REAL AF with Andy Frisella - REDEFINE IMPOSSIBLE ft. James Lawrence, with Andy Frisella - MFCEO289

Episode Date: March 5, 2019

What do you think is impossible? Pretty much everybody told my guest & friend James Lawrence that doing 50 Iron Mans in 50 days in 50 different states was impossible. But he did it. Not because he is a gifted athlete or had access to special resources, but because he learned how to create a mental toughness that is 1000 times stronger than iron. This episode will show you that you really can crush the absurdly huge goals that everybody else thinks you can't.

I can stack them hundreds to the roof. I ain't stopping till they stack to the moon. Without me, my family wouldn't have food. Anybody go against me, gotta lose. What is up, guys? You're listening to the MFCEO Project. I'm Andy. I'm your host, and I am the motherfucking CEO. Guys, today we have an awesome show for you, but before we get into that, you're probably wondering if this is your first time listening, what the fuck is a motherfucking CEO? Why can't I just be a regular CEO? Let's be real. Regular CEOs suck. They're boring.

They're nerdy. They're dorks. And nobody really gives a fuck about them. We want you, you're ruining my intro, Vaughn. I'm sorry. You're laughing in the fucking mic. Well, you mentioned nerdy and boring, and so I had to come in. Okay.

But see, all right tyler you totally fucked up my flow now all right let's just skip to the part uh we have a fee it's not money the fee is this if you enjoy the show if you get information from the show which i guarantee you you will especially on this show. Um, I asked that you tell a friend, you know, you don't have to post about it. I'm not asking you to make a post or do any of this other shit. What I am asking though, is if the conversation comes up or where, where you're learning cool shit, give your uncle Andy a shout out, man. I don't know if I'm old enough to be an uncle yet, but I'm getting pretty close. So, as always, I am joined by my co-host. And you know what?

That's not even true because you're not always here. But I always say that. I'm not here for the thunder. Yeah, you're not. No. Can you bring the thunder, though? I could try. I think we should get the Mrs. on the phone and ask her. What would that be like?

Oh, well, yeah. Three girls, I can bring the thunder. Oh, yeah. All right. Yeah, yeah. By the way, I know you say that you're not supposed to give yourself nicknames. I know that you sit at home all day, dude, and think about nicknames. Tyler, does he do that?

He definitely does that. He'll come in every fucking weekend with like five more. I walk in the room. I walk in the office here. I'm like, Vaughn, what are you working on? And he closed down the screen real quick. And normally like that's when dudes are looking at like porn and shit. Vaughn's working on his list of nicknames.

I get thesaurus.com on. I know. So let's hear it. Well, there's a reason behind it. I mean, you've done a good job of giving me some great enduring nicknames. The best one is the pastor disaster. Pastor disaster is a good one. That brings together sort of the faith and the

excellence element. But because inspired by you and your whole culture and your business, I decided... At this point, it's ours. It is ours. That's true. I appreciate that. So, I

would like to step up my game in terms of how I contribute to the overall first form thing. Well, I noticed, I have noticed that you're actually putting on a little bit of muscle. I appreciate it. Well, Alex and Grant have been helping me a lot and Stu and it's been great. All the Arte guys. Yeah. So I have to trust them though because they told me that I was going to lose a bunch of weight before I gained a bunch of weight.

Yeah. So. You look better, bro. I appreciate it. Yeah, I mean it. You look a lot better. No, I appreciate it. I'm very grateful for that.

So you ready? What kind of sexy nickname have you come up with yourself? I guarantee you it's something like this. What is it? The Holy Father of Fitness. Oh, dude, I called it. I called it. I knew it was coming.

Yep. You know, and this is a weird show for you to bring that up on because we have somebody here who really is uh the holy father of fitness right right especially for he's from utah you know so they're very religious in utah so that guys we have one of the guests uh this is going to be a cool show because I don't know much more about this guy other than he's totally badass. He did 50 Ironmans in 50 days. You heard that correctly. 50 Ironmans in 50 days. I want you to think about that because most of you can't get through a day without eating bullshit. All right. James Lawrence, the Iron Cowboy. What's up, brother? What's up, man? Dude,

I'm excited to have you here, man. You are excited. Yeah. Next year, we need to do 50 for the kids. Huh? Instead of 30 for the kids. Dude, you know what? I got up this morning, no bullshit.

And so I got this bet. So I have this business group called the Arte Syndicate, all right? It's all high-level entrepreneurs. It's $500,000 plus year earners that we work with personally. We do these little bets throughout the year. And one of the bets I have with the group for charity is I have to be 10% body fat or less by May 17th, or I got to pay 250 grand charity. All right. So I know how you can do it in 50 days. I know. So I got down to 4%. I know. So listen, so dude, you, so listen, so a couple years ago I saw, and this dude, we haven't even talked and you're already inspiring me. I just

want to share this with you. It's pretty cool. Um, a couple of years ago I went a hundred straight days with, with no cheating on my diet and no cheating on my workout. And that was a big deal for me. Like that wasn't, it's not 50 and 50 days you know or anything like that but it was it it helped me you know yeah and i'm i'm having trouble getting back in the rut and i've got a fucking bust ass because otherwise i won't make it because i'm sitting at like 18 right now and uh i got 11 weeks to go after after today even though it's for charity you don't really want to fight that i'm going to still pay it either way because it is for our charity, but it's a pride thing for me. For sure. But I got up this morning.

I'm like, dude. And I was just thinking about doing the show. And I'm like, how the fuck does someone do 50 fucking Ironmans in 50 days? And I'm like. There's a part you're missing. What's that? 50 different states. 50 different states. 50 different states.

It wasn't done in a single location. Damn, dude. And tell the listeners real quick for those that don't know what an Ironman is. Yeah. So an Ironman is a distance of a triathlon and it is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, followed by a full marathon, which is 26.2 miles. So the total distance of an Ironman is 140.6 miles. And so logistically, we had to figure out how to complete one

and then how to get to the next state and do it. Dude, I'm sitting here with my mouth hanging open. Seriously. So my thing is like, all right, I'm going to get back in the routine on this program by doing 50 straight days of my program with no cheese just to lock in my routine but I you know that was my little motivation I'm like fuck dude if someone can do 50 ironmans I can do this for 50 fucking days but so dude let's before we get into that because I have to understand I have to understand a mentality like yours because I'll be honest. I have mental toughness in other areas that is unshakable. Okay. But creating the

mental toughness on a physical level is a different, it's a different thing for me, man. You know, I have to work really hard at it. So I'm curious, I'm curious how this all developed. So like, you know, where the fuck did you come from? Outer space? Like, you don't say it like Canada. Yeah. All right. It's almost the same. All right. So he comes from Canada, you know where the fuck did you come from outer space like you don't say it like Canada yeah all right this dude comes it's almost the same all right so he comes from Canada skinny white Canadian yeah but I'm just I'm just curious man so like tell us just you know give us the the the five minute about where you came from and then we'll get into how you got into this yeah so I mean so I I grew up in a great home my dad dad was a blue-collar firefighter, worked really, really hard and set that great example for me.

And then I had a mom that just dreamed and was an entrepreneur and just maybe couldn't get it together. Yeah. And I kind of looked at both of that and I was like, well, I don't want to be an entrepreneur that can't figure it out. And I don't want to be a blue-collar worker. We need them. We love them. But that's not who I am. I get it.

Yeah. And I was like, OK, so if I can take that hard work ethic and that entrepreneur spirit and combine the two, that should be a recipe for success. Right. And then athletically, I grew up playing all sports, just kind of figuring out what I liked, what I didn't like. What did you like? Wrestling. Yeah.

I wrestle as well yeah so i i did all sports through you know junior high and whatnot and then 10th grade i was like okay i'm gonna go all in yeah and uh just got worked in wrestling yeah and then but just kept showing up yeah and ended up uh going undefeated my senior year in one one state that's badass went on to represent canada yeah so that was super cool learned a lot about mental toughness and what it means to show up every single day dude i don't think there's a sport out there that kids can get involved in that'll teach you more than wrestling yeah you know i had this conversation last night with your boys and i think the last or the the two main sports to me would be gymnastics yeah and wrestling i have zero experience with gymnastics neither do i but

i look i i i look at those guys and they're in my opinion they're some of the most underrated athletes in the world their core strength the power the explosiveness the the body control that those guys have and just the the mental toughness that those guys have to do to get to that level yeah it's very very impressive detail too yeah the detail and all that so there's no like me against you in terms of like the wrestling is right but i think as far as well that's why gsp uh george saint pierre's was such an unbelievable fighter and in my opinion the best pound for pound ever yeah i agree is is because gsp did a ton of detailed gymnastic work inside of his training and all that stuff. And so I have a ton of respect for kind of the fighting disciplines.

And I think gymnastic needs to be thrown in there somewhere. Well, it never is either. It never is. Underrated. Those guys are just unbelievable athletes. I think there's a number of starting quarterbacks in the NFL and Hall of Fame quarterbacks who actually took gymnastics or ballet even. Well, that got made famous by Walter Payton. Well, it's just body awareness.

Yeah, it's body awareness. Arnold Schwarzenegger used to do it. What, ballet? Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Helping with his posing and learning his body. I imagine so.

Dude, this sounds funny too, though. I think indoor soccer is underrated honestly because indoor soccer teaches you super fat it teaches your body as a kid super fast explosive movements that helps the kids with you know like if they're going to play football or they're going to they're going to run to first base stuff like that and agility you know you know who the best 800 meter 1500 meter and 5k runners work in high school and college? Soccer players. Soccer players. Yeah.

It's all interval work. Yeah, right. It's explosive, fast interval work. So they've got intervals combined with endurance and they just, we couldn't run with them. Yeah. They were just unbelievable runners and it was just, it wasn't intentional. They didn't know why. Yeah.

And I didn't even know why back then, but now knowing what I know, looking back, I'm like, huh, that makes a lot of sense. Did you always find yourself enjoying the running and the conditioning aspect of sports? No, I hate running. Even today, it's stupid. My journey started with my wife saying, hey, let's go do a four-mile fun run. And I'm like, something's wrong with you. You just said fun and run. Okay, dude.

And it's ridiculous. You're speaking my language now. I hold world records in running, and I running it's stupid thank you you're speaking my language now now i'm interested in this shit because but here's the thing to be successful at the highest level you have to do stuff you don't like okay thank you you just said part of the formula this is the fucking thing that i keep telling people this is the opposite is what's being thrown around social right now if you don't love it you should quit and do something you love look dude how many times do you feel like getting up in the morning and fucking running zero exactly

zero times people assume oh you must love to get up and run no dude i hate it yeah i try to figure out how to work out in the afternoon like and i don't want like i love sleeping i love being comfortable that's that's what human nature is comfort right but we're never just standing still we're moving forward or we're moving backwards and if you're not uncomfortable you're moving backwards yeah you're getting past because the environment that we're in is not static yeah it's a fluid it's a fluid environment people have such a hard time grasping and you know what's cool is that that applies to your fitness it applies to your mental toughness it applies to because mental toughness is a perishable skill you know it is something that if you develop and then you let go

and then and it will go backwards. You know what I mean? Or yeah. Oh, for sure. It's like when you, when you work out and you get fit, it takes forever and ever to get to a level. And then you like dial it back for a minute and you're like,

how the hell did I get way back here again? Same thing with mental toughness. Like I I'm, I'm four years, four years removed from, from the 50, which is, which is arguably the greatest endurance feat that nobody knows about.

Yeah. And well, they're going to know about it now. Yeah. At least 1.2 mil, right? Yeah. Well, more than that. Yeah. I love it. And here's the thing is when I finished the 50, I got just like thrown into the speaking circuit. Last two years I've been in 48 countries. That's awesome. It's just crazy. And this is something I never, ever thought I'd be doing. Well, I've been in 48 countries. That's awesome. It's just crazy. And this is something I never, ever thought I'd be doing. Well, I've slipped in the physical element of my life and mental and, and doing these difficult, hard challenges.

And so I've, I've backpedaled. And so I've got a few big challenges coming up and I'm like, Oh, I'm like, this is real. Right. This is real for me.

Right. And it's not like everyone's like, Oh, cause I show up anywhere and like, Oh, you're the iron cowboy. You can do anything. Right. You just go for me. Right. And it's not like everyone's like, oh, because I show up anywhere and like, oh, you're the Iron Cowboy, you can do anything. Right.

You just go do it like that. Like, hey, just go do an Iron Man on the moon right now. And I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? Like, it takes a minute.

Because here's the biggest problem with anybody, and you're going to be an advocate of this, is people see a headline. They see you today, what you make, what your company is. That's right. They don't see you sleeping in the back of your shop. No, fuck see you you know they don't they don't see anything they don't see

the head they don't even believe that they don't even believe it like i i have to like literally like show people pictures and shit yeah you know because if you say that it just sounds like every other bullshit story and like it's the same for you you know my first race i have a picture of me hanging on the side of the pool, gasping for air with a nose plug on. Oh, I love that, dude. Because I can't breathe. Like, I didn't know how to swim. And then I went on to do what we did, right?

Which was stupid. So, we should send him, like, Trump should go with him, or he should go with Trump for everything. So, when you're going over- Like, make him work a grade again? Yeah, no, I'm talking about like, you go overseas. He meets with Kim Il-sung or whatever his name is. And Trump just says, Iron Cowboy. They know we're serious.

America. America. Iron Cowboy. But he's Canadian. That's right. Ooh, yeah. That's a problem. We'll naturalize you.

So after wrestling and everything, I was sitting there in Canada, you know, kind of not accomplishing much and trying to figure out what I'm doing. And Calgary is actually famous for the Calgary stampede. One of the largest rodeo stops in the world. And I was sitting there and the radio announced a contest to see who could ride the Ferris wheel, the giant Ferris wheel for the duration of the stampede. Well, the stampede is 10 days long.

And so I was like, yeah, I can, I should do that, right? And so I call the radio station, I get on the ride, and I just like plead my case that I need to be on this ride. And I sit on the Ferris wheel and endure just boredom, just mind-numbing boredom for 10 days.

And I ended up winning the the contest which totally transitioned my whole life wait wait let me let me stop you here what the fuck dude wait 10 days i'm lost already what makes somebody want to sit on a ferris wheel for 10 days money money i was 22 year old in a dead-end job. There we go. And so I was sitting on the Ferris wheel, and it's funny because I got fired from my job while I was sitting on the Ferris wheel. So my motivation instantly doubled or tripled, and I'm like, now I have to sit here because now what's my option? Zero options.

Ended up winning, winning the money, and I did. I had one friend in Utah, and I hitchhiked a ride from Calgary to Utah. I met my wife. We actually just celebrated 19 years of marriage and we have five kids. Oh man, that's cool. Congratulations. We've got four girls and a little boy,

which is super cool. Yeah, that's super cool. I have to pull this out though because 10 days on a Ferris wheel, something Andy has said a lot is that the key to endurance and the key to success is mastering the monotonous.

So what's going through your mind on those 10 days? Were you like somehow getting into some sort of mental zone to just double down? Like, you know what I'm saying? I mean, that was monotonous. You had to have been on the borderline of going insane. Well, no, I think, you know, in your early 20s, you've got an active mind, or hopefully you should. And you've gone through some stuff and you've got a lot mind or hopefully you should and uh you've gone through some stuff and you've got a lot yet to experience and so it's actually a beautiful 10 days for me to where i just got to sit and reflect you had no distractions you couldn't do anything no phones no books no nothing you didn't want to talk to the other people that are competing because who

the hell are they and and so you just it was just a great opportunity to sit there and go okay who am i what do i want to do where have i been what do i where do i want to go you kept your mind occupied just kept my mind occupied and i really started to plan a dream really i think i think we've with with technology unfortunately these kids have lost the art of dreaming dude i mean it's just like they're just so distracted and minute to minute and instant gratification this and that and they've lost that creativity and that dreaming element of it and they've got a they've got to try to be fulfilled through something else that's such a good point that i've not even considered honestly so i think for me like even now like the 50 those 50 bike rides that i did that were 100 those were six to seven hours long, and it's just me time, right?

And when I escape in training and doing these big, long rides up in the mountains, that's me time. That's think time. That's deep tank time. That's like dissecting things and creating and dreaming and all that. And kids and even teens. They're too distracted. They're too distracted.

I mean, one of the biggest areas that I want to get to, like I've spoken to corporations and executives and all this stuff. And I'm, I want to get into the universities because I think that that's an aid. That's a demographic right there that I think they're just stuck. They have no clue. They haven't done anything tough yet. They're, they're, they're soft really. And they're just entitled and soft. And I try not to offend anybody, but it's true. And I think my message and story with what we've been through would really resonate and help a lot of those kids get some direction in what they're doing. Absolutely, dude. I think our environment right now is, and I mean, we totally agree on this.

I can just tell from what you're saying. It's conditioned for softness. I mean, dude, when you and and i i don't know how old you're how old are you okay so we're close to the same age yeah like we probably sort of grew up in the same way of we definitely grew up in the same way technology was i mean fuck dude these kids got everything instant instant food instant feedback instant contact instant email like dude instant entertainment fuck dude they don't even know what a fucking pen pal is. What the fuck a pen pal?

You know, like, dude. They don't know what a bike is. It's a completely different thing. And like, I remember like when you were saying that about just dreaming, I'm a huge car guy. And so I can remember like after school when I was a kid, and I'm not talking 20 years old. I'm talking eight, nine,

10 years old, like sitting there playing with my hot wheels and like looking at my hot wheels and I didn't have no, nothing else to do. And I'm like, man, you know, one day I'm going to be this guy who does this and this with cars and that

people don't understand that. Like that car obsession started when I was a kid, but it started because I had time to actually think about things. And that's led to all these other amazing things that I take pride in now. You know what I mean? Like providing guys with careers and people with an opportunity. And, you know, it's going to be interesting to see how this lack of imagination changes. There's so much science to support what you're saying.

There's literally a brand new study that just came out and said one of the negative effects of technology is that literally kids are entertained so much that they don't get bored and that they've actually proven that it's prolonged periods of boredom that actually stimulate the greatest creativity in kids. It's kind of what you're saying. You just sat there so you had time to think. But they're literally saying that it's actually boredom itself that provokes that. And the problem is that when you have kids who are constantly looking on their iPads or looking on their iPhones, they're never bored. So their imaginations don't develop and they don't develop this capacity to think big because they're never forced to. They're never sitting in a corner going, well, I don't have any toys, so I'll just go find a shoe box and make something really amazing out of it. Or I'll go out into the woods and whittle a gun out of a tree. They just don't do that.

Yeah. My assistant, she sent me a text the other day and she was like, hey, there's an event and they want to book you. And then there's a second event that's, there's no plane that'll get you there fast enough it's a five-hour drive are you okay to do that and i actually really like driving and i'll turn things off and i just like sit there and think and i was like oh yeah man i'd love to do that five-hour drive and just kind of get inside i like it alone though oh yeah me too oh yeah for sure don't bug me yeah you know yeah and just that little bit of alone time and so i i could drive across the country and be totally stoked to do it. Like, I don't know if I could be a truck driver and do it all the time,

but like to say, Hey, as a, like people, most people would look at it and think, dude, fuck that. Yeah. And I agree. I'm with you. Someone's like, Hey, let's, let's, you know, you've got a six hour drive. I'm like, Oh sweet. This is some time that I can get inside my head and really sort some things out. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah, dude. I have never thought about that before, honestly, about the distractions from imagination. That's a really good point to consider.

It's got me thinking about a whole lot of things now. Dude, I don't listen on the radio. Dude, here's the question I'm interested in. How did you go to the bathroom yeah on the ferris wheel yeah we had two two 10 minute breaks a day okay yeah and in that 10 minutes you had to eat go to the bathroom wow you did have to sleep on it right you couldn't sleep during the day from uh from uh midnight to 8 a.m you could you could go to sleep wow so dude so that's your first test of like mental, mental endurance. mess and uh she she came up to me and she was like uh you're pathetic and and she said i just

signed you up for the salt lake city marathon and figure it out yeah and i was like that's mean and uh did the marathon hated it absolutely hated it swollen knees couldn't walk for a week how long how long did you have to prep for that five Five months. Yeah. Did you prep? Yeah. I mean, I had no idea how to run, nothing. Downloaded Couch to Marathon off the internet and just started to try to dive into it. And what year was this? 2004. Okay.

And then really confirmed my dislike for running. Right. But then I found triathlon and I loved the diversity. I loved that I had to learn a new skill set of swimming. I ended up loving biking. Had no idea, but loved it. And then just started to kind of take down the disciplines. And I think what still attracts me today to triathlon is mastering so many different elements.

Swimming, biking, running, right? That's the obvious ones. But then you've got nutrition. You've got nutrition, you've got mindset, you know, so you're, you're talking right there, five different disciplines that you've got to try to figure out a master in order to do something at the highest level. And so I think that's what really gravitated me towards it. And then, uh, so after that, that, that marathon got into, to racing, um, did my first Ironman in 2008 and I was like, okay, this is cool.

Cause I learned some things i struggled i stumbled but had some decent success with it and then um right when all that was happening i used to own a mortgage company and in the in the thick of it when we were getting into racing and starting to figure that out the economy crashes right and uh we we were in the heart of that crash. Yeah. And we got stripped of everything. Got punched right in the fucking mouth. Just.

Yeah. Yeah, more than once. Yeah. And I mean, we lost our house. We lost all of our possessions. I remember sitting there and got the knock on the door, and it was the bank. And I've got five kids, six and a half and under. And just, you know, just yeah comes knocking hard and i had less than 10 bucks

in my bank account yeah because we'd fought tried to save everything and i've got these five kids and i'm like what am i gonna do right i'd already committed to the racing and this and that and so i was like okay we're this is an opportunity for me to reset and do what i do what i want to do right and so i started working for a charity. We started working to raise money to build dams in Africa. That's cool. And so we called it the Try and Give a Dam Project. Oh, I like that.

And I went out and I broke the world record for the most half Ironmans done in a single year and donated all the money to the charity. How many was that? We did 22 Half Ironmans in 30 weeks. Okay. Which is fucking incredible. I was just sitting there going, man, I don't want to be the Half Ironman world in 30, uh, half Ironman's in 30 weeks. Okay. And then I was just fucking incredible. I was just sitting there going, man, I don't, I don't want to be the half Ironman world record

holder. Who, who wants to be that guy? Yeah. And so then I did some research, looked up the full Ironman world record. And then two years later it was 20 fulls. And I was like, well, I'm, I don't want to break the record. I want to set a new bar. Yeah. And then, uh, so we set out to do 30 Ironmans through 11 countries and just had to shoestring budget the whole thing because we had yeah we had no money and so i was just creative and trading and bartering and and getting people to donate air miles so i could get to these countries yeah and race and i remember getting to switzerland i had no money i uh i would go to the race expo and and and get the bar samples and the drink samples to, to fuel me to eat, to eat food.

Cause I would say anything I would get or send from our coach and everything I would send home. Cause we had the kids and we had to put, we had to put food on the table and figure that out. And so it's just a real scrappy gritty time. Um, and then I, I finished the, the, the 30 Ironman world record and I knew I was going to get sponsored and they were going to throw money at us and, and the whole thing. And so I was like, we're going to do, we're going to do 50 Ironmans. Cause I, during the 30, I didn't feel like I'd pushed myself physically and mentally. Yeah.

And I was like, okay. So you, so wait, so, so no, no, for real. Like you guys are laughing, but I'm, I'm totally picking this up, dude. Like you're, you you're you realize you left some shit on the table yeah well and when you're doing something that's hard but then by doing those hard things you gain knowledge and experience right right and that's the whole point of being on a journey is gaining that knowledge and experience facing some fears overcoming those obstacles so i finished that year i look back and i was like yeah when i started that year that was

the hardest thing i could think of. But now I could do an Ironman every weekend. Yeah. Right. That's where we've evolved to. And so I look back and I said, okay, I'm a man. I want to know what I do when I'm really backed into a corner. Broken mentally, broken physically, nothing in the tank.

What do I do? It's dark. Right. Now what do I do? So I was like, what's the hardest thing? What's going to put me in that position? 50 Ironmans, 50 days, 50 states. Yeah.

Right? So we started to put it together. I knew we were going to get sponsored. I contacted all the big companies, this and that. No, no, no, no, no. Nothing. What year was this? 2015.

Okay. And they said, we can't afford to associate ourselves with a failure. Dude, I wish I would have known about it I said Oh you did No I didn't You didn't Yeah

But you guys did Well I didn't I have an email from 2014 Yeah What it said no? Uh huh No way Yeah

Damn dude Well that wasn't me I can tell you it didn't come from me I brought the email up at dinner last night to the boys. Good. It was really, really cool. It was a cool experience. I hope you rubbed it in, too.

No, not yet. Yeah. I'm going to. I will tell you that right now. So they said, we can't afford to associate ourselves with a failure. And I said, what are you talking about? I haven't failed yet. I just came off two world records.

I'm in the best physical shape I've ever been in my mental state is off the charts i know we can do this and they just said you're gonna fail it's impossible it can't be done and so i was like okay let's go yeah and i already know that that was all you needed it can't be done yeah right wasn't it right yeah yeah we're talking about the darkness oh fuck yeah dude the dark sides. You know, I can always tell the kind of person I'm dealing with when I ask them, what motivates you more, winning or fucking losing? And you know what I'm saying? Or what encourages you more, people cheering you or people telling you you can't?

You know? And I can always tell. Like, dude, there's kinds of people who, there's just different kinds of people. And that's what it comes down to, you know. So that was a crazy moment for us when we had no support and nobody believed in us. Everybody said it was impossible. And we were actually laughed at and mocked for having the goal. Yeah.

Because they were like, you're just going to set yourself up for embarrassment i would like that email yeah because i'm gonna fucking frame the motherfucker and put on my wall honestly dude honestly like i'm serious okay because like that to me that's what this shit's about you know what i mean it's about fucking being told no and then it's about proving everybody wrong i i live for that shit well and here's one thing that i've realized on the journey too is you had no idea no right that it was going on right and so it would have been an ego battle for me in my head to say i'm gonna prove you wrong because you didn't know yeah that that was happening right and so for me i had to go to a place where I was going to prove myself right. Yeah. And not prove you wrong. Yeah. Same outcome, different energy. Yeah. Right.

Yeah. Because it turns from an F you mentality to the world, to turning that into a positive and say, I'm going to put together the best possible team and together we are going to prove ourselves right yeah and it doesn't matter if i prove you right or wrong because i i believe in me and and it starts here yeah for sure yeah for sure for sure i think that there's power i think so in business this is what i try to explain to people because i think they take this motivation the wrong way. Like a lot of people are in business and they look at their competitors. They're like, dude, I'm going to fucking bury him.

I'm going to bury him. And then they get so, so I talk about the dark side motivation, right? Like it's real. It's real shit. And I'm driven by that. But so many people, what you're talking about is crossing over to productive action and so many people will just get consumed with the dark that it buries them because they can't be productive and the key is to be able to take that because dude to do something like you've done I believe that's

a record that will never be broken um I think it's one of the greatest records in sports and, and athletics, uh, in mental toughness, like you could fucking go away today. And that's a tremendous legacy in my opinion. Um, but to do things that are on that level, you have to do what you just said, and you have to be able to cross over and use all the energy available. And so what I try to explain to people who are in business is that what you just explained is that, dude, yes, the dark shit is real shit, but you have to be smart enough and disciplined enough to understand that just wanting to prove people wrong and being mad and being angry is not enough. You have to be able to take that energy, go to your team, like you said, create a plan and take it and pour it into that plan that benefits not only yourself,

but your entire team and everybody else. And so a lot of people misconstrue like the dark energy is like, I got to live there. Dude, if you live there, it will burn you up. It will end you. We live in Utah and it's starting to become Silicon Valley. They're calling it Silicon Slopes. And what's interesting is I've noticed that all of the tech companies are moving in right beside each other. And it's not because they want to keep an eye on them and bury them and distance themselves and keep them secrets. It's because that strength in numbers.

They're all working together. They're all working together. Right. Even though they're competitors, they're working together to grow and get themselves to another level. Right. And if one of those companies

was to like isolate themselves and go, I'm going to, we're going to bury you guys into this. They would get swallowed up. Yeah, they would lose. They're missing out on an opportunity to collaborate with these other companies and and realize that they can benefit each other right and all see tremendous growth right they can still go prove each other wrong but it's because they're putting that's what i've tried to do what they're doing i've been really i've been trying to do that in our fitness industry

a lot you know like i'm very passionate about um about the message that we stand for at first form and when we first started i was i was definitely more like dude fuck everybody else this is what we're doing but now i'm like dude you all of you guys need to step up to this message and deliver this you know what i mean it's for the better of the culture for everybody well and looking at you guys now i mean you guys have so much impact in so many other really cool areas with charities and and work inside the community here in st louis i mean just what i learned about you guys last night was remarkable thank you and the work that you guys are doing was just like holy cow these guys have taken it to another level and had you stayed in

that dark place i don't think that stuff would have been possible no because you'd have been so shut off from all that other stuff with experience I think that comes with experience and maturity, too. You know, when I was younger, dude, I was definitely totally fueled by fire. And now it's... I still think you've got some fire in you. Oh, yeah, for sure. Oh, dude, that'll never go away. You're intense.

Yeah, but it's just, I like that, though. You know what I mean? I like feeling that. Dude, it's infectious. Thank you. Thanks for good stories, too. I'm pumped up in the room right now yeah well i mean dude it's it's uh it's just who i am man it's authentically who i am you know and uh you can't force that no it's and you can't fake

it you know and a lot of people can tell i know i know we talk about that a lot with speakers and you're speaking now too you know i, we were just talking about this five minutes before I walked in here with Jason in the other room about how many people that go out and speak and suck at speaking. Like my brother, Sal is probably the second best speaker. I know maybe the third best behind Ed Milet. Okay. And, and like, or we're all on that same level. He doesn't go out and speak you know what i'm saying he's he puts his energy towards this but what i'm trying to say is like the the reason that a lot of these dudes that we that we do it with that we see and i'm sure you see too

actually suck at speaking is because they're doing it for the fucking money instead of doing it for the impact they don't actually believe it so when you're sitting at these events and you're like, God, I wonder why this guy sucks. Well, it's probably because he's about to sell you something. Yeah. That's the truth. And they've chosen the topic that they're speaking about based on what they think is going to make them money,

not based on something that they're genuinely and naturally enthusiastic about. That's right. Yeah. So I've got two quick stories. One is I was invited out to speak to the Minnesota Vikings. And I was wicked intimidated, right? These are like the highest level athletes, explosive. I think they'd be scared of you, dude. Well, this is a crazy experience. So I go in there and it's mandatory. All of the athletes have to be there. They're bringing speakers all the time. And you get in there and the attitude

is like, yeah, we have to be there. We're going to get fined. And over the course, I presented to the Vikings for an hour. And I'm like, holy crap, this is going to be a scary hour for me. And I go in there and I literally just shared my story and poured my heart out. And the coach came up to me afterwards and he goes, I have never seen this group of athletes pay attention, not move, and be alert for the entire presentation. Every single one of those athletes got something out of it and and this is what he said he goes the reason is you weren't trying to tell them or teach them anything you were sharing your story and they

appreciated it because you were on the battlefield doing it. They respect it. They respect it. Right. Yeah. And then one of my mentors who's been speaking for 20 years is Peter Vidmar. He's a 1984 Olympic gold medalist in gymnastics, was the first athlete to get a perfect 10 on the Palma horse. And he said, what you have as a speaker, because I never thought I'd be a speaker, right?

I didn't either, bro. I'm an introvert. I've built a home right now with the desire to never leave it. Yeah. We got something in common. Yeah. And Peter was like, you have something that most speakers don't have. And it's the fact that you're telling your own story and you're passionate about it and you experienced it. Right. And then he said, and you're good on stage. Um. And so he said those two. So that was one of the couple of really great compliments

that I've received, one from a Hall of Fame speaker and Olympian, and then one from the coach of the Minnesota Vikings who was like, did we bring in speakers all the time? And that was the best we've ever had. Well, dude, I mean, let's, I mean, you're a very humble dude. I can already tell that.

I mean, just, I hope you appreciate the gravity and the impact of what you've been able to accomplish because even to someone, to anybody who's accomplished, like the Vikings, they're all super accomplished dudes. All these entrepreneurs, super accomplished dudes. That's just a different thing. I just hope you, I just hope that, you know, cause I know I already, I can get a feel for your vibe and what you're, you know, you're always looking for a test and you're always looking to, to, you know, it's not about proving it to other people. It's about to yourself. I just hope that, you know, there comes a time where you can really appreciate what you've done because dude, that's, I don't think that'll ever be broken, and I truly do believe that is one of the greatest records in human history.

Ever since last week when Aaron mentioned to us about you being in town and talking about being on the show, I've actually mentioned to a handful of people, I said, Doug, have you heard of this Iron Cowboy? No. What did he do? Well, he did 50 Ironmans in 50 days. That's intimidating, dude. I get two responses.

Either one, they're like, baloney. There's no way. You're lying to me. I'm like, no, I'm not lying to you. Or what is the more frequent one is just jaw drop. Well, dude. Just jaw drop. Vaughn, think about this for real.

And I think to you, it's probably not a big deal because you fucking did it. Like a lot, because you know how we always kind of like, if you're humble in nature, you kind of suppress your greatness, so to speak, or your accomplishments. And I think anybody who understands what the fuck an Ironman is and what it means. Like most of these people, like me, I couldn't go run a mile without really hurting. You know what i mean um it's it's just a different level it's a different level man it's awesome i ran a 5k in 2012 and i'm still bragging about it you're probably still sore motherfucker i can't believe that you did

not get injured at all yeah let's let's talk about that let's like dude when you say 50 yeah i bet you were beat the fuck up yeah i mean define injured yeah i mean i was dying what were you like like so dude let's let's talk about this okay just just so people can grasp what we're talking about we're talking about literally how many hours you do how many hours a day how many hours to take you to iron man during that time so my fastest was an 11.32. Okay. And we floated up to 16 hours. Okay, we're talking 11 to 16 hours a day.

Most of you motherfuckers ain't even awake that long in a day, okay? And we're talking 50 days straight, not in the same spot, but we're talking about, yeah, dude, he just flipped me over a picture of his feet. Is this after the event? After 50 days? That's about 15 days in. 15. Probably not sleeping in a hotel.

Yeah, so he sends me a picture of his toes here. Every fucking toenail is fucking gone, okay? The red dots you see are nerve endings. Yeah, I mean, dude, it's just... All right, before we get into this, because I'm just like, what the fuck? There are no superlatives to describe Thomas. This was on day 48. Yeah, dude, I would have just quit there and gone to the beach.

I'm just saying. Like, dude, so he... let's talk logistics all right so we're talking six 11 to 16 hours a day all right then we're talking moving a location to a different state we're talking a team of people, like the scope of this project. Let's talk about that. And then we'll get into actual mental toughness part of it. Yeah. So how, cause like, dude, I'm a pretty fucking smart dude and I'm pretty good with logistics.

Yeah. But this would be a tough thing to really, for me to draw out. You know what I mean? So I had to reverse engineer it. And so I was like, where's, where's going to be our biggest obstacles? Hawaii, Alaska. Yeah. Right. Let's get get let's get those taken care of first okay you don't want to get 48 days eight days into it and have those two left right so hawaii alaska to to get from hawaii to alaska you have to catch the last plane out in order to do the ironman in time in order to do

the ironman in time you had to start at midnight so no sleep do the first iron man fly to alaska get there with just enough time to get in the water do iron man number two finish that iron man fly to washington just enough time to get in the water start iron man number three so the first three or three days three iron mans zero sleep five and a half hours of sleep on a commercial airline and coach with your five kids yeah because the kids came with me all 50 days okay the whole family did and then the team and the kids came with me all 50 days. Okay. The whole family did. And then the team and the motorhome met me in Washington, and then we started to caravan the remaining 48. Okay. So let's talk about your mental state after the first three days,

because I think this is where most people quit in their journey to anything. For sure. Okay? Yeah. So you get three or four really hard tests right and you're like fuck this dude i got so much more to go i've got 80 90 left of what i've got to do where were you there mentally yeah fried yeah absolutely fried already we're four days into it and and one one of the things we did is we raised a hundred thousand dollars for uh the jamie oliver foundation um by putting on a 5k event inside of our iron man every single day

that people could come and participate oh that's logistically we put on an iron man and then inside that iron man we put on a 5k right that we did it every every day at seven o'clock well four days into it we're in oregon and i am hammered like exhausted falling asleep on the bike already are you thinking like what the fuck did i do yeah i'm like how am i going to do 47 more ironmans like i'm already breaking so my 12 year old daughter lucy she comes up to me and she's like dad i don't i don't think you believe in yourself and i was like i was like what what yeah she's like I don't think you think you can do this this is a 12 year old girl yeah and she's like I'll tell you what dad she goes together

together dad we can do this and I'm like sweetheart our definition of together is different yeah yeah right and she's like no dad stop you're not listening to me she said together we can do this and dad I'm going to be here every single day waiting for you. And I'm going to do all 55Ks through 50 states with you. At 12 years old. 12 years old. Never run, never prepped. Realized in this moment

who she is, her role on our team, and what she's going to do to help us get to the finish line. She showed up every single day and was there at 7 o'clock waiting for me to do that 5K. That's amazing. In a day and age where kids have no idea what it means to do what you say you're going to do,

she made a commitment, showed up, and held me accountable to do what we were going to do. And together, we did it. That's crazy, dude. So that conversation, which was probably five minutes changed the perspective yeah and now what's your thought process now i have to do it yeah right well day so let's fast forward day 18 chattanooga tennessee 106 degrees outside i lose concentration for three seconds fall asleep on my bike crash i. I look over at my bike, my hips swollen up.

I've got road rash everywhere. And I'm like, 18 has got to be good enough. Nobody thought we'd make it five, 10, 15. 18 has got to be good enough. Right. He who has their why can bear almost any how. I didn't know how I was going to get back on my bike, but I knew why. Yeah.

Yeah. Lucy's waiting for me. Right. Yeah. So I get back on my bike, but I knew why. Yeah. Yeah. Lucy's waiting for me. Right. Yeah. So I get back on my bike and we fight and figure out how to take another step. Dude. I love this. Figure out how to turn the pedals over.

Yeah. Cause guess what? She was going to be waiting for me and sure as shit she was. Yeah. That's, it's starting to make a little sense. You know what I'm saying? Uh,

say that again. He who has their why. He who has their why to live for can bear almost any how. That's the quote of the show right there, man. There's no question. That's amazing. So 18 days in, you're wrecked. Your feet are totally screwed up.

We're chasing a hurricane. So you're trying to get around a hurricane. Yeah. Okay. So let's talk about that one of the things we're heavily criticized for was we had that we had to go inside for a day yeah and and people lost their lids uh like they just what do you mean you had to go inside the the it was torrential downpours right what high advisory weather warnings

torrential winds super wet so we we swam inside yeah still covered the 2.4 had power watt bikes got on bikes biked 112 yeah and then ran the marathon on the people were pissed about this oh man the internet what the fuck hacked us and it was it's actually harder because it's a bunch of motherfuckers in their mom's basement sit type it on their fucking keyboard yeah they can't run a fucking pocket mafia yeah pizza and porn crew no shit yeah they're they're all out there criticizing you and and you know that was one of the things too is we we just started to get attacked on social media and the criticism for that every every little decision that we made was criticized you know what this is what happens when people start to think you're gonna fucking do it

this is what happens the people at the beginning of the beginning and they're like, this is how it goes, man. Dude, any entrepreneur that sees any success deals with this, all right? In the beginning, everybody's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But they don't really think you can do it. They say, oh, hey, good luck with that, man. Good luck.

And then they go to their buddies and they say, oh, don't worry, he's going to make it three days. He's going to make it four days. Then you're making it 10 days. Then you're making it 20 days. And then they're get scared and they're like, fuck, he might actually do it. And this is the entrepreneurial journey. You know, when we first started our business, everybody was like, yeah, dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. When we were struggling the first 10 years everybody's like oh you know that's cool you guys did that but when are you going to get realistic and like grow up and get a real job you know and then when you start making a little money they start saying

shit like you get like dude i remember when i got my first nice car and one of my friends who actually had worked for me she said on social media publicly, yeah, you know, I used to work there. Dude's going to, success has gone to his head. He's going to lose all, he's going to spend all his money on cars. The car was $67,000, by the way.

Okay. Like it was, it was, it was a nice car. Nice car, but no Lambo or something. Fuck yeah. It was nice. Not like a quarter mil. Right, exactly. And then, but no Lambo or something. Fuck, yeah. It was nice. Not like a quarter mil. Right. Exactly.

And then what happens is after you fucking for sure make it, I already know what's going to happen. I already know. It's happening now. You're the man now, right? But dude, it's just these lessons are so, so congruent you know it's it's so common but it still boggles the mind that it's just it just reminds everybody that there are there's a certain segment of society that no matter what you accomplish they ain't gonna be good enough find something and really it's ultimately because it's not about it's not about attacking your perfection it's about

defending their mediocrity it's about rationalizing so that they feel better about themselves. I've absolutely learned that it stems from jealousy. It's their issue. Yeah. I mean, I'm entertained by it now. Yes. Just because of what I've learned. But when you're in it, it's really hurtful.

It's so hard. The crew had to almost shelter me from what was going on because it took so much energy. People don't understand the compounding. Like, yeah, you say an Ironman a day, but the compounding effect of an Ironman a day, you just cannot wrap your mind around that. Dude, I couldn't even comprehend it. So I laugh because if somebody says anything, I'm like, you have, go do 10, go do one. Go do one.

Like you just have no clue what it takes to go beyond five, 10, 15, 50. It's just, and I'm not pounding my chest. It's reality. I've lived it.

I fought it. I've been in those trenches. Like it's trying to tell someone that doesn't have the experience. Yeah. Yeah. You've earned it. I'm not a chest pounding. I get it.

But I'm just saying, if you did, I'd be right behind you being like fucking right. I appreciate that, man. Yeah. So dude dude so you're you're uh you you do the end day you've got everybody on social not everybody but you've got a big section of social against you um that was the coolest thing was to watch that paradigm shift right yeah at the final day we had 3 500 people there running with us yeah it was just that is it was just incredible and and just the messages that that came in and it was fun to watch from being of going from the villain it's impossible villain you're an idiot ridicule how many yeah so how many

of those people how many how many people came up to you at the end because this happens to me all the time and dude i am nowhere near where the fuck I'm going to be. I can tell you that. But I get this all the time. Bro, I never thought you'd really be able to do it. I'm really proud of you. And they'll call themselves out. I never really thought you could do it.

How many of that did you get? A lot. Yeah. One of the really cool things that happened to me was a sponsor that came on board early on. They, no money. And we're talking a billion dollar company. Yeah. Didn't give me any money, but they were like,

Hey, we'll give you some product, help you along. Yeah. And I was like, okay, well we need, I need that.

Yeah. Right. We had nothing. And the billion dollar company, the board, the executives of the team sat down in the boardroom, discussed the project. And they said,

how many, um, Ironmans will, will James make it? And they, they did a ballot they put it on a ballot right not one of them said 50 yeah but they were like he'll make it far enough that we'll get our you know benefit out of it i finished and they now have above their boardroom door it just says the word iron cowboy yeah because it means to them grit and resilience

and perseverance and and anything is truly possible. So for a billion-dollar company to have that mindset shift was really, really cool. What company was it? I won't say. Are you done with them now? No. It won't hurt my feelings. No, I don't want to offend.

I don't want to throw them under the bus. You're like Rocky, though, man. Oh, I get what you're saying. Oh, I get what you're saying. Okay. You're like Rocky in Rocky IV where the Russians are all against you and then you win and they i get what you're saying oh i get what you're saying okay he's like you're like rocky and rocky four where the russians are all against you and then they're all like cheering you oh well i was just wanting to give him give him a free plug that's all uh but i get it i get it you know but that's that's you know what that's the truth though when you're

setting out to do great shit even the fucking people who quote unquote believe in you yeah still fucking doubt you don't believe in you yeah fucking doubt you. Don't believe in you. Yeah. And they were like, oh, well, you'll get far enough that we'll get what we want out of it. Right. And I'm like, well, what I really need is the support. Yeah. Right.

I need someone else to believe in me too. But there's a beautiful lesson right there, right? You really don't. It doesn't matter who believes in you. That's right. You have to believe in you first. That's right. It starts with you.

And that's what's missing in today's age is self-belief. Dude, I was just talking to a group. I was talking to the group about this. Ed Milet was talking to Arte about this the other night. Because, dude, so many people hide behind that excuse. I don't have anybody that believes in me. Not even my wife believes in me. Well, look, let me tell you something.

When you're going to set out to do something that is just astronomically great, it is hard for people that have never touched that or been around that or seen that or witnessed it with their own fucking eyes to believe in it. It's nothing against them. It doesn't mean they don't love you or care about you. It's just a hard thing to understand you know i i have now come to the grips and understanding that i'm it'll be doubtful that i ever get the support because every time we do something we're pushing an envelope we're pushing what the mind and the body can do and so people are like well yeah well that's impressive you're you're you're even now yeah you're serious yeah dude i don't fucking support anything i think you could do anything.

Well, here's what's next. You want to hear it? Yeah. Seven Ironmans, seven days on seven continents. Let's go. You won't do it. I'm not doubting it. Antarctica, Brazil, USA, Madrid, Spain, Cairo, Egypt, Dubai, and Australia.

January 2020. Are you saying let's go like me go with you? Because I can't fucking do that. But dude, I don't have any doubts that you'll be able to do it. It's happening. Yeah. I have zero doubt. In Antarctica?

Antarctica. Let's go. By the way, I love what Ed said about when he said, if you really don't have a spouse who supports you, there's really only one thing you can do. Win. What are you looking for? Sponsorships for that?

For the seven? Yeah. Always. Well, fuck, dude. We'll talk about that later because I'm going to tell you right now, I don't have any doubts that you'll be able to do it. There's nothing. Dude, if you could do what you've already done,

you could tell me, I'm going to fucking reverse gravity. Like, dude, I'm going to be like, all right, James is going to figure it out. We're going to sponsor it. Okay, but James. reverse gravity like dude i'm gonna be like all right jay's gonna figure it out we're gonna sponsor it yeah okay but james but dude it's that would not be a business thing that's a personal for sure i believe in him it's not about first form it's about my belief in him my real question is can you do nine iron man on nine planets when's that gonna happen it was funny my brother-in-law

he's a he's a creative marketer and and he created a logo where it was the moon, and I'm busting the finish line tape on the moon and my cowboy hat's floating in the air. And I just thought it was great symbolism to where you can take their mind and their body, the limits. And obviously that's not, I'll never use the word not possible,

but it's not possible, right? Yeah. Yeah, right? But I just thought the symbolism of that was so cool, like breaking the tape on the moon is just, that's what this culture is missing, that dreaming, that real stretch, that it's just the culture of today is missing that, that dream, that stretch, that it's just this the culture of today is missing that that dream that stretch that that impossible limits it's because here's the biggest thing that i've learned going through

48 countries is we're all human and we're stuck and it's because it's in our heads and we're getting in our own ways in our own way and nobody's believing in in in us and ourselves right and so that's that's why it goes all the way back to starting and believing in you. And it's that energy that you put out, like, nobody believes me and blah, blah. You're right. Nobody is going to believe in you because you don't believe in yourself first. You've got to emit that energy and put that out there, right? So it starts with you. And once you start that belief process, then it opens it up to shoot for massive goals that nobody else thinks of, but it also attracts that team to be around you that you can have success. Right.

Dude, so you finish the 50-50, right? How long did it take you to physically recover from that? Over a year. Seriously? Yeah. And that's the whole thing, right? People see the headline. people see where you're at now people see where i was i'm thinking like but they don't see they don't see the decade before and they don't see the recovery and what it takes after like phase two phase three or whatever the the journey entails right right just mentally

we're fried i never wanted to see a bike again. I was definitely never running again. How long did it take for you to run, really? A year. Yeah, over a year. I tore my shoulder on day five of the 50. Do what? Swimming. Okay.

Yeah, just because of the intense volume that we put in leading up to it. My body got a breaking point on day five. I'm sitting there day five going, okay, I've got to figure out how to do 45 ironmans with one arm yeah right and fucked up toes yeah well your whole body i mean i got to a point where did you do that with your toes like that like honestly because i've had toenails ripped off and it fucking it ain't a joke yeah but this is the thing that people don't understand is is they quit they in those moments of pain and adversity they quit and here's the beauty when you don't quit you adapt and you evolve it became routine for me to do an iron man a day yeah and my body healed my foot didn't look like that in the end it got better because my body said he's going to get up

tomorrow and do an iron man i have to figure out how to so it takes all its resources you're giving it and puts it where the most critical spot. Body's smart, man. Body's smart. Yeah. And so that's what happened. During the 50, my hands and feet started to go numb. I was experiencing nerve damage and circulation problems because I got so fit and efficient that my,

it just said I have to pump blood to his organs and his brains. Yeah. And I'm willing to sacrifice his hands and his feet. Yeah. And so we had nerve, I had numbness in my ring finger and pinky fingers for a year afterwards. Yeah, that's crazy.

It's because my body was adapting in order to keep me functioning to do that, right? So it's amazing what the mind and the body do. And here's the thing. People quit before the mind and body come into sync with each other. And that's when perfection happens. My last 20 Ironmans were the fastest of all 50.

The final 50th one was the fastest one. That's amazing. And it's because I adapted and evolved and the mind came into unison with the body. Let's be real. You were just ready to be done. Well, on that note, with the mind and body coming into unison,

I know that, you know, runners sometimes talk about getting the runners high. I mean, obviously. Well, I was going to say- Isn't it? Like, for real, dude. So you never had any moments where you felt like, I don't know, you just kind of transcended it a little bit? Day 50 was an out-of-body experience.

Okay. For sure. What was it like mentally on day 50? Like, going into the race? Going into the race? Wait, wait, wait. Let me ask this, because I think this is, I think this is an interesting question.

This is something, was there a time that you maybe thought you couldn't do it? Or what, like, when did the transition happen where, like, you knew, like, you knew for fucking sure you could do it? Like, because, look, everybody's going to say, dude, I could do it, I could do fucking sure you could do it like because look everybody's gonna say dude i could do it i could do it i could do it like i've been guilty of that right like i'll come in and say dude we're gonna fucking do this and everybody believes it but when

i walk out of the room i'm like oh all right like i kind of i don't even know if that's possible like but but uh but it's important to get everybody else on board with that. So I don't care what you say. I know there was a time where you were like, all right, I don't know if I can actually do this. And talk about that time and then the transition to where you knew you could do it. Yeah, you're not going to believe me, but we were in such a space that I never once thought I couldn't do it. But here's the truth. I had no idea how we were going to do it.

We were in a position where I had two guys with me full time. We called them the wingmen and it was me, the two wingmen and my, and my wife, Sonny and the four of us never wavered. We were all in. Now with that said, we had moments of, I just need to cry. I just need to let it out. I just need to sit here and not think about problem solving or the pain and all that. And then let's go. Right. And those were very small moments, but with this type of thing and how big it was, we were 300% all in, all committed, no doubt. Because when it's this level, you can't even let those thoughts creep in.

Right. And so I know you're like, I'm not going to believe you. No, I actually do believe you. I was just trying to dig you out the real shit. Yeah. I actually do believe you. We had moments, but it wasn't moments of disbelief it was it was it was moments of regathering right and and releasing for a

moment and then go okay let's let's go all of us not a moment of not happening that's amazing absolutely happening yeah i i love i love that you said like you had crying you had emotion because i i think people when they experience those times, they ought to automatically assume like they're, they get down on themselves because they must, they think, well, this must be a sign and I'm giving up, but it's not. You're just, you're just authentically expressing like struggle and heartache. And I think that's part of being a human. Yeah. And going through the process. What are you doing April 6th? I'm serious. I'm dead serious. No, I know. It part of being a human. Yeah. And going through the process. What are you doing April 6th?

I'm serious. I'm dead serious. No, I know. It's a really good question. Are you busy April 6th? I am. Okay. Yeah, I'm in Disney World.

Okay. Because, like, dude, I have a group that I want to get you in front of. Next week, in two weeks, I leave for South Africa. Okay. And I'm doing an eight-day mountain bike stage race with 65,000 feet of climbing. Okay. And I get that, and I'm going to take my family to Disney World for a week. Well, I want, over the next year, I want to-

We're working on an event with you guys for June. Okay. Yeah. Oh, cool. Awesome. We're going to come out. Were you talking to Emily? No, Aaron.

Oh, for Summer Smash. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, dude. Let's- Like, I looked at your Instagram. You should have 10 million fucking followers. Like not a hundred and something thousand.

202. Whatever it is. I am fully committed and I think everybody that knows me knows that when I find, I come across someone who is the real deal, I am fully committed to making sure everybody knows about it. Absolutely. Yeah. absolutely so well i i appreciate that um yeah i'm just i'm just trying to be me you know dude i you're you're a fucking amazing dude man thanks like and i don't even barely know you but i'm just telling you like it's it's crazy because we get i get i've done no marketing advertising spoken 48 countries and every time we get an inbound request, I'm like, man, how can I,

how can I get out of this? And the only reason I respond and then get on stage is because of the impact that we have. No, it's your obligation. I don't want to, right. I have a social responsibility to do this. I don't want to be known for the guy that did the 50. I want to be known as the guy that helped people get unstuck mentally to be able to

achieve their best self. So dude, that's my, that's my mission. Dude, we're on the same mission, bro. It's just in a different way. Sure. What, give me your 10 minutes on that for real right now. Like, let's talk about that. The people right now who are stuck, who don't know how to get out of that rut, who don't know how to push themselves, who don't know how they're going to push through

because everybody goes through that version. And you know, people like to compare their versions of that. Like, Oh, my version of that is this. The reality is to the individual, it's all the same. The sky is falling. I can't push on. I can't push through. And you know, it's not about comparison. It's about the individual situation. So let's talk to these guys right now. Cause we only have a few minutes left in the show, unfortunately, but I, I want people to hear from you what your message is. Yeah. People are like, well, what's your secret to success? Yeah. And I'm a huge fan of the fight game.

I love Conor McGregor. I love GSP. I do too. You either love him or you hate him. I love Conor because I am a shit talk specialist. Yeah. And he's the best. He is the best. And I think it's who he is.

I actually don't think it's who he is authentically. No, I think he's very humble. He is very humble, but he doesn't come across as- You have to be humble to get that good. Yes, thank you. He's brilliant at what he does. It's a marketing thing. It's marketing.

He's a genius. He understands the game that he's playing. And I think that's a huge piece that people need to understand is they need to understand the game that they're playing. And they need to get out of their own way. Nownor we talked about it early in the show that people don't dream they don't have visions five years ago nobody knew who connor was right but he had a goal to become the number one recognized fight in the world i'm gonna win two titles in two different weight classes dude was laughed at he was on state assisted welfare couldn't afford food his documentary is amazing it's amazing i loved it i love his tweet doubt me now yeah that's the biggest thing

it goes all the way back to self-belief right that's the problem is people don't believe in themselves connor had no idea how he was going to achieve the goal but he showed up every single day dude made 250 million in a fight he lost yeah who cares yeah like he wasn't crying about it he wasn't crying about it dude he laughed all the way to the bank that's a that's a man who has experienced the fucking almost the lowest levels of poverty who just secured himself and his family for the rest of his life i don't think people are yeah people are saying oh you look like an idiot because you fucking lost

and you talk all this shit. Motherfucker, you do what the fuck you got to do. I don't think we'll see another fighter in my lifetime like Conor. No. There's athletes that transcend sport. Wayne Gretzky,

Michael Jordan, Conor McGregor. He's in that category as far as changing in the entire landscape of a sport. Back to your original question. It comes to belief in yourself. The secret to success is do a lot of little things consistently over,

over a long period of time. What people don't do is, is, is focus on the next step. When I was laying on the side of the road on day 30 broken, I said to myself myself be perfect for one second fuck yeah it's as dark as it can possibly be be perfect for one second that's all I could all I could conceptualize take one fucking step one step I I had 20 Ironmans to go and I am broken

mentally and physically but I said to myself, be perfect. One second. Yeah. That one second turns into a minute. Life is about wins and losses. Life is about those conversations you're having inside your head. I've already said we get in our own way. As humans, we're our toughest critic, right? The voices are never going to go away but through experience and becoming uncomfortable intentionally we gain and can master those conversations that we're having well you said something powerful there that i want to point out getting uncomfortable intentionally yeah i have a concept that i talk about all the time calling test days. Okay. And test days are those days. They could be test second.

It could be a test minute, but I, I, I talk about it as a test day. All right. That's the day where everything seems to be going wrong. You're broken. You're unmotivated.

You don't have any discipline. You know, you're fucking lost. You know, you're off track. You know, it's going to be fucking hard. And dude,

people who changed the world and people who accomplish true greatness start to love those days because that's the day where it's like you laying on the side of the road and you're saying, dude, I got more. I got another step. I got another, I've got another two steps. Oh wait, I thought I only had one step. Now I'm 10 steps. Now I'm a quarter mile. Now I'm a mile. Holy fuck. Now I'm 26 miles. And dude, as every single high level person I know, it's not because they're not high level because they have it easy. They're high level because they start to love those days when they get tested. And that's something that I think you probably resonate with completely. Yeah.

The biggest mistake people make is running away from their fears. Yeah. You should wake up every day. And the first thing you do is isolate your fear and break it down to the easiest and simplest task and get a win. Yeah. And then before you know it, that's no longer a fear. It's a strength.

Make your fucking bed. Yeah. Yeah. That's one of the best speeches I've ever heard. Did read a little book i haven't it's such a great book you will love it yeah just that you'll feel like you wrote the motherfucker yeah i actually brought a book for you today so yeah you got a book yeah what is it redefine impossible awesome where can people find that it's on amazon all right or my website ironcowboy.com awesome we'll put a link yes absolutely yeah i'm excited to read that, dude.

Cool. Yeah. Yeah, because I love books like that. Like Goggin's book, like David Goggin. I'm sure you've read it. Yeah, can't hurt me. I just love dudes like Jocko. Dude, I just love gritty motherfuckers.

Stream ownership. Yes. Dude, the dichotomy of leadership is the fucking best leadership book ever written. Yeah, it's great. But dude, have you hooked up with those guys yet? I'm sure you have. All right, I'm going to make that happen. Because they'll bring you in to speak at echelon front jocko's a tremendous human dude yeah yeah like i would i would i i wish him and i were less busy

so we could connect more because he's a just not not i mean dude he's jocko like online you know what i'm saying that's who he is but he's a like online. You know what I'm saying? That's who he is. But he's a really good dude. You know what I'm saying? I think it's really hard to reach the level of success that he has in the areas that he has without being a really good dude. No, he fucking loves people, man. Yeah, he does. And he understands that loving people is, and this is where him and I, I think, have a lot in common. Dude, you don't write kids books and shit like he does and like I do unless you truly fucking care.

Because there ain't no money in it. Well, no, there's not. And the only way to get to the top of anything is helping other people get there. That's right. And next thing you know, you wake up and you're like, holy shit, I'm at the top of the mountain. And it's super cool because all these other people are here with me. You can't be an amazing leader, dude, unless you truly love people. For sure.

And like, dude, that's what I like about him the most is like dude it doesn't matter it doesn't matter where you are who you are what you are where you are at in terms of your journey that guy fucking cares yeah and and dude that's why i'm such a fan of him and people are like why do you post this book why do you do this he kind of competes with you i'm like motherfucker we don't compete we're he pushes me to be better that i hate that i hate that mindset there's so much abundance out there there is no competition it's there is no competition it's there is and there isn't like right it's like but i'm just saying you're on a surface level there is there is but over the ground what you find you limit yourself if you don't believe in

the abundance and that's just a self-punishing so what's the point but i think that's something that you learn with perspective because life is perspective absolutely and like we talked earlier it's fluid so it's always changing you know what i mean like who i was five years ago or 10 years ago or 12 years ago or even a year ago perspective changes environment fluid yeah you have to have experiences in order for your perspective to be changed exactly and like dude you know the i think the reason people a lot of people are so miserable and so stuck is because they identify with they make these strong statements about who they are and they're like just stuck in those statements and then the environment's changing and they don't change with it you get what i'm

saying i've seen so many people fail because they're too rigid yeah they're unwilling to they're not willing to say to themselves like hey that was a mistake yeah or hey i need to adjust the way i'm thinking or hey i was wrong in thinking that because it's like a pride thing. But, like, dude, and that's what we're talking about with, like, McGregor. Like, when you say, the average person, if you say McGregor's a humble dude, they'll fucking argue with you. They say no way. They don't even get it.

They say no way. But, like, the point is, and you and I said, when I said you have to be humble to get that good, you got it right away when I said that. But people don't get that good you got it right away when I said that but people don't get that because to to learn the skills to be great you have to be open to learning and adjustment and that means you have to be humble and so for even like it doesn't matter how cocky someone seems to be on the surface Michael, one of the famously cockiest motherfuckers on earth is still a humble dude when it comes to preparation, you know, and being coachable, not just with a coach,

but to yourself is a huge deal that people miss. You know what I'm saying? Because they're locked in. And I see this a lot with like, like average level people, right? They're, they're got a regular job and they're trying to get out of it. But when I talk to them, it's like, well, I believe this and I believe that. And I believe this. And I'm like, well, bro, your beliefs are wrong. And they're like, the fuck do you mean they're wrong? Like you have to like, you have to be open to adjusting your beliefs if you're going to progress. And that's a hard thing for people to understand. You know what I'm saying? Absolutely. I just, uh, dude, we could go on for hours and hours and hours, bro. Like I, I don't meet me. I don't meet very many people that I look at their

accomplishments and I think I'm not, it's not impressed by much anymore. You know what I mean? I get to be around a lot of success and a lot of high performers I've fucking heard it all but what you've done and what you're what you're doing is a different fucking level dude and it deserves to be recognized well that means that means a lot uh yeah so thank you well absolutely you know so guys if if you have uh any you know way to support James uh definitely give him a follow on Instagram. What's your Instagram? Iron Cowboy James. Okay.

And check out his book. I haven't read it, so I can't say if it's good or bad, but I'm pretty fucking sure it's awesome. They can get it on Amazon. Amazon and on our website, Iron Cowboy. And what's it called again? Redefine Impossible. Okay. Dude, I love that title too

that's a good one yeah um dude thank you so much for coming on the show yeah i don't even know how you ended up in town why are you here speaking okay yeah to some entrepreneurs okay good i'm speaking to kids tonight too so that's great man yeah that's really cool do you do that a lot yeah so i'll do i'll speak to a corporation and then try to do a an additional one for kids and try to impact that generation that is cool man how'd you come i do that so i write children's books yeah so and people are like why did you write children's books instead of adult books well dude i could have made a lot more fucking money writing adult books i can tell you that right now it would have done better for my career but the truth is is like our younger generation is completely fucked and i want to fix it and for me i've got five kids and so i'm active in the

school systems and i see a lot of the problems and so that's where you got that's where that drive comes from i sense that you you like dude you're you're a purpose-driven individual man yeah and and that's that's going to lead to a lot of success for you a lot a lot very cool you know so when you when you uh when you talk to these kids like what do you talk to them i'm just curious now like just just mindset and belief yeah i mean that's as simple as it should be for these kids is believing in themselves and that words matter yeah the thoughts in our head and the words that we say matter yeah and and really to believe in ourselves because i mean my my boy is nine and he's in third grade and he comes home and he says,

so-and-so said this about me. And I'm like, so? Yeah. Like, who cares? Who are you? Yeah. And we've had conversations that their words don't matter to you. Yeah.

It's your beliefs. Not even their teacher's words. Yeah, not even teacher's words. Because teachers are so, I think there's so many teachers out there that are ignorant. Why are they teachers? My wife says this all the time. Thank you.'re so angry about it if you're so angry at life why the hell are you a teacher like you're working with kids somewhere else yeah i don't

i don't understand it i have a huge problem with a lot of the teachers in the system today because they they need to ask themselves why am i a teacher to kids when i hate kids and have zero patience and tolerance dude like they need to have a they need to talk to jocko and have an accountability talk with themselves here's the reality this is the truth they should fucking raise the teacher's salary by like 10 times the amount for sure okay and then they will track a higher level teacher yep that's the truth that is the truth and And, dude, we share that frustration as well. And listen. We might be the same person, just in very different bodies.

Yeah. Dude, I'm going to tell you this. You're a beast. There is, well, I like Chinese food, bro. There you go. Hey. I like Chinese food. I love sushi.

Yeah, and french fries. That's my thing. So my wife calls it the stack. Like, what do you want? I want the stack. She knows what that means. I like it. So, like, dude, we, I think, you know, and I will say this, too, like, little asterisk. There's a lot of great teachers.

Absolutely. I don't want, that was a pretty big blanket statement that I made. And I get caught up in that, too. But then what happens is, is I get the teachers who I know are good, and they're like, bro, what the fuck? My best friend in the wingman that was on me with the 50 guess what he is he's a second grade school teacher and he's an unbelievable teacher but he's one of those rare guys that care about his kids he's been teaching second grade for 20 years and those people those

people are changing the world that he is changing the world and i have so much respect for casey yeah and for what he does i've got a key. My college roommate has been a public school teacher for about 25 years or 20 years, somewhere around there. And he gets awards. And I was his roommate, so I know academics do not come easy for him. He is not Mr. Charismatic. He has to work for everything. And when he comes into contact with a teacher who's just bitter and angry and, the kids don't respect me, he'll just straight out. Tell him, you know why? Cause kids have a really high BS meter and they know you don't care about them. Absolutely.

And if they know you don't care about them, they do not care what you have to teach them. That ain't just kids. Right. By the way. Yeah. That's everybody. That's it.

It's humans. Yeah. Well, it's crazy. My son will come home and he's like, I don't understand why my teacher yells all day. Cause that's not his environment at home. Right.

And he, he, he comes from an environment where we communicate, we love we teach and all these things and he's like i don't understand why my teacher just yells all day yeah but that's a whole nother yeah we could go we could go off for a while on hey man um but thank you for having you ever come back through st louis i'd love to have you on again cool yeah for sure uh i want people to know about you and i want people to support you and And, uh, I'm just going to come back in June to your event. Yeah. Let's do a podcast too. Okay. Yeah. Let's do it. I, uh, dude, I really appreciate you sitting down. Uh, I know you're busy, dude, and you got a lot of shit going on. So thank you so

much. I got to go train for three hours right now. Dude, I'll, I'll, uh, I'll catch you after for that stack, right? There you go. So, stack, right? That's right. There you go. So, James, dude, thank you, man. It's been a true pleasure, a true honor. And guys, you know, we talk about the fee all the time. Instead of my fee for the show, I would appreciate it if you would support James and buy his book. Awesome, absolutely.

So let's do that. Redefining Impossible on Amazon. Thank you. All right. Guys, thank you so much for tuning in. Thank you for spreading the word. Let's kick some ass and I'll see you guys next time.