one of the strongest pound for pound humans in the world. He is the only person to squat and deadlift over 1,000 pounds for reps. He has a Guinness world record for the sumo deadlift and was ranked the number one power lifter in the world for eight years straight. Now, anybody that is best in the world eight years straight is different in the way that they've organized their inner life and structured how they live. That being said, Chris wrote a bestselling memoir. It's titled The Eagle and the Dragon.

And in this memoir, he shares in an unfiltered way his harrowing journey from a boy born in chaos and when i say chaos wait until you hear his story to the man he is today and it's a remarkable transformation so and that's really what this conversation is about how true strength is so much more than lifting heavy weights chris shares how his struggle propelled him forward, how he embraced it and understood it. And you'll hear the pain. You'll recognize some of the pain that he's experienced in your own life as well. And what he's done is he squared up with it.

And I hope the same for you. I hope to encourage you to be clear with the pain that you feel, to be able to understand it so that you're not afraid of it, so that you can be strong for others. And with that, let's jump right into this week's conversation with Chris Duffin. Chris, how are you? I'm doing good. Looking forward to some good conversation this morning. You're known as the mad scientist of strength. What does that mean? It means, well, I'm assuming what it means is I bring like these kind of crazy ideas to the world and, you know, at first blush, people are like, where is that coming from? But then all of a sudden start testing,

using the concepts and people are start connecting the dots of how kind of these diverse thought processes and tools really change the experience for essentially the biomechanics, the improvement of methodology, this alignment of all things to allow us to be able to cultivate a level of physical resilience in a manner that is going to reduce our ability to get injured, live a better quality of life. But it's kind of my background. I'm a very kind of crazy dynamic person, big mix of ADHD, life experiences, all sort of stuff. But I put things to use. I'm like, I mix this clinical practice with like lifting heavy things. And to a lot of people, it just doesn't it doesn't make sense.

So and, you know, I do have awards for scientific innovation, patents, and things like that. I used to run some aerospace companies and automotive manufacturing. It's a weird deal to be in the strength training world, but I'm assuming that's where the name got kicked off from and why people really just connect with it. You are arguably one of the strongest pound for pound humans in the world, and you go far beyond the physical domain of strength. So that's the part I want to understand, how you've used your life as a working laboratory and to get into the other domains of how you think about strength, the multidimensional pieces to it.

And to do that, I want to understand some of your formative years, because in your book, you've been challenged. You had some real challenge. And so where do you want to start? Yeah, well, I'll start. I'll show my book. It's a bestseller, The Eagle and the Dragon, which is people would go, oh, that must be a lifting book, but it's a bestseller and, you know, psychology, self-improvement, things of those nature. I think it was like five categories,

but it's titled The Eagle and the Dragon. And you probably can't tell for the people, you know, viewing this, but the front cover is, you know, I'm shirtless and you can see that there's two massive tattoos in my body and they really represent the two phases or two, two books in one that it is. So the first one is the eagle and I've got this giant eagle that's tattooed. It's across my stomach, my obliques, like this whole midsection. And there was a large eagle on my back as well. And I had these done at 20 years old. And there's a chain around the ankle of each one of those. And if you follow that chain, it wraps all the way down my body to my ankle.

And to me, it was a representation and it'll make more sense when I dive into the life story piece of it, but it was a representation to me that you can climb to whatever heights you can fly to whatever heights that you want in the world. The only thing truly holding you back at the end of the day is yourself. Yeah. We see like motivational quotes and things like that, that may represent something similar, but it was, it was truly a deep thing for me around being able to find your strengths, discover your value and how you contribute to the world. And then the second one is this giant dragon. It's actually an Ouroboros. So a Western mythology,

though, although I do love the mix of Eastern and Western dragons. So actually on my back, it's covered. The part of it, the integration is the koi fish, which represents the Eastern dragon as part of it on my back. but on my chest, you see this giant dragon head and the body wraps all the way around my shoulders and arms and, and my upper body. I think there's about 80 hours total into that one piece. And there was like 40 in the Eagles and the Ouroboros for me, you know, a lot of times it represents, you know, infinity, the continual renewal of life. But for me, it was this thinking down that line, this thought process of purposeful reinvention. So no longer the just discovery piece, but the deciding specifically who you are, what you want to be in this world, you know, based on what you

value and becoming that person, this purposeful reinvention and that continual nature of that process. And so the first one I had, I'd done, you know, around 19 or 20. The second one I actually did the first 40 hours, the dragon, the, the, the Ouroboros was done over the course of one week in eight to nine hour sessions every single day. I think I was around 38 when I had that one done and both represent some pretty distinct life changes or shifts that are covered in the scope of the book. And yeah, it's an interesting, it's people will read it and be like, that's unbelievable. Like what you've been through should be a movie, which actually there is a movie coming, but.

Okay. All right. So I wasn't going to ask this question necessarily, but when it comes, I don't have any tattoos and I'm, I feel like I can't quite fully commit to something like, you know, that is permanent and there's, um, I don't, I do not have commitment issues, but I, I don't know. It's like, I don't get my head around it. And so, and I know that lots of people do, but can we start with like commitment for you and what that means? And then let's, I want to peel into early, early life experiences, but like, let's start with commitment because obviously those tattoos mean something deep to you. And then you committed to

inking your skin permanently with those ideologies. Yeah. And you won't typically find somebody that has any sort of representation like I do, because it's like somebody covered with tattoos, they're going to have a hundred tattoos, right? Or if they've got two tattoos, it's not that much where that's literally, I have two tattoos that encompass more work than most people get done in their life. But I've only chosen to do that for a couple of particular times. And so I'm a very, I operate myself in a very visual medium. So, you know, my, my background's engineering, but I have to like, you know, I'm not great at, you know, sitting down at computer and designing, I've got to go create these things that are bigger than life that represent that. And that is, it's that bigger than life thing. But to me is it's expressing it, not just to myself, but the world around me, but not like shouting it at the top of the lungs or even really

distinctly telling people what it is. Like I'm not running around telling people what my personal goals and objectives are. I think actually some of that stuff you should keep very close to your chest. But I still represent those things out there. And I'm a really big believer in walking the walk. So I'm called the mad scientist because it's like, it's a mixture of science, but actually the learning by the doing. And I don't know that I'm addressing the specific question on commitment, but my life is all

about that. It is about seeing things that are so far out there, so big that people would think they're astronomically impossible, but creating that alignment in your life where you know exactly what you want to be and where you're going and just being able to put one foot forward every day. And we see so many people that just don't move that direction. They don't either don't understand like their, their personal value system and how to express that in the world or get caught up in the chaos of like the stress, the life, all these sorts of things, and start running around with our hair on fire with,

you know, checklists, you know, I can stuff I'm getting stuff done. I feel good. I'm accomplishing stuff. And 10 years passes in you've accomplished a million things, but they're literally nothing that has moved you forward to being closer to that way that you want to be. So it's not, it's not, it's not like hardcore commitment. It's just making sure that you're always just moving that needle a little bit forward, a little bit forward, and knowing that you may not be able to see fort, chasing down rattlesnakes at six years old and washing himself with a jug from a stream sitting out on a rock. He's running a company. He's sought after to do turnarounds. In my 20s, I took custody of my three younger siblings, and I raised all of them while I was working on my, my engineering degrees, my MBA, while I was also chasing my career. Chris, this is where I want to go with you. This is exactly where I want to go.

And you're, you're slipping it in like in a cool way. But when I read your story, it's like, wow. And most people look at you, you're a massive human and they go, well, he was always going to be strong. He was probably born with the preconditions to some sort of genetic coding, predisposition, I should say, to be strong, to be maybe one of the strongest Guinness World Record holding strength. I don't know if that's true or not, but when I read your story, let's start with, let's just, let's just go through the sequence. So start us where you're going to start us, but I want to go through those big boulders and those big experiences you've had in your formative years. Yeah. So my parents, my mother particularly, you know, had some,

you know, whatever they were in her life. I kind of talk about them a bit in the book, but some drivers for her to really want to try to form a life outside of what we call the norms of society. So she was going to school to be a chemical engineer, raising me. And at this point, you know, she's like, this just is not I don't deal well with authority. I don't actually deal well with authority. I don't actually interact well with society. And so she moved at the time myself, and then came my brother and then my three sisters into the mountains in Northern California. And so this is, you know, it started out living in a kind of a commune style home up in the woods, you know, we're outside, it's like, there's no roads and no electricity,

you know, the, the waters, you know, finding this spring and getting it tapped. And we had a, you know, she dug a fire pit in the side of the, the mountain so she could make an oven. And, and that was, that was the start of it. How old were you? My memories at this time, I don't know exactly when that started, but my memories start around five years old in that arena. And actually, I've gone back and revisited some of those spaces in the last couple of years. And then we ended up in kind of the more remote areas. So we moved into this place in Northern California off of Humboldt County that was about

50 miles deeper than where this documentary Murder Mountain takes place. So when you're reading my book and if you're having questions like, really, you're dealing with corrupt police and murderers and serial killers and human trafficking, like that's just, you know, strapped up in the, or beams strapped up into the trees. And I'm being taught by my stepfather how to capture and handle live rattlesnakes because there's rattlesnake dens all around. And I'm, you know, out playing. This is not, I have to learn this stuff for, for my own safety, or maybe there's some other things beyond that.

I don't know. And that was, it's time. It seems normal, you know, later years reflecting back. It's like, oh, wow, that's pretty crazy. There's, you know, a murderer living a few, you know, you know, a mile away. We find out later my, My parents actually turned him in, but it was an interesting process. And then I think, yeah, there was just, it got very dicey because a lot of people want to romanticize this life of living outside of the norm and not realizing that maybe the other people that are out there are not there for altruistic reasons. Maybe they're hiding from something. Right. And I bring that up because yeah, at the time my parents were in the drugs rate. That's why we were where we were. They were trying to figure out how to,

how to get that going. But that's like any business. It is something that's just not immediate. You know, you've got to build a crop and all these other things. And they never quite were successful before getting arrested. Sorivel into nothing you know we're eating you know bags we had a 50 pound bag of rice and a 50 pound bag of beans and then one day I go to I'm like mom what are these why does this rice have a little black head on it well it was they got infested with weevils and we had to throw it out and that was that was the environment. I mean, half the time, by the time I graduated high school, half the time had been either homeless or, you know, living in homes with no running water, no electricity or either. And so in California,

we ended up getting taken by the police or taken by the police and then put into child protective services for a year before our parents got us back. At what age was that? That was, I was third grade for me, third or fourth grade. The memories sometimes are a little difficult. I seem to be missing fourth grade somewhere, which happens when you have trauma. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Momentus. When it comes to high performance, whether you're leading a team, raising a family,

pushing physical limits, or simply trying to be better today than you were yesterday, what you put in your body matters. And that's why I trust Momentus. From the moment I sat down with Jeff Byers, their co-founder and CEO, I could tell this was not your average supplement company. And I was immediately drawn to their

mission, helping people achieve performance for life. And to do that, they developed what they call the Momentous Standard. Every product is formulated with top experts and every batch is third-party tested, NSF certified for sport or informed sport so you know exactly what you're getting personally i'm anchored by what they call the momentous three protein creatine and omega-3 and together these foundational nutrients support muscle recovery brain function and long-term energy they're part of my daily routine and if you're ready to fuel your brain and body with the best momentous has a great new offer just for our community right here. Use the code FindingMastery for 35% off your first subscription order at LiveMomentous.com. Again, that's L-I-V-E

Momentous, M-O-M-E-N-T-O-U-S, livemomentous.com, and use the code Finding Mastery for 35% off your first subscription order. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Felix Gray. I spent a lot of time thinking about how we can create the conditions for high performance. How do we protect our ability to focus, to recover, to be present. And one of the biggest challenges we face today is our sheer amount of screen time. It messes with our sleep, our clarity, even our mood. And that's why I've been using Felix Grey glasses. What I appreciate most about Felix Grey is that they're just not another wellness product. They're rooted in real science. Developed alongside leading researchers and ophthalmologists, They've demonstrated these types of glasses boost melatonin, help you fall asleep faster and hit deeper stages of rest.

When I'm on the road and bouncing around between time zones, slipping on my Felix Grey's in the evening, it's a simple way to cue my body just to wind down. And when I'm locked into deep work, they also help me stay focused for longer without digital fatigue creeping in. Plus, they look great. Clean, clear, no funky color distortion. Just good design, great science. And if you're ready to feel the difference for yourself, Felix Gray is offering all Finding Mastery listeners 20% off. Just head to FelixGray.com and use the code FindingMastery20 at checkout.

Again, that's Felix gray. You spell it F E L I X G R a y.com and use the code finding mastery 20 at Felix gray.com for 20% off. Can you talk about like what the trauma was? book or a touch note on, but it's, it's, it's, it's rather difficult to get into in conversation, but human trafficking did directly affect the family as well. And so just, I mean, I mean, the first time I saved my mom from the serial killer, the tractor later in life, when he got out of prison was 1985. Like there's just not necessarily specific things, but you know, when you look at the, you know, eight major things that cause trauma or nine, I I've had at least eight of them. And I don't want to explore, you know, hypnotization to find out on the other, because it affected every other one of my siblings. Okay. So what is this

like to talk about? It is for me, it ties, what is it like? It can be very emotional and it it's, but it is something that as I've shared my story through the years and the messages that I have, as they relate to that, like the impact that it has on others is beyond the, that's why I sat down to write the book, the pieces that I put out and dropped, you know, I've, my book has been just incredibly useful for people at all levels, but all the way down to people contemplating taking their own life. And this isn't a one-off thing. It has been over and over and over again to the business person, you know, somebody that's taken on, you know, either going back to school or started their own business or it, because to me, it's all

about this stuff is to me, it's a story. It is, and it's a great story to articulate the message how I'm not downplaying any trauma or things that have happened to people. But at the same time, understanding these are things that you don't have control of and they're not what define you. You're defined by your actions and responses to those things. And even if it's been significantly horrible, there's no reason why let it be that, why let that be the defining thing. And that you can still use and leverage what you can from that to, to become more resilient, to withstand maybe the things that you don't anticipate that are coming next. So like in the, the, the physical performance realm, we call it the specific adaptation to impose demand. Right. And we know that if we impose it, if we have a demand, the body's going to come back and be more, I had this heavy workout mentally and physically going in, you know,

mentally going into it. Oh, I don't know if I can handle it. You get done. You're like, you know what? I can do that. I can do that next time. And maybe a little bit more, right. And, and over time you start building to that. Now at the beginning, like this base level stuff that I'm talking about here in my early experiences, this life, everybody has a different level of resilience to start with. Everybody's going to walk into the gym at a different rate, right? But everybody has the ability to layer that over time. And the interesting thing to note is just like going into the gym, though, you can get soft if you don't have those things in your life. And if you don't have those and you take it, you know, you're living life on the beach, enjoying my ties with no stress

or whatever, something 10, 20 years down the line, it doesn't matter whether you're a war hero or things that you were in the past. If you don't have some level of being able to step into an uncomfortable zone, to be able to live in this, this area where you've got this, you know, little bit of anxiety, fear, but also excitement kind of in your, in your life on things. And it doesn't have to be things that are going to be traumatic, but if you don't stay in the practice of that, you may have something that overwhelms you. Okay. Hold on. Stay, stay here, stay here for a minute. Cause that's a really important point that you're making like significantly important. And it's oversaid,

you'll get comfortable being uncomfortable. It is oversaid, but people don't really understand that in the physiology around it. Like I can't remember which author I was, I was reading at the time they were talking about the biodomes experiments and you know, the trees grow into a certain height, they just fallen over took them a long time to figure out why. And it was because they didn't have the wind buffeting against them, the, you know, the physical environment beating against them, telling those roots to go strong and deep. Right. And so, and you start taking a

step back. Well, the said principle, everything that it relates to it, like overcoming challenge is literally the essence of life. That's that is that singular tree kind of like poking up and out of this outcropping on a rock where there shouldn't be something right. It's it's working against that that environment to create life. Life. This is the essence of life. And we can let it slip away from us because we're always chasing comfort. We're chasing in business. I can't wait till I can get to that level where everything calms down and then go read any great business book. Phil Knight's Shoe Dog, for example. And it's like, they're so stressful, barely make it on for all these times, but everything you can tell him, his entire team, they would always, those were the glory days. Those were the days that brought excitement, engagement in life, in all aspects of your life. Right. And so it's not about burning the candle at both ends because you still have to have the opportunity for recovery. It's not pushing yourself. Just like I said, till you're like in

the gym puking and can't, you know, can't move and breaking yourself down. You can do that with, with stress. And so this is why I relate a lot of this stuff to, to the training aspect of it, but it, because these messages get mixed like this hustle and grind mentality with life. Like I absolutely believe we need to find these opportunities that turn into, but it may be that turning into it may be a difficult conversation with, with your partner, taking on a challenging project at work, raising your hand when it's like, man, I hope it,

I hope Joe over there or Susan over there gets it being said, going, you know what? I don't know if I can handle that. And I think I'm going to take that on. Right. And I can't promise you every one of those is going to turn out great. But the, the mentality of doing that is going to lead to, because you know, where I'm at in life, I wouldn't be able to do the things that I could do if I just had all the motivation and drive and

looked at some motivational posters and got all amped up. It doesn't matter. I wouldn't be able to pull it off because I wouldn't have the stamina, the resilience, the commitment to stick to it over time, knowing that even when I fail or that it's just the first step in, I discovered that's not it right now. I'm going to come around with a different approach, different way, give it more time, learn some more that I have the confidence and know that I can, I can get that done. And that's the long haul. Yeah. Let me, let me pause here for a minute because the way I'm hearing this part of it is you're

saying, listen, this is a significant first principle, which is to hold the tension. And I love that phrase, hold the tension in the uncomfortable, difficult space. And certainly we understand that athletically and physically, right? Like one more rep and do it cleanly. You can probably do one more, do that cleanly. You know, like we get it from the physical standpoint, but what you're talking about is the internal uncomfortableness, the psychological uncomfortableness, which is really a physiological sensation. We feel anxiety. I call it the gut check. Yeah. When you feel that kind of twisting up and it's a mixture of, and you can think about

some things in life when biological drivers push us there. So like getting to be an adolescent and that wanting to get out on your own and, you know, the, but the comfort of the home on the other side, and it pushes you there the same thing with like finding a partner, you know, moving, moving that next level with the relationship, having a child. But then once those disappear, how many people just coast and then they're sitting there on their deathbed going, wait, what, where did life go? Okay. So two parts is how do you practice and structure your day to get psychologically and emotionally uncomfortable? And then how do you work with yourself when you're in that state? So I don't do anything consciously with like the structure of my day per se, but it's, it's more of the being the awareness in my life.

When I feel like I'm, I'm, I'm coasting that I'm getting into the groove. Uh, everything's clicking and I need to have those times. You got to have that stuff that fills you back up. Like I'm, I'm coasting that I'm getting into the groove. Uh, everything's clicking and I need to have those times. You got to have that stuff that fills you back up. Like I said, it's, you got to have your recovery, but if you go on vacation, just like I said, a nice weekend off from training, good thing, a nice three months on vacation, not doing anything you're going to get weak. Right. And so it's, I don't have anything on the structure of that, but how do I, how do I deal with it when I'm in it? Because when you're in it, it is hard. It's overwhelming sometimes when everything in life and I'm, I'm actually, I'm in one of those right now. There's a lot of stuff going on from a business and family perspective, and it's a three-step process for me. So those steps involve just

acknowledging that, acknowledging the fact that I am here. I'm in one of those moments. I'm overwhelmed. Stress is piling on me. I'm going to be responding in a certain manner. That step one is just being honest with yourself that, okay, I'm here. The second step is to celebrate that fact, to take a step back and go, this is my glory moment. This is the time when I come over this next month, next year is going to be the thing I brag about. Maybe to some, a family member may just be to myself to know I freaking did it. I overcame that. I got there. Right. And, and then the last thing is the adaptation. So now use that, push through that, but use that now to, as your lever for that next thing, that's going to come at you. Maybe it's self-imposed. Maybe it's something that

came out of left field that you didn't anticipate. And that's what it's all preparation for. Right. And so those are the, so you're going to be able to lever off that. And part of that leveraging is just the recognizing that when you're stressed, when you're overwhelmed, it's because you care about whatever's happening. And so it means that you're going to use that to be able to perform at a higher level. I do. This is an important thing to me. So that's good. That's good to know. And I'm going to use that because I'm going to perform better than I normally do. Let's go back. Okay. So third grade, fourth grade, you lose a little bit, deep trauma. When do you imagine the trauma phase that we're referring to? When do you imagine that ended? Well, you know, it just kind of shifted a little bit, maybe alleviated, but around high school. So when the parents got us back in Oregon, got out of the drug trade, don't want to have the chance of losing the kids again, but very quickly fell back into patterns of living in the woods at the time.

Now it was prospecting, mining, things of that nature. And so we ended up in the eastern Oregon doing that. In high school, they ended up, my stepfather won a disability suit and was able to put a down payment on this mobile home. And so we did that. And I had a stable place to live for maybe it was three or four years. I didn't have doors. You know, we had to hang up sheets, the windows, we had to put plastic over because they're a little crank ones. And, but I did have electricity, had running water, didn't have a kitchen. So we threw up some two by fours to hold the sink. And that was, that was

it for high school for me. So I was kind of working part-time helping with the family. Did, did your friends know? A couple of close friends had, uh, knew. And for me, it was really about this self-esteem and the feeling that everybody knew that I was the kid that was, you know, like when I started high school, we had a 16 foot trailer and we were living down by the river, the old Chris Farley joke, you know, in a trailer down by the river, that was us. And, and I remember like, I'd have to, uh, get off the bus, but the bus ended well before, you know, getting to the road to the woods. And I'd, I'd sit there and wait. And sometimes my parents would get drunk and forget to pick me up. And then I'd have to walk for miles. And the bus driver finally found out what was going on. And he'd like just added to his trip and drove me out there. But

for me, it was this, you know, I always had like dirty clothes, very changing schools all the time. And so I wasn't necessarily socially, wasn't very socialized and a bit of an outcast for that, for that matter, especially again, with, you know, maybe smelled a little, little dirty, my clothes completely out of style. It wasn't like, you know, us seeing poor today where you may have still have nice clothes and, you know, a smartphone and things like that. Like we had nothing. And, and that affected my, my self confidence, my self-esteem at that period of time. So it was a very dark time. I think for me, what, how did you, how did you manage that? Like it wasn't, You didn't use drugs. I started lifting weights.

So you poured into that. Yep. So you were the kid. I was already the nerd, right? That wasn't helping me. I was the smartest kid in the class. And I'm like, I'm just going to dive into this. So I started with just doing jump squats and pushups and things like that around, I think it was 11 years old, 12 years old. And did you get

made fun of? Yeah. Yeah. And so for smelling for clothes and then how did you, when that would happen, what, what did you do? I didn't do anything. Okay. I just buried my head and sat there or walked away. Right. Was it a numb response or was there a big emotional response and you didn't have the way to. It was a numb response. I mean, that was my life. There wasn't anything I could do about it. I didn't really a numb response I mean that was my life there wasn't anything I could do about it I didn't really take it I mean it just was it was uncomfortable but it wasn't like oh my god where I went home you know feeling like it was just the general I guess mode of my life

for the most part and then when I started getting involved in sports and building kind of my self-esteem, like realizing I could have control over that aspect. And then it got to the point of like, well, you know, Hey, nobody's making fun of me anymore because I'm the strongest guy in the school. Um, so that was, you know, yeah. I mean, clearly let's look at like what I accomplished in my life post that, like, it's pretty easy to see that I, I chose the things that go, Hey, everything. And again, my personal things going on, like in my head that, you know, people look down upon me, um, for whatever it is, like, I'm going to outperform you.

I'm going to outperform you physically. I'm going to outperform you mentally. I'm going to outperform you in business. You put anything out there and I'm going to be the best. Where did that wait, Chris, this is materially important. Where did that come from? I don't think I realized that till I was like in my, my thirties, probably that I was like, oh, this is probably why I am such an overachiever in so many areas. I don't remember ever consciously making that choice. I just wanted to be the best. And like I said, I was lacking the self-confidence like on the social side, but I had so many like physical experiences of overcoming my environment from, you know,

digging a trench to hanging tarps to like all this like stuff to like live that I knew that I was capable of like overcoming stuff. And that was early on. I had a tremendous amount of confidence in my ability to overcome things that I could truly get there. Now, sometimes, sometimes I'd step in, like, you know, I was my senior year of high school, you know, I'm valid Victorian, I'm a state level athlete. And I didn't know how to manage like this process of going to, you know, I'm valid Victorian, I'm a state level athlete. And I didn't know how to manage like this process of going to, you know, getting prepared for college, filling out the

FAFSA forms and scholarships and all this sort of stuff. I didn't have any guidance from my parents. And I was, you know, thinking about, I just didn't realize this till very recently. I was like, oh yeah, there was a point in time I was just considering renting an apartment and continuing to wait tables at the resort that I was working at. Right. And it's like, fuck, that's kind of crazy that I was thinking about doing that. I, but I was, you know, trying to chase that stuff down. And I ended up do a, I applied for a scholarship with a, uh, a newspaper and they turned me down, but they said, this is really interesting. And so they did a front page article on me and that got picked up by the wire service. I ended up doing interviews on the radio and one of the colleges, the, uh,

a technical college came through and called me up and said, Hey, why don't you come down and visit us? And I didn't have a ride down there. So my calculus teacher drove me down to the college. Um, and that's where I ended up getting a full ride scholarship, academic scholarship, um, with a mixture of grants and scholarships to, to go to school. And, and that's, that's when I discovered that a lot of my personal views of myself were not really reality because it was a fresh start. It was people that didn't know me. And I started opening up and discovering, wow, okay, I can actually engage with people really well.

The life of the party, just the six-week girls like me. It was an interesting environment for me for a couple of years. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Cozy Earth. Over the years, I've learned that recovery doesn't just happen when we sleep. It starts with how we transition and wind down. And that's why I've built intentional routines into the way that I close my day. And Cozy Earth has become a new part of that. Their bedding, it's incredibly soft, like next level soft. And what surprised me the most is how much it actually helps regulate temperature. I tend to run warm at night and these sheets have helped me sleep cooler and more consistently, which has made a meaningful difference in how I show up the next day for myself, my family, and our team here at Finding Mastery. It's become part of my nightly

routine. Throw on their lounge pants or pajamas, crawl into bed under their sheets, and my nervous system starts to settle. They also offer a 100-night sleep trial and a 10-year warranty on all of their bedding, which tells me, tells you that they believe in the long-term value of what they're creating. If you're ready to upgrade your rest and turn your bed into a better recovery zone, use the code FINDINGMASTERY for 40% off at CozyEarth.com. That's a great discount for our community. Again, the code is Finding Mastery for 40% off at CozyEarth.com. Finding Mastery is brought to you by Caldera Lab. I believe that the way we do small things in life is how we do all things. And for me, that includes how I take care of my body.

I've been using Caldera Lab for years now. And what keeps me coming back, it's really simple. Their products are simple and they reflect the kind of intentional living that I want to build into every part of my day. And they make my morning routine really easy. They've got some great new products I think you'll be interested in. A shampoo, conditioner, and a hair serum. With Caldera Lab, it's not about adding more. It's about choosing better. And when your day demands clarity and energy and presence, the way you prepare for it matters. If you're looking for high quality personal care products that elevate your routine without complicating it, I'd love for

you to check them out. Head to calderalab.com slash finding mastery and use the code finding mastery at checkout for 20% off your first order. That's caldera lab, C-A-L-D-E-R-L-A-B dot com slash finding mastery. Most people do not outperform their family's socioeconomic status. Most doesn't mean all certainly you have i watched a lot of people around me growing up die go to end up in prison later addicted to drugs like that is i'm very aware of this why why do you think you were able to exponentially change the family legacy? Like, there's a couple of things. I think the fact that I was in survivor mode. So it wasn't just me and myself I was dealing with in the environment that I was.

I was the one that was responsible for helping take care and raise my sisters. And I didn't realize how much so until I left home and I quit contacting home because I'd call and I'd have to give money and so on. So it was like a year and a half. I didn't, and things just completely fell apart. My sisters ended up out on the streets. I, and I honestly wasn't doing that well. I wasn't handling it. I was on the path towards, uh, I was partying and drinking nonstop and I ended up starting to take custody of my sisters. And I did, I, and I did so, um, before, well, my senior year, I didn't really have much classes anyway. I was just, uh, working on my senior year, I didn't really have much classes. Anyway, I was just working on my senior project. I was working full-time, but I bought a house, took custody of the oldest of my three, started working on getting custody of the second one. And, you know, was it for them?

Maybe it was also for me, but it put me back in this situation of, I couldn't fail. I couldn't let the concerns or the problems of the depression or all those things affect because I had to be there. I had to be present. I'm not suggesting that this is any sort of methodology that people should employ, but it comes down to the burning the bridges mentality of putting yourself you know, putting yourself in a position where they're, where you have to succeed. Right. And others are reliant on you as well. And so I think that, that is, that is one thing. I think another is, you know, the difference level of, of baseline resilience to be able to handle that kind of stress is different from person to person. And I'd love to say like, Oh, it's something just innate about my, my approach to life and

my philosophy that, that got me there when I did really well in school, I did really well in athletics. Like I had a lot of things at my disposal that not everybody has in those situations. And, you know, like use my story just entirely as a, anybody can pull themselves up by their bootstraps analogy is, I don't think a fair approach, but I think that the lessons that I've learned over the scope of my life can certainly be used by, by anyone. But yeah, I, I, I'd put some context around that. Right. How do you translate all of the experiences, the, the trauma, the excitements, the volition, the commitment? Um, how do you translate all of that into a gift to provide others, you know, like as a source of inspiration or as some sort of playbook or blueprint about steps people can take.

And yeah, I don't like the pull yourself up by the bootstrap because we work in ecosystems and it makes it sound like if you haven't had fulfillment or success or peace and happiness in your life, it's your fault. Not always. There is not always no life is not life is not fair. And that's why I was very, yeah, very intentful earlier when I said my statement, I can't always, you know, turn into those things, right. We'll be able to recognize them because there are your opportunity to, to have your workout, but life's not always fair. It doesn't always mean that that's going to be successful. And that's, that's the reality of the world. Anybody that tells you otherwise is, uh, you

know, diluting themselves and trying to dilute you. So how do you, how do you, how do you translate this? So what is, what is the, this is what's the gift. So this was a hard thing with, with my book. Cause I very purposely, it doesn't dive into the depths of horror stories that I could tell you because it's not a book about, Oh, what me and what I've been through. I use my story as a framework to help people guide them on this process of introspection, this ability to look inwards, be able to peel back those layers to truly understand the meaning for yourself. And hopefully in that provide some inspiration that that you can move the needle. Not everybody's going to be able to take it this, you know, how far you can take it via via life or whatever, but it's not about like how, how successful you get. It's about, you know, that process of, uh, of moving that direction and, and the liberating sensation it is to discover if all I can control is my actions and responses and the work that I do,

I can create success because whether I get the output of, you know, a six figure salary or some of the other, whatever these people, you know, people define as success, like it, it, it doesn't matter. You can't control necessarily all those things in life, but you can control that. And so that's a liberating piece, but a lot of people, they're never even moving that direction because they don't truly understand who they are and the way that they need to live life. This whole like goal setting and goal

achievement thing, the bucket lists, bucket lists are shit, in my opinion. Sorry, I don't know if this is a clean podcast, but it comes down to that chasing your hair on fire stuff, like feeling like you're accomplishing things because goals are an expression. They're a way to express the values and the way of being that you want to live. My thousand pound squat, my thousand pound deadlift people today ask me, oh, what's your next big grand goal? It's gotta be, what do you do? What are you lifting next?

I'm like, well, I'm working on changing the face of fitness all the way through its integration with clinical care. Well, yeah, but what about your next grant? I'm like, that is even bigger. Like, what do you mean? These are just different ways. If I wanted to be an NFL star, you know, and had my knee taken out on some random Sunday, this is my life over. You've worked in the sporting environment just as, just as I have. And how many, you know, people at a, at a college or out of pro sports, when they hit their

retirement, have trouble finding themselves and they fall into drugs or depression or just, you know, it doesn't happen to everyone, but it's pretty common because they're defining those. They're identifying themselves to that thing, instead of understanding what it was about that and how, how that was an expression and how you can shift that into other areas. How? So how have you done this? Because there's no chance you haven't put in the hard yards here to understand who am I and how am I going to express that in my life? And, oh, by the way, I'm in control of my actions, my responses, my effort, and I'm going to add one, my thoughts.

And, and so I'm going to double down on those, right? But so what is your process to be better at introspection and to be better at becoming the person you want to be. Yeah. Let me fast forward a little bit. So this is 2014. So it's time. I can't, I've been doing like business turnarounds for about 10 years at this point in time, I was working as a engineer, a manager, operations management professional before that, but it kind of moved and shifted into this because I was very successful in that arena. I was a powerlifter and I'd been ranked number one in the world for I think seven years straight at this

point in time in either the squat the deadlift or the total I had a white picket fence around my house I had a gym on the side where I was doing that training I had two children I had my hobbies in the shop which is building engineer things So building vehicles from the ground up, suspension design, steering design, all sorts of, you know, chassis fabrication, just stuff, equipment for my gym, because I'm very particular. Things have to be a certain way if I'm going to achieve success that I want to. And that obviously makes sense for my businesses, right? And where that started coming from. And I'm sitting there, I'm like, why do I feel so mind numbingly unhappy? And also I can't sustain this. My kids, they're young,

but they're getting older and they're going to be involved in sports and other stuff. And like, something has to give, is it my hobbies? Is it my lifting? What is it? And so I'm like, what is it about my life that's making me unhappy? And so, you know, in this reflection, I was like, well, you know, maybe it's a, maybe it's a career change. And I'm like, well, I, you know, I think at this point, I know why I really like what I do. It's not, you know, airplane parts or whatever it is that the company's making. It's the leadership aspect, the being able to inspire people to driving change in an individual, getting them to leap into the unknown, uh, and realize they could, and then overcome that. And, you know, building this, um, engagement in their work and their life and so on. And you start changing people.

It changes culture, changes companies anyway. Um, so I'm like, it's, it's not the technical nature of it. It's the coaching part, that piece of it, the helping people accomplish more than that they think is possible. I'm like, this is, this is something that I deeply value. Like, why do I do the other things? Like, well, the lifting, the other, you know, I challenge that's why, you know, the sense of accomplishment, whatever you want to call that, being able to, you know, push myself in that manner. That's another value of mine. Anyway, I started diving deeper and I realized that like sense of family and community are big. And I was missing that in my home life. And I was also missing like a creative outlet. That's

why I had my hobbies and my other pieces. And, and also missing like a creative outlet. That's why I had my hobbies and my other pieces. And, and so I started looking at everything as a whole in this, this process. And it's really just, you can think about the five whys you could think about which is a great, great tool is to just keep, take those physical things that you want in life and just keep, you know, spend a month asking yourself, why do you want that? And once you get there, then ask yourself why you want that again. And you're going to end up getting to words like what I'm using here, right? Continual, continual learning, creativity, that these are just my, my personal values. One of the things that I do, and we're kind of see it in this this this approach here and it's

very unique is that I found that I can find my some of my values by trying to chase achieving balance not through moderation but through chasing the extremes you find these things that are you appear diametrically opposed that you truly know and feel like, Hey, I want the perfect, the absolute perfect form in a squat. I'll go back to the squat again. Right. But I want to put every last thing into it. And people go, well, they're, they're not the same. If you want it absolutely perfect, you, you train with a body weight or just a plate, or if you want everything into it forms to the wind. And I'm like, no, you, you're going to chase, you have to have, and you find this beautiful

thing in the center, which I did, but try that with, with life, which work-life balance. One's a compromise for the other, right? We could go into a lot of different approaches to this, but like taking these things and chasing what you do know forces you to start cutting out the fluff. So the fluff for me was my job. So I'm like, I'm highly successful in this career. I'm going to walk away from it. I am going to, you know, one of the things is, you know, in this piece of wanting people to, to achieve more than they thought possible is I've developed a technical skillset and ability on the physical nature to get people out of pain and live a better quality of life. I've been doing clinical education on the side

for like six years or so at this point in two and writing and doing videos. And I knew, like, I knew I changed people's lives. Like, and I'm like, I have to do something with this. This is going to be the path that I'm going to go down and I'm going to create a culture and an environment that draws like this sense of family, the community create that, you know, within that. So, so as I'm making these shifts, it started, you know, I cut a lot out of my life. I cut out some, you know, some old friendships that were nonproductive or counterproductive because they were, they were not healthy. They didn't enhance my life and were detrimental. I, I said, I walked away from my career.

I quit competing, even though I was number one in the world. I said, I'm going to chase. And I didn't tell anybody at the time I said, I'm going to chase a thousand pound deadlift. My goal was to chase it for reps and then to later chase the squat and do it for reps, which no, it was pointless as saying I'd be, I'd have been called crazy at the time, but to demonstrate and walk the walk of the principles that I teach the ability to control and manage spinal mechanics, the ability to control and manage spinal mechanics, the ability to control the foot and ankle complex and understand how these are the number one and number two priorities as they impact the body as a whole. Anyway, because one that allowed me more creative

expression in what I was doing, it allowed me to inspire people. It allowed me to do some of the things that I couldn't do in this framed construct of here's a meet in Australia at this time under this set of rules and so on. I'm like, I don't care anymore. I'm doing this for me. Right. So I walked away from these big things. I walked away from my marriage because it was a nice, comfortable. It always been a nice, comfortable partnership, friendship,

but I wanted to have passion. Passion is like being able to have passion about everything that I, that I had in my life. So I thought I was just going to be a single father. Um, but lo and behold, when you put like who you are out in the world and just become a magnet to draw like those same values and stuff to you. An amazing woman ended up finding me. And at 40 years old, I discovered love for the first time in my life that, oh, that shit in books and movies is actually real. Like I, oh, we can have and create like a shared vision for our future in life together. Like, anyway, I'm getting on side topics, but I started creating all the things in my life. I'm creating products. My training is mixed in with my work, my mix, like, and now I'm creating more time for my family, even though I'm working harder than I've ever

worked before. I'm creating the time that I wanted to have to be able to, to do those things and be there for, for my family. And so I mean, we're talking hours a day more. I totally get the mad scientist of strength right now. I completely, cause literally you're like a hedgehog. can go deep you know and the mechanics of foot ankle you know that that complex all the way across electrical engineering you know like so i totally get the mad scientist bit and i'm marveled that i haven't heard you talk about like a mentor somebody that guided you so i'm thinking that somehow through this process of introspection, I'm imagining it's either meditation, prayer, or journaling. I don't know. I would like to know

more that you have gotten to some truths. And then you said, now I need to listen and follow my path according to those truths. And I don't want to oversimplify it, but is that, is that close? Uh, yeah. So my, my, uh, my father, uh, actually spent, I think three years, uh, in the monasteries in Tibet. Wait, biological or my biological father. I'd only see him like once a year for a couple of weeks. And, but he sent me in, you know, I spent time with him visiting and spending time with people on the spiritual side of stuff. And that's why I said, I always have this mix of the Eastern and Western like approaches. And, and so that was something very early on is like learning the ability to kind of meditate and be with myself. And, but outside of that, no, I did not have mentors. I didn't have

access. People like, who'd you look up to? I'm like, I didn't have a TV. I didn't have, but you know, I had, I had, I had the library. We read like crazy and I was reading deep stuff at a very early age. So, uh, Ernest Hemingway, uh, Jack London, uh, Kurt Vonnegut, like a lot of mixture, a lot of kind of stuff on the sci-fi too, uh, in the, not Kurt Vonnegut, but, um, uh, um, Ray Bradbury, things of that. But it was a lot of just like being able to be in another world and envision yourself there. And I think that helped me with being able to create and envision like what I

want to do in life, because I, I try to view it as my ability. And this is the lasting thing that I want to do for my children is show them. I don't care what it is or who they want to be, but they can create and form the world around them and to empower them to, to, to believe and know that that's a real thing. But I think I was forced to have a lot of time with myself growing up. Right. And I don't have a lot of mentors. I have one that works for me now. He was my high school wrestling coach. And in the course of filming this documentary, we ended up doing an interview and my, uh, our CEO really loved him and brought him in and hired him, but, um, it's, uh, going to be called grand goals. So hoping that it comes out in the next three months, we're trying to find a larger studio house to, uh, to pick it up. We can get it on

Netflix right now, but getting a bigger backing, uh, there's a trailer for anybody who wants to view it on my site, chrisduffin.com. So go there, fill out the email list and you'll get notified when it comes out. You'll see via the trailer, it's going to be pretty, pretty solid piece. So it's a follows me along in the journey towards the squat, but it's telling the backstory of like why I've done the things I've done and how actually being this way affects everybody's life that revolves around it and what that, what that has brought. So really interesting piece. Do you work on structure? No. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not like you don't,

you don't have routines at all. No. Yeah. So then, but, but you play, I can't say that that's for, I'm not suggesting that that's just how I operate. Yeah. That's yeah. That's definitely your model. And then do you write down your training programs or do you write down quarterly goals, you know, or objectives that you're trying to line up the noses in, in your business toward, or like, do you write stuff down? Yes. So I've got notebooks all over the place. I've got notes all over my phone. I'm constantly, because I'll wake up, a lot of my stuff comes to me in a dream state. So I have to wake up and I'll jot out, this is where my product ideas come from from business, things like that is in this, that state.

And so, so I've got one beside my bed. Um, so that's important for me and something I'm always on. And it takes me a long time to pull this together. Like, you know, I talked about business process stuff, like doing turnarounds. There was like some very laid out stuff. And I was able to, in later years, figure out how to pencil out that structure of what that looks like for both the goal setting and execution cycle, being able to generate your North star, being able off there to start creating, you know, the major objectives and then starting to break down all that. But normally I train people in the process. I'm not very good at doing it because that's, I have all this in my head all the time. Like I said, I, you know, engineering's my background. Engineers don't understand me at all because I'll walk out and I can create,

just start welding and bending. And next thing you know, there's a, there's a very complex product or an entire vehicle. Right. And they're like, how, where's your prints? And I'm like, well, it's here and I can't get it out until I, I go do it. But I have found that, you know, to be successful in the business side of things. And for most people having a structured system for doing that. And it's a, it's an annual planning cycle. It's a, uh, that, uh, that, that I, that I believe in. And really it's this, here's the big thing. If you want to execute, it is the shifting in mindset from, do I have the right plan to how well am I working a plan and then becoming an investigative scientist diving into how, how am I, what are the breakdowns? What are the gaps in this process? Because it doesn't have, everybody wants to go back where the plan is not working. Let's create

the most brilliant master plan. They keep getting to this, the goal setting piece that instead of like, how are we actually freaking performing on this? And so there's a, there's an entire process on that. I've got some tools I built that are laid out. I think they come out on email. If you sign up on my chrisduffin.com, by the way. But at the end of the day, I'm pretty damn horrible at sitting down and doing that stuff myself. But I do have very specific goals and targets either in my head or written down all over the place. And my training plans early on, I can still lean on the engineering side of being very

process driven, building out the structure of what happens in periodization and all this sorts of stuff and all these grand spreadsheets, pencil and all this out. But our coaching team does that and they've actually managed my training for the last six years and they managed it all the way through. So I'm providing the insight on overall scope, how we address this, and then they build out the curriculum and content on that. What is your business? What is the core business that you're working? It's a very unique business in the fact that we're a coaching and education company whose philosophy around movement and loading drives the tools that we create in the market. So most people are aware of us because of the tools that we create, which are new and innovative, that improve biomechanics, reduce the ability to potentiate injuries. They're taking away the

stresses that we don't adapt to, allowing for the variability in different people's different levers, mobility restrictions, training needs. So we're used, our tools are used in like 29 of 30 major league baseball teams, 90% of the NBA, 90% of the NFL, 600 plus colleges, every big name school. The Rock has like eight of our different bars, like all over the place, as well as the rest of like Marvel Studios, a lot of the action figures. So we do coaching and education as well. So we have a series of educational, we do seminars and certifications and we coach clients around the world. And it's the same thing. You know, how do we, how do we build resilience? How do we get stronger and how do we do so while at the same time allowing the body to move better, feel Hey, what's a product that we can make and sell

versus what's the gaps out there based on this lens that we look at things. What's the best link to be able to see more about what you just described? Yeah. So the easiest, you know, so Kabuki strength is really prevalent, but if you go to my personal website, chrisduffin.com, you'll get the first part of this book absolutely free. You sign up for the email that's going to be emailed to you, as well as exclusive discounts to Kabuki strength, as well as Barefoot Athletics, which is a company I co-founded on minimalist shoe wear. And so they're absolute best in Minimalist You Wear.

You'll see it when you, you'll know it if, when you see it. And Build Fast Formula, which is the supplementation that ties to my personal nutritional strategies. So there's, you'll get exclusive discounts to all those, as well as some exclusive educational content. So it's nice single point of entry. You want to know how to follow on social media. The links are there. If you don't type in my name, Chris Duffin, like muffin, but with a D you'll see me pop up my face. There'll be a little blue checky thing. That's where you find me. It's not complicated. People love listing all that stuff out. So. Dude, you're a legend. And so really quickly before you go, just super

reductionist approach to a couple of questions here. Okay. Yeah. It all comes down to, but for me, the motto I've been using recently is create shit, do shit, live beyond the limits. If I do another book, that's probably going to be the title. Awesome. And then last one, success is? Success for me is being able to create alignment in my life to live the values and be able to express those in the best possible. And so for me, that life is about connection with other people. It's about enhancing that and building it, which is why we're sitting here. I've got tons of products to sell you and you know I linked you at the end but I'm trying to share this stuff um and unless you're like a uh JK Rawlings or a other person you don't write a book to uh to make money these days so no you don't yeah hey man so I like like when it's too flat to say inspiring, it's too flat to say that about your life arc. However, I don't know a better word because my experience of listening to you is one. there's no pity, but there is a sadness for your childhood. And there is an incredible breath of

like, wow, you know, like inspiration means to breathe life into. So this inhale that I have, which is like, it's incredible. Your scars and the way that you've worked through them, this is, you are the epitome for post-traumatic growth. And I'm stoked to hear your story, to learn from you, to know you in this way. And I'm excited to share your insights with our community. So Chris, thank you. And if I can be of any service in any way, please let me know.

I really appreciate this interview. You really hit some hard-hitting questions and it was not, it allowed me to kind of dig and share in some different ways. So thank you. All right, man. All right. Thank you so much for diving into another episode of Finding Mastery with us. Our team loves creating this podcast and sharing these conversations with you.

We really appreciate you being part of this community. And if you're enjoying the show, the easiest no-cost way to support is to hit the subscribe or follow button wherever you're listening. Also, if you haven't already, please consider dropping us a review on Apple or Spotify. We are incredibly grateful for the support and feedback.

If you're looking for even more insights, we have a newsletter we send out every Wednesday. Punch over to findingmastery.com slash newsletter to sign up. The show wouldn't be possible without our sponsors and we take our recommendations seriously. And the team is very thoughtful about making sure we love and endorse every product you hear on the show. If you want to check out any of our sponsor offers you heard about in this episode, you can find those deals at findingmastery.com slash sponsors. And remember, no one does it alone. The door here at Finding Mastery is always open to those looking to explore the edges and the reaches of their potential so that they can help others do the same.

So join our community, share your favorite episode with a friend and let us know how we can continue to show up for you. Lastly, as a quick reminder, information in this podcast and from any material on the Finding Mastery website and social channels is for information purposes only. If you're looking for meaningful support,

which we all need, one of the best things you can do is to talk to a licensed professional. So seek assistance from your healthcare providers. Again, a sincere thank you for listening. Until next episode, be well, think well, keep exploring.