Determined Society with Shawn French | Adversity & Mindset - Making SHIFT Happen w/ Anthony Trucks

Episode Date: March 22, 2022

Making SHIFT Happen w/ Anthony Trucks In this episode Shawn French has the opportunity to sit down with Anthony Trucks and we speak about life and making SHIFT happen.  Anthony grew up in The San Francisco Bay Area. He was born in Martinez but grew up in Antioch for the most part. Early on in childhood he began to face adversity most children don’t. At an early age, Anthony ended up in the foster system and as you can imagine he came across some pretty mean people.  All of his experiences turned him into the man he is today. A husband, a PRESENT father and an overall genuinely amazing man.  Listen in to hear some amazing wisdom and incredible perspective.  You can find Anthony below: IG @anthonytrucks www.Anthonytrucks.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/shawn-french/message Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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You know, I'm a six foot one black guy. And I talk about my feelings, what goes on, my relationship. I love my kids and present parent. Those things initially statistically don't align. A black guy who with my high school sweetheart still, divorced and remarried, present father, you know, a product of the foster environment and divorce and all these things don't align. and then I speak in a clear, concise, teach, but way that created this weird thing.

And all I did was just continue to be more than me over the years. So where I look at what I've done as a speaker, it's just been me not holding me back. It's all it is. I think we all have the ability to do it. Anybody, if they want to speak, coach, teach, they can always do it. But there's this where identity comes in. There's an apprehension to step out and be someone that they're not. It's a really weird thing because people go, I don't want to be something.

I don't want to be out of character. And there's always this negative connotation of out of character is bad. It's like, no, it's just different. And different can be good, right? You wear different shoes. It could be great shoes. What's up, guys, Sean French here with another episode of the public figure podcast, The Determined Society.

Today I have a very special guest. He's a man with a true story of grit, perseverance, and determination. No matter how, just reminds you, no matter how tough you have it in childhood or in your early adult life, it does not determine who you are or who you become. You do. You determine who you become and what you make of yourself. Without further ado, I'd like to welcome to the show, the king of shift, Anthony Trucks. What's up, buddy?

Hey, the king of, I've never heard that one, but I'll take it. I'll take it. Hey, man. All shift, right? That's you. Yeah, baby. That's me. That shifts my thing, man.

I know, man. I'm really jacked to have you on. I thank you so much for taking the time. I'm really impressed. first and foremost. You grew up in the Bay just like myself. Not too far from me, actually. No, where are you at right now, physically?

Well, I'm physically in Florida. Oh, okay. I was just there yesterday. I just flew back from Orlando. Dude, I was in Orlando last week. Yeah, the speech there just yesterday. Back in there, I'll be in Miami in two weeks, actually. I'd be great, man. Hopefully, maybe we can connect.

That'd be awesome. Hey, if you want to come take a little trip. I don't mind. It's only two-hour jaunt, so no big deal. I'll be up there. But yeah, so real quick, you grew up. in the Bay Area. You grew up in Antioch? I did. I grew up in,

Borna Martinez from six years old up. I grew up in Antioch, yeah. That's awesome, man. That's awesome. I grew up in a place called Concord. Yeah, I live in Concord. Oh, you live in Concord currently? I live off of Cowell. We used to live in Walnut Creek until about, maybe you bought a house out here, maybe five, six months ago. That's awesome. Down the street, you know, Concord and Wonna Creek, can't even tell what the edges are most of the days. But, yeah, we have a house out here in Concord, man.

I love it. You over Tree Boulevard, and all of a sudden, you end up in Wonna Creek before you know it. Yeah, that's one street takes it all through all of it. You can go through Clayton, Concord, Walnut Creek. I think if you take it all the way down, treat will take you up into like the Lafayette area, Rindaish. I feel like maybe it's wherever Akalani's high is, something up there. Yeah, I believe that's that Maraga?

Yeah, it might be Maragas. There's Las Lomas up there. No, it's Alkalani's wherever Akalani is. The treat takes you way down. Yeah, it's people are going. What are these guys talking about right now? Treat treats like 41 in Florida. It takes you from coast to coast, like up and down, it doesn't matter.

It's a big street. Straight through. Yeah. But yeah, man. So listen, you know, as you heard of my intro, you know, I touched on no matter what happens in your childhood or in your early adulthood. It doesn't really dictate who you become as a man or a woman in life. And I, and listen, man, I, I ran into one of, one of the interviews you did in

2021, the Goldcast interview. A very powerful video, very powerful. I want to say it's almost a documentary. It's about 14 minutes long. And it found myself, my wife and I, sitting there watching it together in tears because we were so touched by your story. And the foster family after foster family, then that one family that took you in, I think you were about 13 years old before you truly realize that, you know, someone was there to love you and take care of you. Man, it was just so, it was just so touching. Do you mind chatting briefly about that?

because I think it's so important for so many people to hear that early childhood trauma can turn into a positive at some point in your life. Yeah. Yeah. You know, it's funny when you said, you know, your child doesn't depict your future. I said immediately, no, it doesn't. And then I go, because in my head, I was like, it doesn't, it doesn't depict it. But for the majority of people, it does determine it because they don't change your trajectory. I don't think it has to, right? But I think it does play a huge role in how we operate as humans and it functions. So it does tie in for sure. But it's not a death sentence, right? The way your life begins doesn't mean it's the way you have to end your life. So yeah, for me, my my upbringing, it hardened me in an interesting way.

It first had hardened me in a way that was, you know, wanting to be rude and mean to other people because the other world was rude and mean to me. And after a while, it transitions to where it's not so much of this thing where it's a good reason to do bad, but it's a great reason to do good. and it just gave me different strengths. I tell people now, like when I go talk to youth kids and foster kids like myself, I tell them like, at the end of the day, you don't realize it, but you have an amazing superpower. There's this painting I have in my house over here inside of my studio,

and it says, smooth seas never made skilled sailors. And the mentality is those hardships. While I did not like them, I appreciate them immensely because they've given me the skill sets and the mentality and the wherewithal to endure and handle like a capacity. to do hard things that other people just can't do sometimes. So it gives me a different strength when I enter spaces where most people, they don't know how to handle hardship and something that's difficult that knocks them down just doesn't knock me down.

Doesn't mean I'm better. It's just I experienced early. And so like those things did create good and bad for me in the future. You know, it's one of those things where things in life happen and we always fear the unknown. And when things are going on, we really don't know the purpose of them at the time. But a specific part of the story when you were, there's a couple of things that hit me. But the first one I want to talk about is when the first time you were picked up for, you know, foster family. And, you know, lady comes and she grabs your hand, walks you to the, you know, walks you to the car.

You turn back and all you can hear is cries. You see your mom. And then you get in the car and then your siblings are in the car with you. You know, I would, I would almost imagine, because I know for me, if I'm going through something hard in my life currently, I might be able to reflect on that moment and say, no, that was the most difficult part in my life. And here's what happened. And here's I overcame that. Do you find yourself going back in time when you're going through things currently to draw on your strength? I don't think so. I don't think I put my mental space there. but I know that there's a subconscious part of me that shows up in a certain way. Because that was one of many hard things in life, right?

I was just the first. And life is riddled with him. And a lot of the world sees and a lot the world will never see. But I think there is that part that gets kind of built. Because I think we operate in an instinctual manner for the most part as humans. Things happen. We go to take an action from a place of either past action or instincts or beliefs or whatever may be.

And those things, the back on the. that happened, they're over time developed, right? What I, what I would respond when I was, you know, seven is different than what I respond at 15 and then at 25 and then at 35. And those are just become, because I've lived life and experienced more hard things. So where I wouldn't say mentally go back and go, yeah, this happened. I can do this consciously. Not at all. Probably never. I do know that in the moment when something happens, something takes over. And when that thing takes over, I know that part of that is all those experiences kind of melded together to formulate an idea or thought or an action or feeling of how to proceed forwards. And that is definitely

part of that melding of things. Yeah, I can I can definitely dig that. You know, it's one of those things where it just almost you go on autopilot and you just fight through because that strength, that resistance in your life has already been there. That's an amazing point. Walk us through where you're at today and how you got there, specifically in your business. Oh, that's a long walk. You want to take it? No, I'm kidding. We got time. Yeah. I think there's always these things that we were trying to find out what we're here for, right? There's this thought of, I quote, I said years ago, as the last person I want to meet in my deathbed is the person I could have been. And so I'm always trying to figure out who I could have been and who I'm supposed to be, right?

But I don't know what that looks like. We don't know a specific past. And a lot of people get you know, get paralyzation from analyzation. What should be the right? And so I just, I've really been big on chasing passions. I believe if you chase your passions, you land in the pothole of your purpose. It's just you got to get up out of the chair and go walk and chase these things. Your heart says, and your brain goes why. And your heart says, I don't know, because we just want to go do it. So you just go do it. But along that journey, you meet people, you find things out, you expand your perspective. All these things happen. And then all of a sudden I go, oh, that's what I'm supposed to be doing. And that's how this kind of came to be.

So for me, I played football. That was my thing. NFL, I'm going to retire. Then I get hurt. That doesn't want my plan. Well, but I got to retire. So I'm retired. Now I'm like, what am I going to do with my degrees in kinesiology?

I'm going to open a gym. I open a gym. I run the gym for a while. And I go, that's what I'm going to do until I retire. Literally, that's what I told people, I'm going to run this gym. And then all of a sudden, I start getting this, this calling to go ask, I try to go talk to people and they're asking me to go speak. And I talk because I can speak.

And if I have thoughts, I can communicate them. I enjoy doing that. And I'm like, oh, I'm going to start speaking. So I'm doing that. And then I have a company that I start to consult for. And I start teaching them these little things at a big scale and getting paid really well. And I'm like, ooh, maybe I'll just consult and do that. So I was consult these companies and it was great.

And then I go, but I like talking. And so like, what do I talk about now? What are they dealing with? Well, they have all this information, but they have life stuff going on. And I got life stuff going on. And I'm battling at this entire time. And so I go, well, let me talk about this. And so I start talking about my past, my story.

And then I happen across this company I'm a consulting for called Fire Alumni. And this guy goes, hey, you should take all the stuff that you know. We're going to film it. We're going to put online. We're going to sell it so people across the world can see it. And I go, that's blasphemy. What are you talking about? They got to come to my gym.

And he goes, no, this guy named Brennan Breschard does it. I go, what's this? And so I look it up. And this guy has something called Experts Academy at the time. How do you take your story and turn into revenue and an impact? And so I look it up. It's like an hour from my house in Santa Clara where you, does this event. So I show up at an event. I'm in there watching these people clap and hug and

you know, and then a weird term of events takes place. I buy into it. I'm like, I actually have a story I could tell. I have the ability to tell it. I have expertise in some area. Let me try this. So I start kind of leaning into it and I start showing up. And then some, you know, I called God stepped in and introduced me in weird ways to people that eventually asked me to come volunteer for his team. So I come volunteer for his team and I'm just behind the scenes watching doing my own stuff, filming videos, but watching. And eventually I kind of will call it. progress towards eventually having a relationship with him. We do like a little fitness business product together.

And then I get divided to part of his communities and his masterminds. And so we're fleshing things out. This conversation comes up of what I do. And I'm telling him I got this company called Trust Your Hustle. It's tied in like health and fitness, but also mentality. And they go, I don't like it. I go, what do you mean you don't like it? They go, yeah, you know, there's this difference.

And this is where it's a big one for people who have any kind of business. They go, there's a message and a messenger. If they don't align, you will not grow. or impact. If you're the messenger or the message that doesn't align with you, it's like if I'm out here as a black man talking about, here's how I'd be a white woman in America. What? You know, it's not a message. But if I have a powerful message, right, maybe it's a powerful, powerful message. And I have no messenger. I'm off, right? But if I also don't have the ability to progress, right? So maybe I'm a messenger, wrong message. But if I have a powerful message,

but not skills as a messenger, it falls flat. So if I have this message of world peace, but I'm a guy who I'm so high guys. I really believe that, If it wasn't the messenger, it falls apart. But he's like, this isn't match. He says, what I want to know, he says, how in the world do you navigate foster care and a black kid and all white family and being poor and then, you know, navigating a college space, having a kid at a young age, meeting your real dad at a young age, getting married, starting in college, going to the NFL, getting divorced, you know, have all this.

He's like, how did all this happen? He says, how did you navigate all these different shifts of your identity? How did you get here? Because I'm in this room of people that are multi-millionaires, amazing, impactful humans. It's like, how did that guy get here? And I go, I don't know. He goes, that's the message for you as the messenger. Find out how your identity ties all this because a lot of us are all wandering through life. Unclear of who we are, what we're supposed to do, why we're here. He's like, somehow you've been able to navigate that where most people would just fall down at one of those things. You've taken on 30 and you're still chugging. So the business came to be with me deep diving into this, finding out where we all.

have congruencies and then figuring out how to use the skillsets as a messenger, speak an ability, and refine the message where I could communicate in a way that's a benefit to the world. And I built from there, speaking, coaching, programs, social, you name it. It's just, it's been built around that hub of identity now. It's amazing. It's funny. You mentioned Britt and Bouchard. That guy's come up like so many times in conversations. Yeah, he's a G, man. He's a godfather. Gangster. Like, I love that guy. But, you. You know, he's a guy. But, you You know, when I first got into this space, right, I was asking around about, you know, who do I, who do I contact? And someone said, I don't know. I think his name's Brennan Bouchard. So I was like, okay, well, if you don't know, right?

So I just kind of took a little bit of, you know, notes. And then I think I've had probably five conversations in the last two weeks. His name has come up. Huh? Well, yeah. The thing is, B is a dude who, it's hard to explain. In a way there is people, people are successful and their success is predicated upon you not having success. That's the best I can explain it. Right. No, I get that. In their head. He's the guy that goes, if I build everybody around me, we all rise. And he knows he's dope. He ain't worried about you coming and taking a piece of his pie because he's making pies all day. The dude, I'm phrased it a different dick. So he creates things, but the people don't see behind the scenes. He's not a perfect human. There are definitely going to be people who are like he's not the greatest guy. It's going to be

every human. People can say it about me. But in my experience of him, there's vastly more good than anything. I don't even know any bad stuff. I only say that for the person listening going, I heard this. I don't know a bad thing. But he came in and put me under his wing and has been nothing but of amazing service to me. And the way that I try to give back is any way that he asked me to do stuff. So like afterwards I'm recording, I'm going to betraying a few thousand people of his and his growth day app.

And I do that as like a dude, thank you for helping clarify. He's never ever come in and got here. Here's a bump that you don't deserve. serve. He's always been like, here's the work you have to do. And I'm a guy that works. So he's just been a good guiding post and supporting person. And so in that aspect, yes, if you're looking for someone that's going to help you build, which you want to build, it's one of those things where you can find a lot of people that will tell you how to do it. But he's refined the process for himself and taught how to do it at amazing levels. The problem is most people, they just don't do

the work. I am, of all the people that have ever gone through his programs, I might be one of the only, maybe the only has ever gone from sitting in his stands as a no name to know the environment existed to now. I'm like his private masterminds hanging out with him. Like the only difference is I just did the work. That's amazing. That's amazing. And did you find that when, because you have programs yourself, do you find that a lot of your programs going through what you went through with him and his tutelage, it's kind of helped shape your programs and things that you push out to your your clients? In a way, mostly because he's got a good sight for what's coming. And so you'll listen to certain things. But it was more so like he shows you how to dig into what you're good

at and how to how to formulate supplements and be of great value to the world. So I watch and I go, what did he do there? Not what did he create, what is it, but what did he do to create? He watches, he pays attention. He talks about what he's seeing, what's going on. And so you step back and go, okay, how does that connect to me? My mission, my purpose, what I'm creating and put out of the world. One of the big things for me early on was I'm a powerful speaker. That is a creepy, weird skill set that I don't even know where I've never had a coach. I just do my thing and I'm damn good. I'm going to say it from a space of confidence and humbleness, not saying it arrogantly. I'm better than anybody else, but I'm damn good at what I do. And the thing is most people that are

damn good speakers, they rely upon that alone. They don't step past that to the area where if, if you don't have a stage to speak on, you're unemployed. And so he was like, he was like early. on, he's like he was really big on trying to tell people, you have to be able to scale past the stage. So when you come and give a talk, you must allow people to continue their relationship and provide a great value for them past what you just talked about. Show them how to do and guide them in your programs. And so I'm glad that early on, I go, okay, great, I got this concept. I can talk about my life.

It's a cool story. It's experiential. How do I give that tool to you? How do I help you develop the skill set that I developed to get me to this place of what I call hustle harmony in life? And that's what I developed. And watching him and how he does his programs and what he creates and how it's simplified. And I'm like, okay, that teaches me how to serve and show up in my stuff. Yes.

It is awesome. I'll tell you this not that you hear me, you need to hear me say this to you. But dude, you are a phenomenal freaking speaker. I mean, every time, I mean, it was almost like it was a game for me, trying to find something that you were like off your game and weren't as good. Every single thing you put out there. Every time it's the disco lights come on, man. You're absolutely incredible and impactful.

Thank you, man. 100%. I appreciate it. I think every once in a while we have these things we're supposed to do. I was also a kid who had ADHD and growing up. I was always talking, always in trouble. And at one point in time, I got made fun for the way that I speak because I don't talk like a typical black man. If anybody's listening to this right now, they would never go, oh, it's a black guy.

if they did need to see my face, right? Especially in the yock. Like, especially, right? So the thing is, for a lot of years, I got, I got called like the Oreo. All of this Oreo, black on the outside, white in the middle, you know, like, and I felt bad. And someone one time told me, they go, you know what, just you know, right now, it seems like a problem.

But they said, don't adjust. Continue doing what you do. It'll be of value to you later. And the funny thing is, now I get paid very well to go and talk. and it's a huge asset to me because I am my own oddball, right? So I'm a guy that if you look at me, I'm a former NFL athlete, you know, I'm a six foot one black guy. And I talk about my feelings, what goes on, my relationship. I love my kids and present parent. Those things initially, statistically don't align. A black guy who with my high school sweetheart still,

divorced and remarried, present father, you know, a product of the foster environment in divorce and all these things on a line. And then I speak in a clear, concise, teach, but way that created this weird thing. And all I did was just continue to be more of me over the years. So where I look at what I've done as a speaker, it's just been me not holding me back. It's all it is. I think we all have the ability to do it. Anybody, if they want to speak, coach, teach, they can always do it.

But there's this where identity comes in. There's an apprehension to step out and be someone that they're not. And it's a really weird thing because people go, I don't want to be something. I don't want to be out of character. And there's always this negative connotation of out of character is bad. It's like, no, it's just different. And different can be good, right? You wear different shoes.

It could be great shoes or crappy shoes. But no one wants to step out of who they currently are. They won't sacrifice who they are for what they want to become. And the crazy thing is who you want to become has all those things you want, the house, the car, the money, all those things you want. There's somebody that's a version of you that has that, but you keep bottling everything up. You can't let that person out to go get it. I'm smiling because I can really relate to everything you're saying right now.

A couple years ago before I started all of this, you know, it was really hard for me to turn around and talk on a camera, right? The imposter syndrome, worrying about what people are going to say. I knew what I wanted, but I was so scared to step out and show up as that person that would create that result. And I still did it, but it was very uncomfortable. and and that's what I learned to fall in love with was being super uncomfortable with the process because I knew that's where the growth was you know I remember people laughing about me about the

podcast you'll never have big people on yeah all I have on is big people now hey funny how that happens right it's like dude all you're doing is putting gas into my tank by telling me I can't do something right and I think that's the athlete mentality um you know what I grew up I was always told I would never be anything if I didn't make it to the major leagues because I didn't have any other skills. And I was always saying like, no, I can talk to people. I can relate to everybody. People like me. That won't get you anywhere. Well, it's done pretty well in life, right? So we all have these skills. And I firmly believe there's a version of me right now living the life that I so desire, time has just not caught up yet. 100%. It's there. It's a hundred,

Dude, it's always there. And that's where to start of my stuff. That's this. Well, it's fun if you enjoy the difficulty. It's kind of like this, I guess, metaphor for me. It's like a puzzle, right? People, they think they want the puzzle made. You think the joy comes in the puzzle being put together and stepping back and looking at it.

And I don't know about you, but I have way more fun putting the puzzle together. Find on the piece and flipping it around. That's the joy of it all. And then it's done. You're like, oh, okay, I want to do another puzzle. I want to get back to puzzle piecing, right? And where you said it's the fun, it is. But some people, they don't enjoy the work.

They aren't in any way accustomed to doing hard things. And so when that becomes your reality, it's difficult to have success because you're trying to find the easiest path that's not, but it's like once you embrace suck, and I think athletes were conditioned for this. I think that's the difference between athletes and non-athletes, not to say that non-athletes can't do it. You can't. But the thing is with sports, you can't hide.

You can hide in your job. You can hide in the back of a company where you're doing. You can hide back there. So the work that's supposed to be done, you can skirt it and find ways and, you know, sports. Like, hey, get to the plate, swing the bat. Let's go to work. What do you? You know, all lies on you right now.

Football, balls in the air. You're going to catch you're not, right? It's on you. Show up, run. You can't hide. And so because of it, you're forced to have to do the things that everybody should be doing. And then you get accustomed to physical and mental difficulty. And when you can learn to do physical and mentally hard things, it's a game changer for life because the easy path is the hard path.

It's like you go the easy way to skirt that. The path gets way hard. You do the hard path. It's the easy path because now the things that relatively are hard for most people when they're easy to me, they get done. And then I get the outcome of what those hard things may be to you. And you go, how does this guy? What is so? Not nothing.

I'm just me, but what shuts you down doesn't for me. Your 10 is my two. Dude, impactful. And I'm just going back to the puzzle. It's funny because when you get this, you see this put together picture on a box, right? And that's your vision, right? You're looking at it. That's your vision. That's where you want, that's where you're going to be in one, five, 10 years, whatever it may be. And then you open up that Pandora's box and you dump out the pieces. And now you've got to put it all together. And you're looking at this big, pile of nonsense, right, that you don't really understand what piece goes where and what goes in first. But it's funny because when you're in it and you're looking at it, you're seeing,

okay, is there ever any progress? And then you walk away from it. And then you may come back and look like, man, I put together a lot of those pieces. Yeah. And then it's important to celebrate those pieces that you put together, those small wins. Do you mind touch it on that? Do you celebrate small wins? Because I sure as hell do. Uh, you know, Yeah, I do celebrate small wins, but I celebrate days as I, I think the way that I've looked at it is I don't just love the destination. I love the day. That is my goal. Kind of like the puzzle. I fall in love of the process, not the end result. It's like if I think about when I go on a trip, right, if I'm going to take a trip somewhere, I'm just got back from Florida. If I was, you know, going to my home, I love my home, right? Even if the house is clean, it's perfect, I get home, it's great. If I, if I was leaving the airport and then, you know, the airline and then like the fly to laid and I sat next to a baby and the flight attendant kept bump on my elbow and the flight got redirected somewhere and I'd land and I'd stay overnight and I get up and then I get an accident on the way home from the airport and then I have to get a new car. That's a headache. I can get home.

Crappy thing. Even if it's a great place, I'm still going to show up and be in a bad mood. I'm not going to appreciate it. I'm like, I'm here, but you know, that's people who hate the process to the achievement. I go, well, let's say that I have an amazing trip. I get it on an earlier flight. They upgrade me in a first class and they give me a person. ride from the limo back to my house, even if the house is trashed. I'm like, it's cool. We'll get it clean. I'm in a good mood. Right. So for me, it's like I want to enjoy the day. Now, you ask the small wins. There are small wins and milestones that, yes, I'm like, hey, we got that created a great job, right? And I feel good. It's made. Let's what the next piece looks like 100%.

I feel good there. But I realize I'm going to spend more time climbing the mountain than at the peak on the trip than at the destination. So when I say I fall in love with the day, all the stuff you talked about, I have a ton of projects we work on. I mean, consistently there's stuff going on, multiple, probably like seven or eight in the books right now. But I have them so organized and structured and pieced apart and fused over the next, you know, five, six, seven, if not nine weeks to where I don't do what most people do. I don't show up to an hour with no idea where every project's at or what steps I'm on and try to work on that one with the weight of everything else on me, work stressed, unfocused, distracted, leave that hour and feel more guilt because I didn't

get something done. Instead, I show up and go, I planned out who I want to become as a human, what I want my marriage to be like, my parenting to be like, my health to be like, and my products get done. And I have had those things so intricately designed and spread out to where I just show up to a day. And whatever's on that day, as long as I do that thing, I am 100% on track or even ahead of schedule. And I can step away and go, great day, man. Good job. So my small win is the day because as long as I win that day, like Oregon has that win the day concept, I might take it. But as long as you win the day, if the day is designed properly, you're winning everywhere. And so yeah, every day is a small win for me. Because I, we're here

recording the podcast. I'm going to do the thing for Brandis Growth Day. I'm going to go ahead and fill my videos. I'm going to get my workout. I'm going to take my kid to go to football. holiday. And then when it's all done, I get to sit back and go, yep, another one of the books. Well done. That's really cool. I mean, listen, you know, win the day. I think, you know, Oregon has it. LSU has it. That's where I played baseball at LSU, Louisiana State. And I think one of the coolest things about that is you truly learn how to be so structured throughout your day in order to win that day, right? You want to have more wins than you have losses. What really, you've said it a couple different times. And this is something that my wife and I

really, really focused on in our household is being a present parent. There's so many things going on in the world, right? Externally or even inside your house, you know, building a business, extra curricular activities with the kids. What are some of the things that you have employed strategies to be such a present parent? Yeah. So it's no different than how I have my business running, right, or my marriage in place. The thing is, is balance is a myth, a heavy, heavy myth. I think there's perspective that like you need to have balance. And I think the problem with balance, let's think it balance logically. How long do people work on a regular given work day, say eight hours, right? If you want to balance that, that means you need to give eight hours a day

to your family, right, to your health. Like if I spend eight hours of my wife, she would kill me. You know, with my kids, they're tired. They've got an hour and they're good, right? It's even my health. I'm like, I would die if I was in a gym for eight hours. However, harmony is this thing that most people don't seek. And what I mean by that is like harmony means that certain instruments inside of a song have different tempos, different beats, they come at different times. There's the drop of a song, right? And if you think about the different tonalities, they create a harmony that you call music. It's a rhythm. We have a rhythm to our life. And so part of my rhythm is like, well, my work is the drum or the guitar I'll call it, right, just for this, we'll call it the guitar. So I could have a full

crazy, right? But in the background, you have like that, high hat. That could be my marriage, right? Then I could have the drum, right? That's the family. Do do, do, do, do, do, do. Right, it's still there. But it's not the same as a guitar.

It's so, it's the thing is harmony says, well, of the instruments I have, which one takes center stage right now? And most of the time, my work will need eight hours. My time, my kids, they get an hour, two hours. I'll take my kid to go go to football for an hour. That's all he needs. After that, he's like, cool, let's go home. They feel connected to in an hour.

or less of time. My health, I need an hour. Outside of that, I'm going to kill myself, right? My wife, she wants to watch a movie or just sit and talk. These aren't eight hour things. Therefore, balance logically does not make sense. And so for me, when you say, how do you become a present parent? I just say, okay, well, how do you make sure two things happen, that you organize your life in a way to make sure these things are woven and scheduled at first? Because it has to be scheduled to where you do it and follow the schedule and eventually shifts to a connection to it. Like, if I have my schedule every single day to eat lunch at 12 o'clock and I do it and it's on my schedule and I show up about two weeks in, 12 o'clock's in a hit and I'm going to go, why do I feel,

oh, yeah, it's lunchtime. You know, you don't need to schedule. Your body knows it's hungry because you've adapted and created this new habit. Your body desires to do. Same thing, which leads to part two. Most people will schedule it, but the problem is when they're with their kids, they're still mentally at work. And the difference is in that aspect, it's because you haven't organized your life and your

projects in a way that allow you to let them go when you leave because you don't know where they're at. So you have to hold them in your head and bring them with you everywhere. I got to bring it to the dinner with my family and the time with my kids. I'm bringing it because it's not on paper or my schedule somewhere. So it's poor organization. And then what happened is I find myself wanting to want to be present with my kids. It's a tough place to be because you're like, I'm here, but I want to be writing that thing and creating that thing. It's only because you don't know when it's going to get done. And so if you can organize your life in a way that allows you to know when the kid time is on this side, then what happens you show up with your kids and that's over there and I'm over here. And the more I do it, the more I get ingrained to doing this and it feels good to where it's like Friday.

Oh, yeah, time with the kids. I don't need to check my schedule anymore. I'm doing it for three weeks. It now becomes something I desire to do. And the more you do it, the more it flows into things you're consistently doing. The beginning I talked about this identity, you are what you consistently do. So now you are the present father. You are a present husband.

You're a phenomenal person at work. And you have this harmony to life that people go, man, how do you get this work life balance? It is not balanced. I just learn to create the harmony for my life. I love that because when people talk about balance, it skeaves me out. It's being for the same reasons. It's like, how can I give eight hours of something to everything in my life? Whether it's five hours, eight hours, it doesn't matter.

You know, it's not sustainable and it's absolutely unrealistic. Hell, if I could get eight hours of sleep, that'd be fantastic. Yeah, right. That's not how it works. I know, right? And that's the problem. That's where people fall short. Yeah, I like that.

I like that because, you know, I coach my kids, baseball team. I have three kids. I have an eight-year-old boy, five-year-old girl, and a three-year-old girl. And tonight I get to coach my son's game. And then tomorrow night, I get to take my daughters to do. dance while my wife takes our son to tennis. So those are those are little hours right there. And I think what's so impactful that you said was like, really, that's what the kids need. It's not about the time. They just want the connection. They can feel that connection in 45

minutes to an hour. So while we're here, because what we focus on and what we beat ourselves up on is like, we don't spend enough time. Like we want to be the best parents possible. And what you're saying is, is like, man, it's about the connection. You can connect with your kids within an hour, they feel fulfilled, they feel connected with you, and they're ready to move on to the next thing. Yeah, just substance. Is there something that's in there? I mean, you could, you could fill up on water or fill up on bread, you know, there's a different substance to it. And right. And if you, if you give your kids that time and really like giving the time, but are there with them, they just need 30, 45 minutes. They'll talk your ear off. They'll have questions, you have

conversation, that's it. And they go home and it's like, it's cool. And then like all the, because you're still around, you'll watch movies together, you'll eat dinner together, but they do have that time. solo with you. And that's what I'm trying to create is enough of those memories where like they have this emotion and go, you know, my dad was present in my childhood. Like he was there. That's awesome. That's all I want. Yeah, we're doing that as well. We're doing, you know, one on one dates with our kids. I actually, a couple weeks ago, I took my five-year-old daughter to Disney World, right? It's a two and a half hour ride. On the way there, she was full of it talking, having a great time. When we got there, she just complained about her legs hurting the whole time. And she was happy for a minute.

and a half of the whole thing, which is the time she was on roller coasters. And on the way back, she was just lit up like a Christmas tree. But what I realized in that is like, that is the two most simple parts of our trip. You know, and the kids don't want things. They want experiences. They do. And it was, it was, my wife asked me, how was it, how was the day? How was Disney world? I go, not as awesome as the car ride there and back. Yeah, it's a lot of walking and talking and people going, yeah. I'm like, shoot, next time I'll just throw her in the truck and we'll just drive, right? Because it was that quality time, right?

Listen, I know we're getting short on time. But, you know, I wanted to ask you a couple more questions. And you don't have to be extremely long. Like I said, I know you got a place to go. Where's, you know, give me the top two to three challenges that you had to overcome to get to where you're at today. Let's talk about, let's talk about a, so I think there's going to be my challenges that are going to be relative to me. Let's talk about what I found human challenges to be that I also can attach to. One's going to be adaptability. You know, it's when things change, people don't like

change. And if they'll fight to have things go back to normal as opposed to fight to normalize it a new thing. So if you're a human being and do you want to be successful, we've all heard that statement of the only thing consistent is change. And we hear that. We don't attach to that. that means is most people are trying to find ways to to make sure that the, the old still stays the current, right? It's like I want to fight for this to go back to what it was. I know that. That's great.

I get that you know that. But the problem is, is that's not going to serve you because it's just to be more of that coming. And I see people like they'll tuck away from life and try to stay in their own pocket, same job, same every, I don't like change. And I'll be the best parts of life were changed. You know, you change the diet. You change the workout plan.

You know, maybe you change your status of single to marry, wherever may be. and even vice versa. So the idea is like there's, there's this thing where change is beautiful. And if you can't adapt to it and find peace and joy in that, then what happens is you start missing out on life. And I think one of my greatest assets that I had to overcome was, was not liking change.

Because as a foster kid, when you get moved around, they don't tell you, they just come pick you up and take it to a new place. And it sucks. And so every day, tell us 14 from 6 to 4, 3 to 14, I'm living in this like,

is today the day? It's today of the day. It's a day to years of, of like fearing change. And so I didn't like that. And then as an adult, I've learned to like adapt. And I go, oh, there's beauty and my ability to have fun with this. When life throws a sudden, I go, okay, let's go, it's go, it's a game.

Okay, life, what you got for me today, you know? Right. And I navigate that. So I've identified more with the person I can adapt as opposed to the person who wants to, you know, fight to stay in the place I am. That's one part of it. The other one is going to be expression, I think, for sure. We as humans have these egos, an ego in my ego.

book stands for everyone's greatest obstacle. It's, it's the thing that stands in a way of our progress. There's this a choice to deny things that we see and denial is in protection of yourself and your persona, because the ego doesn't want to get hit, doesn't want to poke, doesn't want to feel bad. And for me, when I express, it's, it's pretty much pushing the ego down and going, look, I know I feel comfortable, like, I don't know how to do this. This is hurting me. This sucks right now. Just to express the hardship. It's fun to express the great things. Yeah, true. but the hard things give me more catharsis, they give me more growth,

they give me more progress, because I'm admitting or owning something that has to be worked upon. So I can't experience the next level of life to learn, to apply, to try, right? So an expression, I'm letting things out, but at the same time, when I'm expressing, I'm letting the ego,

the bad ego die off a little bit. And then the ego attaches to the guy who asks for help. Because the ego is an interesting thing. It's like an armor. It just protects what the identity is inside. That's what it's trying to do is protect the identity. So it's protecting whatever's in there, even if it's something that's crappy, non-communicative,

you know, angry, resentful, but it's still going to protect that. So somebody says you got to work on that. No, I don't. I'm good. No, no, you really probably should work on that. So I want the ego to protect the part of me that goes, I'm going to ask for help. I'm going to express myself. It's going to be okay.

Somebody says, oh, what kind of a man says that? This one right here, man. You know, sorry, like, that's just, that's who I am. And if you don't like me, I'm happy. It's okay. you know, I don't, everybody love Jesus, man. So I don't expect everybody to like me. But the ego protect the parts of me that says I'm a great dad.

And I love my wife and I'm a good husband. And I love the people I get to work with and the clients I get to coach. So my ego attaches to the good things. When I find parts of my ego I don't like, I try to kill it. Love it. Absolutely love it. Absolutely love it. Fun question now.

What is your favorite Bay Area artist? Oh. I don't know, man. Bay Area artist. Right now, I like that, that's a girl named her. I think she's a singer. She's pretty good. I've never heard.

Yeah, it's H-E-R. She makes some good music. Kalani makes them good. I've never been a big rap guy. I've never, like, you know, I'll listen to like E-40 if it's on in the car, like, but I was never like, hey, bang, yay, yay, yay, and do that kind of stuff. You know, I wasn't out of here. And here I was.

And here I was. Big into the Bay Area hip-hop world. loved RBL Posse. I mean, you know what it was? Whenever I was coming up, I didn't, when I was in the NFL, I had one day,

I don't know what happened, but I turned on some like R&B music in the wait room. I've always loved R&B. When I was a kid, I always loved R&B, slow jams. And then I would work out

like fast-paced music and like my energy, my nervous system would freak out. And then I found that like when I listened to slow jams when working out, in between sets, I felt calm. I'm like,

oh, so I've never really been attached to rat music. I'll buy Drake's albums and stuff, but, really at the end of the day, dude, it's like, it's like singing. I like singing music, so jam. So local artists, yeah, I think hers, one of my favorite right now. And then Kaylani makes some good music.

And there's some other people, but I haven't. There's not a lot of male R&B artists that I found come out of the bay. No, there's not. My favorite R&B artist today is probably Keith Sweat. Yeah, he's pretty good. I like his music. Yeah, he's good. Donnell Jones back in the day.

Yep. There's some good ones, man. I used to have some great CDs, dude. I know the CD. He's in the little pack and you know, you're right around in the car at the stoplight. You're trying to figure it out, put it in your disc player. And now we have them on our phones and it just plays on our speakers. It's pretty crazy, isn't it?

Yeah, that's true. So listen, man, one of the most important questions I can ask you is how can my audience support you? Yeah. I don't know if they need to support. Here's the thing. If I don't need support in a manner of like, here's the best way to come. But here's what I would say, if I can support them, then just come pay attention. simply them paying attention supports me.

If you think about it, the likes, the files, or shares of videos. But the only reason I have anything that I do, it's like that people talk about like, I'm nothing without the fans. Like, that's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying it in the same way. It's like, look, what I create, what I do is not for me. I'm not doing it because I'm trying to make, I'm really trying to find ways to give thoughts and perspectives to help people. So the best way to support me is to see if what I do supports you.

And if it does, share it. That's awesome, man. you know and that's and that's something that I strive to do well and put out because nothing I do is for me right and and guys if you're listening Anthony has some amazing content please go check them out on his Instagram I'll put it in the show notes so you guys can listen to it what an insightful man uh great father great husband man of God and and listen Anthony I appreciate you so much and I didn't even touch on your NFL career um it's okay honestly it was on purpose because I think you're so much more,

you're so much more, like, than a football player. And I respect you. And, dude, after this conversation, I love you even more. If you don't mind hanging out for a second after I hit stop. And then we will go on ahead and I'll let you go on through your day. But guys, listen, if you got anything out of this episode, please follow Anthony Trucks. If you feel like he can help you at all, enter his community.

He's got some great programs. He's got a lot of different things that you can be a part of and help you grow as an individual. man, woman, mother, father, entrepreneur, whatever it is you want to grow as. And again, I would be remiss to say, please share the show. If you got anything out of it, if you laugh, if something touched you, share it with a family member. They may need to hear it. Until next time, guys, Sean French with the Determined Society.

We're out. Thanks again, Anthony. Appreciate you. What's up, guys? I'm Sean French. Listen, athletes, I know what it's like. I know what it's like to work all offseason to train you. your body and work on your skills in order to perform at the highest level.

Here's what I also know. I know that it's not enough. Your physical performance isn't going to just get you there. Your mental toughness plays a huge role in your success as an athlete. Yes, I said it. Huge. Pivotal. It's actually paramount to your success.

Weak things break, right? Just like our bodies. If something's weak in the chain, it's going to break. If your mind is weak, it will absolutely not stand up throughout the whole season. In the next six weeks, I'm going to teach you guys exactly how to be emotionally resilient. Click the link below. I look forward to seeing you. Let's get it on.