Mick Unplugged - Phil Daru | Coaching: Creating Connections and Pushing Athletes to Succeed

Episode Date: September 2, 2024

Welcome back to another compelling episode of "Mick Unplugged!" Today, we're diving deep into the world of athletic training and personal growth with none other than the renowned coach, Phil Daru. Phil brings a wealth of knowledge from his extensive career working with elite athletes and shares his personalized approach to coaching, emphasizing the need to understand athletes' limitations and tailor programs to their unique characteristics.Tune in as Phil outlines key strategies for building strength and speed, and offers insights for retired athletes looking to regain their mental motivation. We'll also explore his journey from athlete to coach, the inspiration behind opening his own fitness facility, and his philosophy on leadership and teamwork.Phil Daru also discusses the value of outdoor play for children, the importance of leadership by example, and shares exclusive details on his social media presence, YouTube channel, and upcoming mentorship and certification programs. Join us for an episode filled with inspiration, practical advice, and a deep dive into the mind of a coach who believes in pushing limits and achieving greatness. Let's get unplugged!TakeawaysPush yourself beyond the breaking point to achieve improvement and growth.Engage in introspection and understand your weaknesses to become a better person.Spending time outdoors and participating in physical activities can lead to personal growth and development.Coaching is about creating a connection with athletes and finding ways to push them to succeed.In training, focus on progressive overload, stress management, and building resilience.Sound Bites"I've always pushed myself beyond the breaking point or at least as far as I possibly could without breaking points to figure out what's the best way to get the job done.""You always have to find out exactly who you are and... improving daily through constant action.""People just want to be pushed in the right direction and they want to achieve great things and they need a guide to do that."Top 5 Questions Phil AnswersStrength Development: Phil Daru emphasizes progressive overload, constant stress on the body, and resilience through consistent training. How can these principles be applied in contexts outside of sports, such as in personal or professional development?Speed Training: In the episode, Phil discusses training methodologies to improve speed. What are some potential challenges of incorporating sprint-based training into an athlete's regimen, and how might these be overcome?Mental Motivation for Retired Athletes: How can activities that provide a sense of accomplishment, like jiu jitsu, help retired athletes regain their mental motivation? Can this approach be adapted for people not involved in sports?Role of Outdoor Play for Children: Both Mick and Phil advocate for outdoor play. In modern urban settings, what are some strategies to encourage children to engage more with nature and physical activities outside?Leadership in Coaching: What qualities do you think make an effective leader in the context of sports coaching? How can these qualities translate to leadership roles outside of sports?Connect and Discover:https://darustrong.com/https://www.instagram.com/darustrong/twitter.com/BamBamDFPwww.youtube.com/@PhilDaruStrong ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★ See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Most people want to actually be led and not be a follower. But the problem is we don't have great leadership examples out there. Right. As a business owner, as an entrepreneur, those people that you bring on, you have to learn how to coach them up. You have to learn how to teach them, how to guide them so that they can be a valuable asset to the team itself. Probably the age of 22, I opened up a gym for myself. I was an independent contractor, taking clients and sneaking them into Gold's Gym and charging $20 a session. Times have changed now of athletes. I've had probably around 200 professional athletes that I've been able to work with there, right? I've created that level of authority in the space.

Welcome to Mick Unplugged, where we ignite potential and fuel purpose. Get ready for raw insights, bold moves, and game-changing conversations. Buckle up. Here's Mick. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another exciting episode of Mick Unplugged, where we dive deep into the minds of the most inspiring leaders and innovators on earth. And today, I have a powerhouse, both literally and figuratively, in the world of strength and conditioning. A coach who has transformed athletes at the highest levels, someone that I'm honored to call a friend. Get ready to be enlightened, get ready to be moved, get ready to be motivated by none other than the incomparable Phil DeRue.

Phil, how are you doing, brother? I'm doing amazing, man. Thank you for that intro, too, by the way. That was awesome. Hey, it's all about my people, man. So, like I said, I'm glad to call you a friend. And, you know, I'll make unplugged, Phil, as you know, we like to talk about going deeper than your why, right? Like I feel like everyone's why is superficial. I could probably guess Phil's why, but it's your because that makes you unique. Is that because that's your purpose? So Phil, for you, and I know it changes right from time to time, but if I were to say early young Phil, what was your because? What drove you to who you are today, brother? That's a good question, honestly. The biggest thing for me was since I was as young as I can remember, I've always wanted to push myself. I've always wanted to be better than competition.

I'm a very competitive person by nature. I think that got instilled in me through my parents and wanting to achieve more and more, whether it be physically, whether it be psychologically, understanding things. And I've always pushed myself beyond the breaking point, or at least as far as I possibly could without breaking points, to figure out what's the best way to get the job done. And I think that led me to understand strategy and tactics and proper programming and making sure that I have a game plan aligned with that. Because let's face it, I'm not the most, I would say, genetically gifted in a lot of ways. I'm not the tallest guy.

I'm 5'8", right? I'm not the strongest. But there was always a way to get it done. And me having that chip on my shoulder growing up in the environment that I grew up in, I've always had to find ways to be better than the next and to be better than who I was the day before. So improving daily through constant action and finding out my weak points, I the dots backwards, the biggest thing for me was always trying to figure out what I was missing. What's the weak links in the chain? And that goes into having introspection and learning about yourself and figuring out how you're going to. Hold on. This is my son right here. He's coming in. Come on in. Come on in.

Let's go on a podcast. You want to say what's up? Go ahead. So this is dad life. You know, I'll go with me. So, yeah, I think that that was one of those things where you always have to find out exactly who you are and living in solitude and taking time for yourself it's tough i mean i got three kids i have a wife i have a full business you understand that completely but there is an importance in that. And when you do have that ability, you can start to overcome some rough situations. You people ready to compete whether it be in the cage in the ring on the field but we're also trying to find out exactly who they are and who they are as an individual because that's going to make them a better athlete that's going to make them a better individual so that they can be the most successful that they can be at whatever they do.

Yeah, that's amazing, man. So how did you get into coaching and fitness? Like what was that initial thing that got you there? So I've always been an athlete. I've played sports since I was four years old. I've done martial arts since I was four or five years old. And I think it just fell in line with what I was doing. I was always a captain with all my teams.

And the biggest thing that I remember was that my mother was a very good athlete. She was the first ever Broward County women's firefighter in that section of when they started to bring on women. And yeah, she definitely instilled a level of competitive drive in me because she had a chip on her shoulder. And I was training her. I remember when I was like five, six years old, I'd ride my bike as she would run up and down the neighborhood and I would just be yelling at her like, let's go, mom, let's go. You fast forward to that. And I've always been a person or as a kid, I've always, I was that kid that got knocked on doors and brought kids out to play, right? I was the one to rile everybody up and get them active, right? You go into high school and now I'm getting ready for football and I'm calling kids over to do weight training or we're going to the field to run routes. So it was instilled

in me from a leadership perspective and it just kind of molded into the position that I'm in now. And I think also me being an athlete and having that experience, whether it be in the cage, in the ring, on the field, it allowed me to coach from a deeper perspective because now I can put myself in the position of what these guys go through and they understand that and that's when that buy-in occurs so I think when I started training people I started training people at around 19 20 years old I got my degree in exercise science because I wanted to be around sport performance and fitness. And I didn't really know if I wanted to make that my prime career. My goal was to make it either into the NFL. And

then when I started fighting, I wanted to be in the UFC. So from an athlete, I wanted to be at the pinnacle at my athletic abilities, right? Didn't plan out, didn't pan out the way I expected it to. That's fine. And that's how we can pivot. And that's the biggest thing is understanding when to pivot and then taking advantage of those opportunities when the time comes. And that's what happened. I found a way to utilize my athletic ability and all those those, I would say, skills that I've acquired through the talent that God has given me and implemented that into my coaching ability for others. So right around probably the age of 22, I opened up a gym for myself. I was an independent contractor, taking clients and

sneaking them into Gold's Gym and charging $20 a session. Times have changed now. But I just got tired of just, you know, being under someone's shadow or being in someone's house and having to sleep on the couch per se, right? Yep. But from a business perspective, I was like, you know what? This is something that I know that I can do at the highest level. Let me go ahead and take the leap and open up my own

facility. And I started small. I had a 500 square foot storage closet type of deal. And that's when I met my wife. I had about 12 members in the gym. I was doing boot camps. And I would take the things that I've learned from playing collegiate football and professional fighting. And then I would integrate that into just general fitness work that I would do with these people that would come to the gym. And then what I found was that regular people, and I mean regular people as in the sense of they're not competing at a high level. They're not athletes competing at a high level.

But they are athletic and they do want to compete. So there was a common theme here that I found that people just want to be pushed in the right direction and they want to achieve great things and they need a guide to do that in a lot sergeant. At times you do, don't get me wrong, but giving them the opportunity to give themselves an understanding of who they are, right? And push them to the point where they feel like they've accomplished something bigger than who they are. And now as you can get to that point, when you get to that point, because nothing will change if you don't cause stress, if you don't have some level of resistance. So I think in any way, the gym training itself gives you an opportunity to be a better person. And I know that's kind of like esoteric and maybe a little bit more philosophical on another level. But if you really think about it, you're giving yourself the opportunity to be better by pushing yourself beyond the point of where you're regularly at. Right. So as people grow and they progress, you have to stress out the body. That's just in general. Right. Whether it be physical stress, whether it be mental stress. Right. In order for you to be a better person, to be a better father, grow, evolve, learn, and adapt.

And that's the biggest thing that I see overall from how the gym, the weight room, strength training, conditioning, endurance, whatever, can give you that opportunity. I think that was one of the reasons why I took to coaching because it's not just about shedding a few pounds. It's not just about getting someone ready for a fight. It's about molding an individual and creating change that was better than the day before. That's amazing, man.

Like there's so much I want to unplug with what you said. Going back to something early in your life when you were the kid that was knocking on doors. And I've been saying this for a long time. Parents, get your kids outside. I think now, Phil, I don't know if you agree with me. These are the words of Mick and Mick only. Don't go chastising Phil for this. Man, like parents make outside feel like punishment for kids, man. Like growing up, if on the weekends or after school, if I was in the house, something was wrong. Yeah.

Like we were not allowed to be in the house. And so I want parents to understand it's okay for your kids to be outside. Like they're going to develop. And I'm not even talking physically. I'm talking socially. I'm talking about from a cognizant learning standpoint, just being outside is good. Do you agree with that, Phil? And if not, you can, we can argue. No, absolutely. You know, my son was just out there. I love when he gets with other boys and

I can see them actually playing and I can see them having to, having to overcome some type of difficult situation out there right you know they were fishing earlier i was taking my son fishing with his friends and you could see that there were some issues like they couldn't they couldn't catch fish so they're trying to find different lures and they're trying to find different spots you know to fish and to catch this fish so it's it's problem solving in an actual form and and don't get me wrong like i do believe technology does have its place and you know there's a lot of things that that are good about that um but physically going out there not only getting exercise um but going and being a part

of nature you know um feeling the elements i mean we're in you know south florida and it's hot out here man it's humid these kids have to you know okay if i'm hot i need to drink water right i need to get electrolytes i need to eat and they don't get that unless they get stressed and they don't feel that so naturally intuitively they go i'm hot i need to drink water so now you're getting to drink water as opposed to soda sitting in the sitting in the house you see what i'm saying or whatever having so yeah i think the elements and and just like we said nature and being outside is a very good way for a young individual a child to understand their physiology to understand uh problem solving there's a lot of different things you got to peel back the layers and not just think like, I'll just go outside and get out of my hair for a couple of hours. It's really about letting them figure out what's optimal for them as far as how to play. Kids don't even know how to play anymore. Right. Right. They have to find some, some

stimulus. They have to find some, some, uh, some way of doing that and get that dopamine rush where you can just go outside and find out how to climb a tree. Right. Find out how to throw some rocks. Don't throw them at houses, obviously. That's great. But you know, we got a pond out there. You throw them at the pond and like, and then, and then they get to understand how their body moves in space. And I mean, obviously, I'm a performance coach and I've done this a long time. But if I wasn't in that field, I would still feel that way. I would still want my child to go out there and figure out their body and understand, you know, how they move, because that's what ends up, ends up, you know, what ends up happening to get older. And now they go to do some type of physical activity. And I see it all the time where they weren't active as a kid. And now I have to re introduce new movement patterns that are just basic foundational patterns that they have no idea how to do. And what ends up happening when they get forced to

do those foundational patterns in everyday life, they tend to get injured. So now you are hurting, you have tendinopathy, tendinitis, you have back pain, you have neck pain, all because you didn't learn how to move as a young or as a youth. And that's where we have to as individuals, we have to understand that as parents, we have to understand that. And there's a lot of great coaches out there, you know, that work with youth athletes that can coach them and teach them. But I think the best way to do it is just to let them figure it out. As a young kid, the Soviets used to do that a long time ago in the old Soviet Union. They would take the kids and that's how they would find out what sport they would actually play. From seven to around, I think it was 10 or 11 years old. It's called the rule of three.

They would just have the kids run around the gym and just do everything, whether it be climbing rope, whether it be crawling, jumping, all of these things. And then they would put them in the sport that was conducive for them to be successful in based upon genetic makeup, based upon their movement quality, so on and so forth. But they had it right when they gave them the opportunity to be generally fit and build a base of athletic ability. Totally agree. Totally agree. And the other thing that I want to unplug that you said, man, and this goes into all layers of leadership. So as an executive coach, I talk to people about this a lot. You know, you said people want a guide. They don't want a governor. Right. And I tell I tell people this all day, every day. Most people want to actually be led and not be a follower. But the problem is we don't have great leadership examples out there. So the fact that

you said you're the guide, not the governor, I think parallels into the business life as well, too, because for the leaders that are listening and watching Phil and I, that's the mentality that you need to have. Like you need to be more of that guide so that people actually want to be a part of what you're doing and that they feel like they're being led. I also believe that leaders need to always lead from the front. And I'm going to say this because of, I mean this because of the fact that when I am able to lead at my highest level with the elites that I've been able to train, when they see me do the thing that I tell them to do, they go, oh, okay, I'll take, I understand now. I had my NFL guys out there the other day. These are legit four-year starters that are in the NFL right now. And we did a strongman training session because it was fun. It's the last day of all season training. And I got out there and I did it with them and you know I'm 35 years old so I still got some gas in the tank right I just got

done doing a 50 mile run they saw that too as well they saw me damn near die in there yeah and they at that at that moment you're leading from the front so as I go and tell them what they need to do or at least show

them what's necessary for them to be the best athlete that they can be. I'm right there with them. I'm right there sweating and bleeding with them. And it's the same thing with my fighters. It's the same thing with, you know, with my kids. I want to make sure that I'm showing and being the example. So I'm waking up in the morning, getting after it in the gym. I'm coming home later at night, making sure that I'm still working so that they can see that every day because it instills a work ethic. That's how I got instilled. I saw my parents doing that, right?

And so for that, that's the best possible way. I see a lot of quote unquote leaders or bosses. I don't like the term boss. Right. But I would rather say, you know, we have a team, even if you have a workspace and you have a business, you have a team. Everybody has their role. Everybody has their position and everybody's important in their position because if they don't play their position then the team won't succeed so as a team leader i need to be able to still be in it right i'm not saying you know if you're in your 60s to go you know rock climbing or whatever you

need to do if that's your thing do your thing because i know a lot of 60 year olds that still do that and more power to them look at timber Timberland. Timberland is my guy. He's 53 years old, and he's still getting after it with me. And in the same training session with me. And I think that what that does do, though, it allowed for the people that follow those individuals, they go, okay, I can buy into the situation because he's doing it. He's not just telling me something that he's never done. And every athlete, every elite athlete that I talk to respects that. Oh, all day.

All day, man. So, Bill, what are some of your most memorable moments or achievements that you've had thus far in your life? I hate to say there's so many because that sounds like I'm boasting and bragging. Give me one that stands out. Well, as a coach watching an athlete succeed at the highest level, the biggest one to date right now would be when Dustin Poirier won the interim title against Max Holloway because I knew how much that meant to Dustin, right? And I was with him at that point for about four to five years, and then we've expanded, you know, seven years I've been with Dustin,

watching him progress. And if you guys don't know who Dustin Poirier is, UFC fighter. He beat Conor McGregor twice. Big name, big name, good guy, like a brother to me. And watching him succeed was like I was there with him. You know, I was in the cage with him. Another thing is, you know, being able to give my coaches, the coaches that I've been able to mentor, and now we're looking right around, I would say somewhere around 6,000 coaches that I've been able to mentor around the world, which is, it's not, you know, I love the fact that they want to follow in my footsteps or whatever have you. I'm humbled by that, but I'm more impressed by them because they come back and give me ideas now.

So it's like it's a give and take. It's a reciprocity in a sense. And seeing them succeed with some of the tools that I've been able to give them, which is tremendous from a coaching and a teacher as a natural educator that's what you want to see you want to see those individuals that you've been able to educate teach you know and progress and get them to that pinnacle of success and almost bypass you yeah which is important because again you want that at that point as a teacher you need that student to be able to to eventually beat the teacher right so yep those are some of them. No, that's awesome, man. And talking to a lot of coaches in sports

and leaders in the business world, I think every great leader, great coach is proud of their tree, right? Because that's the legacy, that's the embodiment of who you really are. So leaders that can grow and develop other leaders, to me, that's a embodiment of who you really are. So leaders that can grow and develop other leaders, to me, that's a true sign of leadership. So I respect you for that and all the things that you're doing with the coaches that you have. So speaking of your coaches and your training

philosophies, how would you describe your philosophy? And then what principles do you prioritize when working with athletes? That's a good question. Philosophy wise, you know, this can mean many different things. Some people think philosophy is just like your methodology of training and how you program and how you organize certain training programs or periodizing, things like that. And I also believe that there's a level of a philosophical level of understanding too, as well, and understanding the athlete. And that's the biggest thing for me. When an athlete comes in to train, I have to first peel back the layers, like I talked about, and really getting down to the root cause of what they're in, why they're doing what they're doing. And with with me a lot of the fighters have some

underlying issues because let's face it if you're a fighter at that level you got to be a little crazy right you got to have a little bit of uh of uh well you have to have some screws loose let's put it like that for lack of a better term right and i think that understanding why and they're like you said because and that is going to give me an understanding of how to psychologically coach them right and get down to the art of actual coaching right we can break down the science of it that's pretty much black and white right when you look at it right from a physiological perspective from a biomechanical perspective i'm looking at the athlete i'm looking at their issues when they when it whether it comes to movement quality whether it comes to um endurance or strength deficits things like that

i will orientate the training based upon their limitations first and foremost but the biggest issue is that no matter what i give them, whether it be, you know, the greatest program out there with the greatest strategy, if they're not going to adhere to the program, it doesn't mean anything. So we have to break that down and figure out what's going to get them to buy in, what's going to get them to stay on board and retain this actual process because it's whoever stays in the longest wins so i've been able to utilize my way of coaching in a sense to one connect with the athlete so first things first we have to create a connection. because of you know maybe they i train their their training partner or whoever or they have seen me on instagram or

whatever the case and their social proof there right i've created that that level of authority in the space right which is good but you still have to create buy-in no matter what. And the first thing that I do is I sit them down. It's not just get on the floor and let's get after it. I have to sit them down and we have a one-on-one conversation for at least 60 to 90 minutes. And it's like this. We're creating that dialogue. We're creating that chemistry.

And from there, I can go, okay, he may not like this, but he may like this. He may not want to be coached like this, but I know I can coach him like this. And then understanding personality traits, characteristics. So you can go very objective and have them do a personality trait test, whether that be something like a big five-factor analysis or a Hexaco test. We also run a Braverman's test. And then you want to be very subjective and just ask questions. And that's going to be the first line of defense for me. Then after that, it's going to be, okay, let's get them on the floor. Let's start working. And when I put together the program, it's going to be first based upon their limitations, their joint prerequisites, what they're capable of doing overall, how well they can move, because that's

going to dictate the exercise selection and everything else. And if you look at this, if you look at this from a holistic standpoint, this can go hand in hand with anything that you do, right? When you're looking at a business and you're trying to develop your team or you're trying to hire on people. Right. As you go to hire, they have to fit inside of the team. So what position is that person able to to be a part of? And what are they going to be able to what assets are they going to bring to the table? And so you have to find out who they are. And then as a leader, right, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur, those people that you bring on, you have to learn how to coach them up. You have to learn how to teach them, how to guide

them so that they can be a valuable asset to the team itself. So getting back to that, when you orchestrate or organize a system or a strategy, you have to keep these things in mind, right? Who do you have in place? Who are your soldiers? And what are they strong? Where they're strongest at? Where are they weakest at? And you want to put them in a position

to succeed at all times, but you also want to push them, right? Because they need to get better. So giving them something that they can do that's challenging, but not overbearing. And that's one of the biggest things. And listen, I've had guys and I had girls that come into the business and go out because, you know, they just it may not be for them and have to get them to that point where they go. This isn't for me or it is. And they just rise to the occasion.

No, I love it, man. I'm gonna to get you out of here on some rapid fire. You ready? Let's do it. Three things people can do to get stronger. Okay. Progressive overload, constantly stress the body, right? Increased weight by, I would say roughly two to 5% each week, right? Generally, whether it be upper or lower, lower can go a little bit higher. You're looking at about 10, 10% each week, maybe eight to 10% and then upper body would be three to 5% each week. Another thing that they want to do is constantly stress the body. So you're going to, again, this goes with progressive overload, but find out how to put your body in that stressful situation, whether it be in strength is so multifaceted,

we're just talking about from the physical standpoint, to build maximal strength, you have to have high intensity training. So what I mean by that, it's not a feeling, it's a mathematical equation. What I mean is that the percentage of load needs to be higher than 90, 85 to 90% in order for you to actually build strength. Now, the third thing is resilience, right? Being able to be consistent is important. So building, you know, building resilience through constantly going in there and stressing out the body enough to where you get the stimulus adaptation and not too much to where you accommodate and regress based upon, you know, just stressing the body out too much without recovery. So make sure if you're going to do it, I like to do what's

called a pendulum wave where you go three weeks up and one week down. So you build, build, build, take a deload week and then do it again and repeat that over and over again. Okay. Two things I can do to get faster. That's a really good question. So when we're talking about speed right straight line running uh run like first thing you have to learn how to move your body so we'll unravel that it's it's hard to give you like a quick fire answer to that yeah but the biggest thing is start on sprinting and sprinting downhill, or I should say not downhill, but sprinting in a forward fashion linearly per se. And then make sure that you are constantly working the muscles that allow you to get faster. So that can be hip flexors, hamstrings, glutes, even your upper body with arm swing too as well.

Speed overall, you have to make sure that whatever you do if you're gonna be fast you have to train fast so if you're working in the weight room make sure that every lift is right around a high velocity so when you're looking at meters per second anywhere above 1.5 to 2.0 meters per second and you can use a velocity-based trainer to see that. That's amazing. I love that. Advice for the retired athlete that's like, all right, I'm not the same and they know they need to do something. They're trying to get back in it. What's the thing that they can do to get back into that mental mojo? Man, anything that's going to get them feeling like they've succeeded and are working towards something i'm i'm obviously i'm a jujitsu guy i'm a combat sport

guy so a lot of my nfl guys they transition to jujitsu right so it gives them an opportunity to still be physical but they have to think and it's not as demanding as being on the field. It is demanding, don't get me wrong, but you can alter your training intensities. Favorite college sport? Football. 100%. Team?

College or pro? College. University of Miami. We'll edit that out of this one come on favorite pro team and why is it the new england patriots okay oh i'll give you this so listen my my my father's side of the family are all from boston so i grew up with that you know having to be a patriot fan but if i if I'm going to be real with you, it's the Raiders. It was the Oakland Raiders.

Now they moved to Vegas. I don't know how I feel about that. But it was the Raiders because of just how they were back in the day, the early 90s. The way they went about playing the game was my style. Obviously, my color is

black silver i love i love those colors so that's it okay so i had an uncle who played for the patriots so that's why i'm a patriot fan so at least we both agree we don't like the dolphin so there you go yeah don't don't tell anybody from miami that though it's all right he doesn't like the the dolphins or the hurricanes next Next question. Phil, man, where can everyone follow you, find you, have a full fight strength or fight camp app that all of my programs will be integrated into that. So you guys can check that out. And also, if you are a coach, I have a mentorship program. And then at the end of the year, we're putting out a nationally accredited certification course. That'll be something for my coaches. Send me the links. I'll make sure that they get shared everywhere. Appreciate it, brother. Thank you. I appreciate it. Everywhere.

Any final words of wisdom you want to end with, Phil? Like we talked about before, man, know yourself. That's the biggest thing. That's going to be what gives you the armor to battle all of the situations that you're going to go through, you know, and, and having the introspection to, to go through those situations and have the ability to be not emotionless, but to hold your emotions in check in order for you to get the job done. I think that that's the biggest thing with nowadays, what I see with young men is that they let their emotions get the best of them based upon the situation.

And so, you know, taking both sides, trying to be better from a Western philosophical standpoint, trying to increase your abilities and know yourself in that way. But also the Eastern philosophy side where knowing your strengths and understanding your weaknesses and being okay with that, but you have to be able to merge the two. You shouldn't just be complacent, but you also need to make sure that you're progressing each and every year. I love it. I love it. Ladies and gentlemen, my friend, Mr. Phil DeRue. Phil, thank you for blessing us, brother. My brother. I appreciate it. Thank you. You got it. And to all the listeners and viewers, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thank you for tuning in to

Make Unplugged. Keep pushing your limits, embracing your purpose, and chasing greatness. Until next time, stay unstoppable.