Next Level Pros - #85: Faster Than Usain Bolt? From Small Town to 3-Time Olympic Gold Medalist; Lashawn “The Machine” Merritt

Episode Date: March 18, 2024

Welcome to a new episode of The Founder Podcast. Today, we're joined by a very special guest, Lashawn Merritt, a renowned American track star. From Portsmouth, Virginia, Merritt's journey to track and field stardom is inspiring. With numerous accolades, Merritt's performances in the 400-meter and 4x400-meter relay events have earned him Olympic gold medals and World Championships titles. Merritt's impact extends beyond athletics. He embodies resilience, discipline, and unwavering commitment to excellence. He's also dedicated to philanthropy and motivational speaking, uplifting individuals worldwide. Merritt is a 3x Olympic Champion, 8x World Champion, 4x Diamond League Final Winner, and 3x World Championships Silver Medalist. Join us as we dive deep into Merritt's journey, from humble beginnings to athletic greatness. Learn from his wisdom on navigating life's triumphs and transitions. Through Merritt's story, discover the power of belief and perseverance that will help you achieve your own personal greatness. Highlights: "Everybody has a light inside of them. I was fortunate enough to find one of my purposes early on in life." "We just focus on the controllable. How do I control the next few steps?" "I developed greatness through my isolation, positive affirmations within the inner voices that I had, the unconditional love for my parents, the great character, recipe for success." Timestamps: 02:35 - Early Years in Portsmouth 05:30 - Mentorship & Discipline 07:36 - Coping with Tragedy 09:43 - Discovering Track 13:28 - Transition to Pro Athlete 25:33 - Olympic Triumphs 46:11 - Focus on the Controllable 48:00 - Achieving Olympic Gold 49:14 - Gratitude for Support 52:51 - Building Relationships and Giving Back Live Links:  Join my community - Founder Acceleration ⁠https://www.founderacceleration.com ⁠ Apply for our next Mastermind:h⁠ttps://www.thefoundermastermind.com⁠  Golf with Chris h⁠ttps://www.golfwithchris.com⁠  Watch my latest Podcast Apple- ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-founder-podcast/id1687030281S⁠ Spotify- ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/1e0cL2vI1JAtQrojSOA7D2⁠ YouTube - @thefounderspodcast

But we got two of the gold medals here. We have this. This first one was Beijing. This was my first Olympic gold. Look at that beauty. And I won this race by the largest margin in Olympic history. I won by a full second. Was this your PR? Yes.

This was the fastest you ever ran. This was the fastest I ran. Yo, yo, yo, yo. Welcome to another episode of the Founder Podcast. Today I have Mr. LaShawn Merritt. For those that don't know who lashon is this is the greatest olympian 400 runner of all time right right absolutely absolutely definitely everybody in this room is going to agree so lashon is a three-time gold medalist. Absolutely. Three-time gold medalist, once in the individual 400 and twice as the anchor in the 4x4.

It's just absolutely phenomenal. And if it wasn't for injury, he probably would have racked up a few more of those. Right. So super excited to have you on the show today, LaShawn. We're coming to you guys from a little suite in Las Vegas. Had the opportunity to meet LaShawn at one of my good friend Dave Meltzer's events. LaShawn hangs with a cool crowd.

And, you know, I was really impressed by you, LaShawn. Just like, one, your humility and just like principle-based family man. You know, somebody that that I really connected with. In fact, Dave Meltzer is pretty phenomenal at putting together a good crowd. I don't know if you've gotten that same vibe. He is. You know what?

I've been moving around the U.S. with him for the past maybe four months. It's always a different crowd. It's always love in the crowd. Everyone's about gratitude and helping one another. And there's this high vibration of energy that I move on. So I love that guy. Yeah. And happy to be here.

Yeah, man, it's good to have you. So, man, love to get to know you a little bit better, tell your story. So you're 37 years old? 37. 37 years old. Where were you from originally from Portsmouth Virginia open a small town in Virginia not a lot goes on there okay it's a big Navy military area okay so growing up there wasn't a lot of role models or people you kind of saw on TV or wanted to be like outside of the blue-collar workers.

Okay. The parents weren't athletes, but I just happened to be a standout athlete, man. Okay. So early on, how many kids were in your family? Like what was it like growing up? So growing up, it was me my younger sister who's three years younger and i have an older brother who's five years older okay i played baseball football and basketball when i was younger i was always the fastest in everything didn't know how to run but

i was fast i was always trying to race my brother's friends also i can remember like it was yesterday in the middle of the street my parents have film of me walking around asking people at cookouts do they want to race when i saw that not too long ago i said man this is life goes full circle it comes around full circle um elementary school my my mentor husband well my mentor was my third grade teacher's husband okay and my mom worked at my elementary school okay so from the age of six or seven i've had this thing where you have to do what you have to do in order to do what you want to do you know i couldn't act up in school or get bad grades in school or i couldn't compete at any of the sports after school yeah so I learned that very young in life um how important handling business was how important respect was and

just having great character um and so he was a mentor at a young age for you he was it was was he like the the one what about your dad was he involved in your life so my dad wasn't around he worked a lot yeah you know he always told me uh i came from a good group i got good blood um and i was a special child my mentor was more disciplined i was in those team sports so that's where that discipline came from and the work ethic. He would invite a couple kids to his house often, and he would cook, and we would watch him cook.

We would set the table. He had a gym in his house. So when I think about it now, it's crazy. Third grade, I was running on treadmills and doing push-ups. No way. So he's training you early. He trained me early early not necessarily for anything in particular but just life yeah no he set me up great for life which back in that day

it wasn't very common right like I don't know you see a lot more in today's society where like little kids are training to be athletes right they they have all these different like athletic training boot camps and and everything man back my day i don't know if your it was the same experience it was like there was just like school sports like a couple like club things but like you weren't you weren't training in third grade yeah and it wasn't as many camps i don't think right but he he was a guy who in the community he's always had football teams so he was the guy in the community who would take the kids in who didn't have father figures and his niece married Bruce Smith hmm Bruce Smith is Hall of Famer he was from my area in Norfolk so I actually got to go to his house maybe once

a month when I was younger go from the hood where it's dirt everywhere and I couldn't keep my shoes clean to this multi-million dollar mansion out in Virginia Beach. So I would go out there, go to a cookout, come back to the hood. So when you'd go and experience that, how did that make you feel? When I think about it, I think later on in life it really hit me during that time i just was we're going to a pool we're going out here this is a huge house i'll never be in this position you know that's what a lot of kids were thinking we were from a small city and virginia beach was only maybe 30 minutes out but you had all the major players out there. Yeah.

I never thought I would reach that high, you know, but it was instilled in me without me really knowing it that when it was time for me to go to that next level in life and to become a professional, in my mind I thought, you know what, I know somebody from my area who actually have done this. Only one. I've only met one. And let me know that it was possible.

So it really sounds like, I mean, he set the bar for possibility. Right. But I didn't notice it at the time. When I was younger, I'm just going back and forth. But when it was my turn, I knew that it was possible. Yeah. I think that's like such an important aspect in any successful person's life, right? Is that they have a mentor, have somebody that gets them outside of their own experience,

their own environment and says, hey, you need to think bigger, right? You need, this is possible. You are worthy. You are, you have the potential, you know? And so that's so cool that you were able to experience that and help me understand so how was that connection made that was through your mentor so my mentor niece married him okay yeah so he was family yeah and i talked to him to this day i'm still close with that whole family that's so That's awesome. So you're an incredible athlete from a young age,

excelling in all sports? Yes. Awesome. Yeah. What about your brother? Was he much of an athlete? He was. He was a baseball player. Yeah. When I was younger, he was the guy who, if I would make a touchdown, he would give me $10. Every home run, he would give me ten dollars every home run he would give me five dollars type of thing but he never got a chance to see me run track hmm he passed away before I actually started running and he became a big light inside of me a second voice and a motivating factor for me how old were you when he passed away I was 12 I was eighth grade. He was a freshman in college. Freshman in college. He went to college. He was a musician also.

Played the trumpet. I played the trumpet too. I followed pretty much right in his footsteps. And he got on an altercation with a guy at a basketball court his freshman year. The guy ended up going to the hospital, and the guy was on an off-campus fraternity, and some guy showed up at my brother's dorm room, and he ended up out of the window on the ninth floor and passed away. He was a freshman, and I was eighth grade. So if you don't mind talking about it how was it receiving that news

you know my mom always tell me that she don't think i dealt with it like i should have she said i didn't cry a lot she was actually going to send me to a psychiatrist to see kind of what was going on. When I think about it now, it was sort of a blur until track found me. When track and field found me and I started running, I felt like I had help. I really felt like I had help doing some of the races. A lot of things came more easy in that sport than any other sport I've done. Yeah.

And I took it as a blessing that I could have an extra motivating factor. I didn't grow up with my parents stressing me in sports neither one of my parents were athletes so I didn't have this trying to live my dad trying to live through me or a lot of stress my mom has always told me to go out and have fun with whatever with whatever i did in life yeah my dad was always the guy who told me man you ain't seen nothing yet after i won the olympics world championships you ain't seen nothing yet so he let me know that there was a higher power and i was i was set up for greatness. That's awesome.

Yeah. So are both your parents big believers? My dad is. My mom is also. I grew up in the church. My grandma and my granddad were preachers. I studied it when I was younger. I have a faith that we're here for a reason yeah everybody has a light inside

of them I was fortunate enough to find one of my purposes early on in life you know it was not just fast but people always came to me as the example you know and I had to take that on. Not that I wanted to be the example. I'm really an introvert. Yeah. Real introvert. And I was just put in the position to have to motivate, have to inspire.

So I realized the gift and I just, I rode with it. I rode with it. So if you don't mind let's let's go back to your brother's passing so it uh you didn't deal with it in a traditional sense from a a sorrow or crying or whatnot what what was going through your mind though like what I mean there had to be something like because i i actually deal with grief very similarly like it's that i i cry when i'm actually happy and inspired and i don't cry as much when i'm sad and so and so it like i i can connect with you like Like for me, I'd take a situation like that and be like, all right, man, how can I use this in a way that isn't going to drag me down?

What went through your mind at that point? I was so young. I was so young. I really didn't know what was going on. I saw my mom and dad grieving. And maybe I thought I had to be the strong one at the time I think that was what it was and I cried by myself I cried when I was alone not that I always want to be the strong guy but there was something in me that wouldn't allow me to be too vulnerable when uh

I would see everybody else vulnerable right and it actually decided to be something that I used in the sport, you know, because the fact that he's not here to do anything and track and field found me, and in two years I was able to be pro at it after running the event, I thought, okay. So at what age did you realize, I have because you you said you were you were fast from a young age but at what point you're like man I can make this my life I didn't know about the sport of track and field when I was younger okay in my area I never watched

an olympics before I was in one yeah um track and field wasn't big in my in my city it was my junior year in high school my junior in high school my track coach was a football coach and the 400 is the hardest event on the track and we needed points and he wanted somebody to run the 400 and i was like ah man i'll run it he was cussing as i was like y'all ain't real men. Real men run the 400. I stepped up to the plate and I won my first meet. Which by the way, for anybody listening or watching this, if you've never done a 400, man, the first time I met LaShawn and he comes up and he was introduced as, hey, the gold medalist in the 400, I was just like, jaw dropped. Because I'm just like, dude, that is the toughest event in all of track and field like we're talking you know the hundred great you know you're super fast you can do it for 100 meters 200 same type of deal for the unique thing

about the 400 for me that i've always understood is like it's still a sprint it's the last available sprint like 800 you're pacing right right you you're dropping into a pace and you're making it happen there is no pace in the 400 I mean you are just busting your butt and the fact that you took that thing your coach was right wasn't wrong he wasn't wrong I don't know what he saw afterwards and when I ran it and I did well I kept running it people around me kept telling me you can be really good at this what was your fastest time in high school or ever pr 43 6 43 6 oh my goodness I didn't I didn't look up that stat before this that is so fast I know

like in high school you know like uh guys that are running for the state championship are like 57, 58. It's less than 11 seconds per hundred, which is getting it. Oh, my goodness. That's cheetah. It's a long sprint, but there's different energy systems you can use within the race. There's an ATP where from zero to about six seconds, you can hit it really hard and not pay for it at the back end. So I really learned the race and dissected the race and learned my body. You know, I travel the world a lot.

And a lot of people would tell me, you you know your body better than anybody i've ever worked with but i thought i had to do that because if i was a formula one guy i needed to know every bolt and screw in that car right so i early in my career i really took the time to learn the body so let's go back so your high school coach recruits you in, says nobody's man enough to do this. 400. But LeSean is. Yep. And this is your freshman year?

This is my junior year. You had never run it before your junior year. I never ran it before my junior year. Oh, my goodness. Oh, my goodness. And had you done track at all? I did 100 and 200 a little bit, 9th grade, 10th grade. But we didn't really have a team.

Right. So it wasn't anything. we didn't really have a team right so it wasn't anything we didn't even have uniforms yeah we just had you wore your own blue shorts in a like a tank top that's how they weren't uh invested in that sport right my junior year he wanted me to run it i ran it um i did well and champ that year I was state champ my first year running the event that's phenomenal what how fast you run it that year 47 I ran like 47 six or something what was second place oh man probably 48 and some change at that time but I didn't know how to run between my junior

and senior year I got invited to an Olympic development camp out in San Diego. Right. Where they invited maybe the top 20 athletes in the country to this camp. Yep. Was this out at the Olympic Training Center? Absolutely. Nice. I lived right next to it for a couple years.

Chula Vista. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was in the Eastlake area. Okay. Now, I love, love man and you look right over uh and is it new mexico on the it's mexico right there oh mexico yeah yeah man it's amazing i have never been to tijuana i always wanted to go you never crossed the border never crossed it oh man great tacos okay okay great tacos fish tacos chef's kiss, baby. Nice. So I ran it.

I learned a lot. I learned a lot at that camp. From these coaches. It was maybe a two-week camp they had for us. I learned a lot. I came back my senior year and won everything. I won districts, states, junior nationals. I went on to world nationals.

I was 12th grade. It was anybody under 19 could compete at this. It was in Grosseto, Italy. My first time going over to Europe. And then after that, I didn't imagine how many times I would go over to Europe. So we went over there. I won the 400. I anchored the 4x4 and anchored the four by one so i left with three goals as a junior and some of those records still

stand to today oh man beautiful yeah and got a full scholarship i was still because there's no way i was going to let my parents pay for me to go to college i mean they've been taking care of me my whole life right so i really wanted to get a scholarship. And I had 3.2 also, so I probably could have went with academics. I ended up going to East Carolina. East Carolina. Not a powerhouse for track and field, but it was three hours away from where I lived.

And I didn't want to go too far because of the situation with my brother and family. I didn't want to go too far because of the situation with my brother and family I didn't want to leave and go too far it was just enough just far enough that I could be away but still come home when I wanted to yeah so let's let's tap into the mentality a little bit here so you're you're beginning to have a lot of success right you're you're breaking records setting world records you know different things like that at a very young age right your brother your brother has passed you know one thing that you said off camera to me which i thought was interesting was you said i'm not a very competitive guy right and i'm like yeah right how can that how can that how can that be this guy mr multi-gold

medalist right how can he not be competitive so so walk us through like some of your thought pattern at least at this point in your career like you're you're drawing on you know living for your brother or having him live through you i'm like yeah what what kind of started setting you apart and what were some of the principles that you were applying you know i think it was after my freshman year in college i ran a meet in arkansas i competed against all professional athletes and won two weeks later nike called me and said look we're gonna offer you this multi-million dollar contract for you to give up your college eligibility but we'll continue to pay for whatever college you want to go to so at 18 i was pro and i had to take it as a business so so how did that work so you could no longer compete at the college level but you could continue to go to college right right

but then you go and you compete on in like worlds and that type of stuff so the track and field circuit it would be 14 meets a year maybe three in the u.s the rest of them were in europe asia just all over and and not only do they so they pick they're gonna pay you do they pick up like all your travel and all that that was i had to pay for that uh with my contract so to become a professional track and athlete you shine with a shoe company so you have a base salary and then you get appearance fees to show up at competitions plus uh the prize structure yep but for me when i got into it people were mid-20s late 20s families bills and it was serious for them like I would get third here third

there people would say oh don't worry you're still young you have time but I had chosen to step into this arena with these guys so I wanted to be the best I could be my brother came along. That sounds competitive, though. Yeah. See, the sport was you were in your own lane. Yeah. I trained alone. I would compete alone. And it was just you being your best self. That's what it ended up being. Which is interesting because I've actually studied a lot of personal development. Read from the best mentors.

I've spent almost a million dollars on my personal education with coaches and stuff. John Wooden, are you familiar with John Wooden? I'm not. So coach of UCLA in the 70s, basketball team. One of the greatest coaches of all time, won multiple national, I think 10 national championships, two or three seasons undefeated. All right. Like phenomenal. And one of the key things that he focuses on and really is a focus on for many successful people, whether you're an athlete or a business owner or whatnot, is removing the competition aspect of me versus you and and

actually making an internal which is what you're talking about right me versus me becoming the best version of lashawn rather than better than is it michael johnson right or what or anybody else that's why i love the sport i love the sport because it's just you. You're out there. All eyes are on you. Nobody else determines your success. No variables. You don't have the linemen to get the quarterback the ball, and they have to block and all these type of things. So there was something in that that I loved.

And I also love being alone already anyway. Yeah. I grew up that way. So I really feel like the sport picked me because of my character honestly and the cars that i had dealt to me was i had the speed i had the the unconditional love from my parents my mom and dad i had my dad telling me all the time I could be great. I was coachable, disciplined. It was more discipline than being motivated. I've always been disciplined.

And when I got into it, man, it was just, hey, it's you against the clock. You sacrifice. The work you put in will show in this sport. And I came in at a high level already because of dna i just had to put it together from ear to ear right so dna got you to how fast and what would you say training and mentality added that's a good question dna got me see if i said time wise you may not really know dna got me to be a professional yeah um my discipline and work ethic and just being able to understand and know and learn myself that's where the greatness came yeah yeah yeah cool um actually i want you to pull out your

so for those that are watching this on spotify and youtube uh we're gonna we're gonna show you the gold medals those are listening on apple and and spotify i'd invite you to tune in on on these different ones but we got two of the gold medals here we have this this first one was beijing this was my first olympic gold look at that beauty and i think something that's unique about lashawn that he was telling us uh off camera was that he has shared these around the world with kids when he's allowed people a lot of people to handle them i mean you look at this this ribbon i mean this thing's tattered yes which which tells me a lot about you as a person that like, you know, this isn't your God. This isn't.

This isn't your God. This isn't the epitome of your career. Right. Right. The fact that you're willing. I mean, dude, if you look on camera, you're probably not going to be able to see this, but there's dings all over this metal. Like I said, that tells me a lot about a person.

That's like, you know, this is for me to share and give and, you know, be an example to the world. And, you know, it's for the people. And that's really cool. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. I have that one. That was my first one. This was probably my, and I won this race by the largest margin in Olympic history. I won by a full second.

Wow. Going into that race. Is this your PR? Yes. This is the fastest you ever ran? This is the fastest I ran. Wow. And it was early in my career, 2008.

How old were you at that time? 23. Wow. I think I was about 22, 23. and I didn't retire. How old were you at that time? 23. Wow. I think I was about 22, 23. And I didn't retire until 2021. But this one, the year before that, I was number two in the world at world championships. I got number two in the world the first time I had ever ran 43 seconds. And that next year, I said, I'm going to win the Olympics.

I told my coach that I may have written it down and man the training from 2007 to 2008 was like walk us through that what what is unbelievable like you know tell us what did your daily schedule look like it was during that time I was in Virginia so it was still cold outside yep years later I ended up moving to Orlando. But I can remember 5 a.m. running bridges. What is that? Just running up and down the bridge.

Oh. Cold, windy, leaving there, getting food, taking a nap, sometimes going straight to the beach, doing sand work. So like sprinting in the sand sprinting in the sand or sprinting or jogging that that that is tough man it's tough and are you doing in the fluffy stuff yeah oh yeah no you don't go down to where it's solid and close to the water we're back where that's what it's it's work man but the body gets used to it. The body gets used to it. I can't remember. Man, swimming. We did everything.

We did everything. So how many hours a day are you working physically? Maybe five. Five, yeah. Do five hours of physical work is a lot. Five hours is a lot. And then the rest and recovery is just as important as the training so and what did what did your diet look like and i never had a problem with um weight

but as far as just intake for nutrition for the muscles a lot of fish um how many calories a day i don't even know i never counted calories you never you weren't like uh michael phelps is like uh 10 000 calories a day i'd open up a breakfast with 10 pancakes 20 slices of bacon i heard about that yeah yeah yeah i uh i never counted calories okay um my whole career i ate i ate a lot not too much um but I needed fuel and to fuel the muscles. And I understood that if I didn't have anything to pull from, it would pull from my muscles, and that's when injuries happen. But that year, man, I was home. That was the goal that I was actually in Virginia and actually training for. The rest of the years, I was in Florida, but I was around family during that time.

And the guy I was competing against at the time, coach was the coach of the world record holder. And the guy, the main guy who was Jeremy Warner at the time, mentor was the world record holder. So I was going against the whole history of that event, but I was still so confident i don't know how i was so confident i prepared well yeah that's why the rep the preparation was so intentional that every rep in the gym every step on the track was recorded, I would go back and look at film. My coach at the time worked at a news station

and he would bring me in 12, one o'clock at night or in the morning, a.m. And we would just look at film. We would look at film. I'm talking about every step. You're studying, you're recording, you're working out. What did your visualization process look like at this point uh man i could have a stopwatch at this time close my eyes hit the stopwatch and stop it exactly where i wanted to stop it 43 44 seconds so i could see you could see every step i could

see it i could to the point where sometimes i would do it and you would see my body like leaning into a curve or I'll go like this. But that became powerful for me throughout my career. Just having a coach's eye, studying film, and being able to close my eyes and see. As I close my eyes right now, I get a feeling of, like my hands are getting sweaty. It's weird. You're having real physical impact from the visualization. Absolutely. And it's nothing that,

I'm going to fast forward a little bit to right now in my life. There's a lot of things that i realized i was doing that i didn't study at the time i didn't read on it no one told me to do these things and now i'm in a room with a lot of people who have invested in the things that i just did natural um so i'm learning about all these things that I did and how powerful they were, especially the visualization, the just sacrifice and that inner voice that I had. Things that weren't so common out in the real world, but was common for me. So what were like some of the things that your inner voice would tell you? Because when I've had success in my life, there's different times where i have like phrases that i repeat over and

over again what were some of those while you're training or even what were some that you tell yourself while you're running right so training i had to have it because we have interval work i'll run in practice six two hundredths at a pace, but sometimes I may have 30 seconds or 45 seconds in between the reps. And the purpose of training is stress adaptation. You're learning to stress your body. It's all about stressing your body so that the competition is stress management. So while I'm stressing the body, stressing the competition is stress management right so while i'm stressing the body stressing the body i'm down on the ground i've just ran extremely fast i have 30 seconds my coach is on the other side of the track it's just me i trained by myself a lot right

i never was in really big groups so i'm on the side of the track and my coach is like 30 seconds and i'm on the ground sweating probably snot coming from my nose all kind of things and it's i have to get up and give the same amount of energy for this next rep and then what are the words that you're telling yourself in that moment it's okay you got this you got this a lot of it is okay my brother name was antoine all right twine come on we got this i know he wasn't here to do anything, so I just kept him with me. A lot of I am who I am. You are the best.

The fact is it really came down to the fact that he wasn't here to maximize. He may have maximized this, but who knows? But I don't think he maximized his potential I got to do the things he wanted to do in life so I had to maximize the opportunity that I had and I always brought him with me even before I would step on a track I would say a prayer and let him know hey all right all right bro here we go let's get this done and I would get a sense sense of calmness over my body when I would talk to him. And he would talk to me, and he was always listening and watching. He just wasn't in the stands.

He was just listening and watching from up high. Yeah. Well, I'm a believer that those that pass on, they're around us, right? And, I mean, it sounds like you were able to, you know, experience this. Yeah, I tapped into that for sure. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. And downloaded everything he wanted me to do and downloaded and was able to block everything out when it was time to execute

because I had prepared well and with intention. Yeah, that's phenomenal. So this year while you're training, before you go and you do your personal record and you win by a second, are you visualizing yourself on the top of that stand? Is that a big motivating factor or is it just I want to be the best LaShawn has to offer? You know, I had already ran against everybody who I was competing against. When I got to Beijing, I walked the track. All the tracks are kind of set different.

The straightaways may be longer than the curves sometimes. So I wanted to know exactly what I was dealing with. We walked the track, know my spots. I was studying my competitors. I knew who was in each lane i knew what they ran in the first round in the second round because it's three rounds um i knew their tendencies who would get out hard who would die i didn't use any of this when once i competed but i took it as another race you know i had to take it just like, okay, I ran against all these guys already and I beat them already. So let's not get too shaken up by

the magnitude of the race. Let's just go in and handle it just like another race. And that's what I did. I walked out in the finals. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I walked out. I was probably in the middle lane, but for some reason, I always walk slow to the blocks. They line us up, one, two, three, four. If I was number four or five. What's the best lane to be in out of eight? It just depends what type of runner you're in.

If you're in the middle, you can actually see the whole field. So you like the middle. I like the middle. But if you're in the middle you can actually see the whole field so you like the i like the middle but if you're on the outside you have left of a curve like back in the day you couldn't even set a world record out in lane eight or nine because you weren't dealing with as much centrifugal force as the other athletes in the lane so you can't lean into it you can't lean but you're almost running like a straight line almost yeah yeah so for me i like the inside because i never was an athlete who wanted to just smash the the competition i just wanted to win because i took it as a business and i would run two meets a week sometimes so i didn't want to exert myself too much but this race it was i remember walking up to the blocks or just walking down the 100 meters to the blocks

and walking really slow and just taking everything in, not necessarily the crowd, but just, okay, we're here. I'm from a small city, and I'm here at the Olympic Games. So you're reflecting on everything that's gotten you to this point. Yeah, and it's like, okay, I'm here, and I'm here because I'm supposed to be here. So I'm going to pause you there for a second i think this is like such an important thing that anybody does in life whether you're a business leader or an athlete or whatnot is that you actually reflect in the moment of what like what to be grateful for what the path looked like. Like for me, and it sounds like this is the same thing for you,

it's like that grit that got you there is what's going to push you over the edge in the moment. Absolutely. And unless you take that opportunity to reflect and get the fuel, you're going to miss out on a huge opportunity. Which for me, I learned to channel my butterflies. So as I'm walking out, you have these butterflies, you get this nervous sensation. But I was able to, I told myself this

because I was running before that. I said, there's no way I'm going to get to this line and be nervous. I know I'm prepared. And I ended up channeling the butterflies. And when I would feel something, oh, that's just letting me know that I prepared. I prepared.

All these butterflies, I'm prepared. I prepared. I prepared. And I'm the head butterfly. So I'm making this arrow with these butterflies, and I'm the head butterfly. Preparation, preparation, preparation. Oh, yeah, I did handle that. I did do this.

I did do that. Now I'm creating this type of, I don't know what I was doing at the time, but I had to channel that some type of way. I love it because butterflies can be viewed as a negative thing, right? I'm nervous. I'm a little scared, maybe a little fearful, whatever it is. And you're taking that and you're saying, you're checking against all the previous actions like, yeah, that's me. I did that. I prepared this way. I supposed to be here. I belong that's me. I did that. I prepared this way.

I'm supposed to be here. I belong here, man. I love it. Got into the blocks and it goes silent. It goes silent. When you walk and you see people, but if I walked 10 meters

and I saw a person in the stands and I walked 10 meters, I couldn't tell you what that person had on. Like it just, I would see people and then it would blank out. It would blank out. a blank out at a blank out yeah it's straight as i walk to the blocks it's more tunnel vision and they introduce us and you wave the camera and everything and then you just get locked in like it goes silent and there's a sense of you belong here.

It's time to go. It's so intense because if you flinch, you can get DQ'd. Dude, you're giving me the shivers right now. Just listen to this, man. They have pressure blocks. So if you're getting in the blocks, and if you just do this before they shoot the gun, you're done. So it's total doubt in um the gun goes off

and i already know what i have to do it's like i'm floating so on this particular gun did you feel like you shot right out like was there any hesitation there no i was i was gone i had already ran the preliminary and the semi-f, so everything was dialed in. My chiropractor had lasered me up. There'd be a lot of quantum neurology. My nervous system was on point. I was ready to go. So real quick, preliminary and semifinal, how'd you do?

Did you win both of those? Win both of those. Okay. So now, gun goes off. This is the third day. So maybe Friday, Saturday, or whatever, and then this is the third day. Gun goes off. I get to my spots.

It's okay. Get to 60. Yeah, I'm seeing it. I had walked the track. I had already ran two rounds. Get to your spots. Be comfortable. Be confident.

I got around the curve, got down the backstretch, and was just floating. I knew exactly what I had to do. I got around the curve, got down the back stretch, and was just floating. I knew exactly what I had to do. I got around the curve and I still felt good. I still felt good. Not a lot of talking to myself at this time. It's just, it's ingrained in me. The crucial part or the critical zone in the 400 is the last hundred. That's when everything falls apart.

That's when it separates the men is the last 100 yeah that's when everything falls apart that's when it separates the men from the boys and i did a body check up in the curve right before i got into the last what does that mean a body check body check is make sure your chin is down make sure your arms aren't flared out make sure you're in the best sprint position you can be in. While everything wants to fall apart, you have to be strong and dialed in here and know exactly what you need to do and put your body in the best position to handle this last part of this race. And I just was stepping through it, man. I remember not looking too far at the finish line because I didn't want to deal with this, like, depth perception.

I would focus maybe 10 meters ahead of me on the ground, which would keep my chin down and would just keep me stepping. And I did that. I looked down. I was stepping. I was stepping. I looked up at the jumbotron, and halfway that 100, maybe 50 meters, I looked up. Man, nobody was around me.

So you're not looking side to side. No. At that point, I didn't feel anything. So you had no idea whether or not there were people there. I didn't know where they were. Okay. But I had a tendency of always being able to look at the jumbotron. Because as you're running, the jumbotron is right there.

You can see everybody. I looked up and nobody was around and so what's cool what goes through your mind when nobody's around or like what do you feel are you like oh i can let up or i gotta turn on it it was it was get to the finish line hurry up and get to the finish line but don't tighten up yeah go to the basics uh keep your arms open keep stepping forward keep your chin down and get through this line make sure you run 405 meters through this line because is there is there like a feeling of excitement like holy crap i'm gonna do this or is it are you still just totally dialed in i think i'm still dialed in wow i think i'm still dialed in and it didn't hit me until I crossed the finish line.

And I didn't really show a lot of passion for it because before, I thought about it as just another race. I said, okay, this is just another race. Let's get through it. And when I got through it, it was a big relief for me once I crossed the finish line because, I mean, Olympic Games is the pinnacle of the sport. And to be Olympic champion, I didn't dream of it before I started training for it.

I said, I wasn't a fan of the sport. I wasn't a fan of any sport really, well, baseball. I played baseball a lot when I was younger. So when I crossed the line, I felt like, whew, it's done. Not like all, a feeling of relief, not necessarily this rush of excitement that I was Olympic champion.

It was, whew, I got that done. And then I could hear everything. I could hear the crowd then. I could smell things then. Then I tapped into, well, I got into a sense right afterwards of, I got it I won but they coming for me now they are coming for me now didn't get too high never got too high in any of my accomplishments you know I've always

rode everything if it was a 10 that was a 10. i would ride it like a like an eight yeah just because i knew that this was a business and i had to do it over again so i didn't really i was in the moment so much so many times that i really didn't celebrate a lot of my success yeah i just knew that i had to do it again yeah and I loved the fact of training and in the process I would fall in love with the process so I guess I fell in love with the process of training and I had a process with winning when I would yeah training was to make it comfortable when I would go out and compete maybe because I wasn't because I wasn't this competitor or super competitive

where I would feed from my competitors. I would feed from my preparation. So it was more of that. And after that, man, I won world championships the next year and set my mark. So I wanna, for the viewers, a couple principles that you've extracted here that apply to everything.

Like one, when you're running this 400 and that last 100 and the finish line is ahead, the fact that you didn't focus on the finish line, you focused on the next 10 meters. And that is such a key principle to success that we never are so caught up in like how high the mountain is or how far away it is or whatever else but we just focus on controllable how do i control the next few steps right like that is that is a key i've done you know hundreds of interviews and spoken with thousands of entrepreneurs and had my own success and like that is a key, I've done hundreds of interviews and spoken with thousands of entrepreneurs

and had my own success and like, that is a common principle that is extracted is the control that night and I love that, this applies to everything. And the other thing is like controlling your emotion, right? Like no too high, no too low, right? Whether I win or I lose, I keep it right at a seven or. Right. Whether I win or lose, I keep it right at a seven or an eight.

And I win or lose. I'll always have unconditional love for my parents. Yeah, I love that. No stress in that. The most you still keep the most important things first. Right. Right. Like like there it's so interesting, like regardless of what you're doing, whether you're running, running a business, a family, building a community, the principles of success are the same. It's awesome just extracting these from your story and seeing how they apply in running the 400 meter and winning the Olympic gold. That is just so awesome. I appreciate it. What point was the pinnacle of this whole experience was it the training was it crossing the finish line it doesn't sound like it was crossing the finish line was it was it

standing on top hearing the national anthem like what what was the pinnacle of the whole experience you know i i really believe once i got my medal and at the top of the podium, I was closer to my brother. I really feel that. I feel like I'm here, they're playing the national anthem, and at the top of the podium, he's watching from up above, and we did it. We did it. We have to do it again, but but for this moment what I wanted to do

I got done the best in the world Olympic games everybody's watching and it doesn't get any bigger than that yeah and that was that was a moment for me like you said the preparation was what it was I I don't mind training hard daily day day after day, and not even seeing results daily, but just putting that grind in. Winning the race, like I said, I had competed against those guys already, but you never know the outcome of a race, right? And that last day standing up on that podium, man, it was for, like I said man it was for like I said it was for everybody you know it's I have these and sharing because this is actually Rio for those that they could see 2016 2016 yeah

so it was for everybody so definitely had to be that moment of standing on top of the podium and coming back home to Virginia and my family being at the airport oh man that was the pinnacle man I love that thinking about it now I love that and it was just it let me know that I was loved sense of gratitude because I did have help from my parents praying for me uh my coaches my chiropractors it's definitely a team yeah but i had to go out there and execute and i did it and and there was a lot of people who wanted that goal and i got it that's pretty awesome so you know you go on you get injured in the 2012 which obviously was difficult and then later you come back and you win the four by four in the 2016 in Rio. It's just phenomenal.

Then you end up retiring in 2021. So let's talk about that because, you know, being at the height of your career and the champion of the world, right? That's someplace that most people will never get to right right how do you transition from that like to what you're doing now where do you find passion where do you find it was hard it was hard man to be honest with you I felt like I don't study people or read a lot of books based on different things. So like I said, I was experiencing things. I was going through things that I didn't know became natural to me. But afterwards, I didn't become the Olympic gold medalist in life.

I didn't walk around wearing it on my shoulders. You know, I did it because I was good at it. I had the character to maximize potential and I had the ability to execute in certain moments. And after the sport, I didn't know what I was going to do. And I really thought I was going to be able to pour into a wife and kids when I was done. And that was going to be like a passion and a purpose for me. But it wasn't there. And then I thought, okay, man, do I do something where I try to go to the max again?

Like that took a lot. Like I sacrificed a lot lot a lot of relationships I wasn't able to figure out what I like to do because I poured into the sport so who am I right outside of this guy everybody see me as and I don't even care about yeah then I contacted a guy who I worked with for a long time, and he said, you've always talked to kids. You speak well. Won't you get into the realm of motivational speaking and just telling your story because your story is unique? And there's a lane for that.

You can craft that and get paid and share and change lives with your story so I said okay I mean I could do that and now I'm I'm studying and reflecting on moments that I forgot about that's a lot of that going on I was so focused in like the moments of training or walking on the track that I didn't remember a lot of it yeah so I'm having to go back and write things down I started my foundation well I already had the foundation but I reinstated it and I just want to be able to share resources give hope.

I understand the mind, body, spirit approach to sports and life in general. Be able to give opportunities like people gave me when I was in high school later on. When I was in high school, like I said, people didn't even know who I was until later in like my late 12th grade year when a guy came and bought me a uniform and bought me spikes

and paid for me to go to competitions in Texas and Louisiana and New York. If it wasn't for him, I wouldn't have been able to do that. I wouldn't have been able to see what else was out there. So I really wanna give that back through the foundation in any way that I can and the speaking is I'm learning it I'm learning it man I'm learning it's becoming a passion of mine because I get to give back I get to let people know how I handle certain situations and as people handle

situations in life in general but I was told there was a uniqueness of of mine yeah so if I can share that and change someone's perspective on how they're approaching something or how they may be dealing with a difficult time in life or how to deal with success to keep it going because I ended up being number one in the world for many years and that was because of doing the work and noticing the success but like I said not riding it at that 10 yeah just kind of keeping at that eight so I can stay with the fundamentals and keep it going forward so the passion right now the purpose is building relationships getting around individuals who are not just like-minded like I'm around these athletes a lot when I was in this bubble who were athletes you know they work hard many of them didn't

understand the rest and recovery part that I understood they always wanted to go do something when I was either in a training room or at home or studying film or stretching. And I have that unconditional love for my parents. From having that, I feel like it sets me apart from just a normal athlete because I was competitive. I did maximize it, but I didn't really care about what I was doing. It's weird. I wouldn't say care about what I was doing. What I was doing, I didn't let it define me. I always knew there was something more. Different identity. Absolutely. Yeah. I love that. I love that, man. I'm, I'm excited for, for you in the next, you know, really level of your life.

I appreciate it. That's not necessarily defined by athletics, but to put it together here, I feel like I can take that and put it in any lane. You know, and my dad, it chokes me out because my dad is always like, he probably could have been an athlete. And he always say, man, I don't know what I would have done had I been given that speed and ability. But sometimes it jumps generations.

And he actually wanted to be famous. He would be famous had he not had kids and where his story is. He had kids early. He had to work all his life. But he's a super dad. So he don't feel like he got a chance to maximize whatever he was here for. And it hit me.

And I think he did, though. Like, I mean, obvious, you know, some people have different callings, and clearly his calling was to be a great dad. Absolutely. And to infuse you with the knowledge, the dream, the power to be able to go and fulfill your mission. And I think, and fulfill your mission.

And I think your mission is going to give him fulfillment. Absolutely. Which is phenomenal. And I think you're doing a great service to both your dad and your brother. I appreciate it. LaShawn, man, thank you for your time. Thanks for hanging with us on the show. It's been it's a pleasure i'm sharing these principles your journey and and all the good stuff where's a good place uh for the listeners to to give you a follow is it instagram where's the best spot that's instagram instagram

is uh at the shine merit they ended up calling me the machine the machine the machine so i'm like machine merit it's because i at the end of the race it was who was going to decelerate the lease and i always handled the critical zone i broke that i never really broke down in my race so they called me the machine so it's machine mary actually but lashawn mary on instagram i have facebook uh i do twitter some but more instagram i love it you actually bring up a great point and we'll just talk about one more part of your race but i can't remember if it was the 08 4x4 or the 16 4x4 i was watching it yesterday yeah we were throwing it on in our uber like oh man we're interviewing leshawn tomorrow we got to see some of the old races and there was a there was a point you came in, you're an anchor.

I think you were in like third or fourth. And you come around that edge. And you clearly weren't going to be able to take the inside lane. And you decided to take the outside. Oh, no. You were watching a world championship. Was that a world championship? That was a world championship.

Oh, man. It was awesome. Yeah. And I kind of, yeah, yeah. They ended up calling that the Virginia Shuffle. That was world championship. Oh, man. It was awesome. Yeah. And I kind of, yeah, yeah. They ended up calling that the Virginia Shuffle. That was so weird. Yeah. I think it was, it was Jamaica and somebody else.

And they had me boxed in. Yeah. They had me boxed in. But it's such like, when you're in this moment, and think you're right I got the baton like third yeah I got the baton and this moment is so surreal when you have two people in front of you and you're going for this major title, and I can still have a sense of calmness in that. I watched that not too long ago too, and I got the baton, and I was so calm and relaxed.

I think the commentator was even saying how calm and relaxed I was. And I had to pick the perfect spot to make a move. I don't know where that came from, but I felt Boston, and I knew I only had 100 to go. And I did like a little shuffle move. Yeah, you like shimmied. It was like, wow, man, that's crazy to do while sprinting. It just took off.

It just took off, man. That, I look at those moments and sometimes I think, man, that was me. I forget about moments a lot. I saw a thing that recently, I mean, not too long ago, where it showed all of my accomplishments. And I was talking to a group of athletes, but they had all my accomplishments on this screen behind me. And I was talking I was talking I would look back I would talk I would look back and I was amazed on how much I I've done

yeah it's amazing on how much um I've done how much time I spent in the sport it's my only job it's 17 years it feels like five yeah it went so fast but i was so dialed in doublehead sword because i was so down in that i don't have family and i missed out on a lot of things in life that i really care about but i'm still here i have six nieces and nephews i get to be an amazing uncle. All of them are in sports. Hey, you're still young, 37. Hey, I'm still young. Hey, ladies, I don't know if you heard, but the man's on the market. All right?

He's a family man, athlete. He's going to produce some great offspring. So get at him on Instagram. You know, none of the, you know we we only want good wholesome women that uh absolutely yeah we're looking for a good one okay yeah we're looking for a good one for you i appreciate it but man i think i think what you're bringing up though like looking back at your accomplishments that's this is like this is life this is success because when you're in it you it doesn't necessarily register right it just seems like

another day right because what made you who you are is doing another day right over and over again over and over and not complaining right i never was a guy to complain the sport is accountability it's just you and any team sports if you're a pro you show up late you get fine you do this you get fine it's what a track and field i didn't have to show up every day to training. It was you. But I love that, that the process and the isolation. I felt I developed greatness through my isolation, positive affirmations within the inner voices that I had,

the unconditional love for my parents, the great character, recipe for success. Awesome. Man, I love everything that you're about and what you shared today. What is one last piece of advice that you would give to somebody that's thinking about giving up,

not pushing through, whether it's giving up on life, giving up on the next level of success, giving up on launching their business? What piece of advice would you give to that person? You know, you have to get past it to get through it. Or you got to get through it to get past it. Life is hard.

There's ups and downs but i always feel like if you take some time by yourself understand yourself understand what your inner voice tells you and proper preparation prevents performance proper preparation prevents piss poor performance. Ooh, man, that might be the title of the show. Yeah. So I'm all about preparing well to execute and never forget the basics and

take it a step at a time. LaShawn, thank you so much, my man. Thank you for your time. Thank you for being a giver thank you for sharing these gold medals

with the world and not you know hiding them behind a piece of glass yeah man and just being a man of the people

that's sharing it with the world sharing it with the kids giving hope giving dreams dude appreciate you so much I appreciate you

thank you until next time