The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Nurturing Family, Faith, and Purpose with Andrew East

Episode Date: November 22, 2023

Andrew East merges his sports background with a passion for sharing wisdom on faith, family, and personal growth. In this enriching episode, Dr. Josh Axe sits down with former NFL long snapper, Andrew East, exploring the intricate parallels between marriage, parenting, spirituality, and personal development.  They discuss:  How to embrace your unique raw materials and talents The balance between God’s orchestration and human responsibility Parenting and disciplining children as a Christian  The transformative power of mindful, purpose-driven living Tune in to uncover practical strategies for building a family anchored in faith, aligning your journey with God's purpose, and creating a heavenly essence within the earthly realms of parenting and marriage. Gain invaluable guidance on fostering a fulfilling life, grounded in spirituality, and intentional growth. Want more of The Growth Lab with Dr. Josh Axe? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Andrew East Instagram TikTok Facebook YouTube Follow Leaders Instagram Twitter Facebook Email Newsletter Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not everybody has the same raw materials, but I think it's a responsibility to try to use whatever raw materials you've been given as well as possible, as effective or generously as possible. But it's like, okay, game on. What are my raw materials and what can I do with it? Be a good steward where you are. No matter where you are in life, give it your all, give 100%. Be an encourager. Cheer everyone else on. Like, you know, do those things with excellence.

And so I love thinking about the analogies of marriage and how that informs my perspective. of God and parenting and how that informs in my perspective. There's so many analogies and things that I've learned. God, it has these hard boundaries set where it's like, stay away from this, stay away from that. But like there's a lot of fun, exciting things I've placed you here. Do you believe in the one? I mean, one, do I believe in soulmates?

I think I do. Hey, everybody, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to the Growth Lab podcast where each and every week we talk about how to grow yourself, your health, your wealth, and take your career in relationships. the next level. Today we've got a super close friend of mine, one of my best friends, Andrew East. Andrew is a former NFL athlete. He is the co-founder with his wife, Sean, of family made. It's this incredible media company that actually has family values, which most media companies don't have that anymore. And also, he is just generally a really wise guy. We're

going to talk today about, we kind of said everything. We might talk about politics. We may talk about how to grow personally, leadership, psychology, and a whole lot more. But Andrew, welcome to the podcast. I'm so honored to be here. Thanks for having me, Josh. So one, you know, obviously you spent some time in the NFL. You know, and that's one of the things I think that's, you know, you and Sean, obviously, had so much success in your careers.

And now you're seeing so much success in your business. What are some of the things that you learned in being the NFL and the training, all the things you did that you've been able to really take some of those. lessons or principles and apply those to all of your business success. Yeah. One thing that I struggled with and ultimately learned was I think there's there's probably like two groups of you could probably divide people into two groups. One of people that, um, that don't apply themselves enough and like you really need to

actively engage them. But then another group, which I fell into is like, I was a try hard in the NFL. And I like maybe belonged athletically, maybe didn't. But I was like really trying, I was like tight gripped and trying to just. force my way into the NFL, which got me maybe in the, in the door, but ultimately when I got there, I fell apart. Like I was saying with insecurities, like I was thinking too much and I would get out on the field when I was time to practice. And I would just fall apart because I was breaking down every small little thing. And I think there's a lot of people that are like that. And at some

point, like trusting yourself goes a long way and just, um, having confidence in your practice. And ultimately when I started, it took three years to get to this point. But when I started performing well in the NFL. It was like every time I step on the field, my mind turns off. And I'm, I had to actively distract myself when it was time to like perform so that I wouldn't overanalyze and like paralyze myself in a lot of different ways. So that was one thing. Just like trusting in your preparation. I also think, you know, for me, it took, it took five years to play in, uh, in, in my first NFL game. We were together when I got to call. Oh my gosh. That was crazy. ABC Cochina in New York City and that was a good good weekend but I think if you keep answering the door when someone's knocking something good's going to happen whether it's a life lesson that you learn or like the opportunity finally comes along but I think there's a lot of truth that that luck is preparation meets opportunity right yeah and defining it like that I think I've been lucky a lot of

lot in my life, but I've kept applying myself, which has led to me being prepared when the opportunity does present itself. And yeah, yeah, I think also get in where you fit in kind of too. At Vandy, when I was playing football there, my freshman year, I wanted to transfer out so bad because I came in and I was like this questionable recruit. Like nobody knew who I was the last guy to get the offer and people were had already known each other my whole class like were but was buddy buddy I showed up and I was like a long snapper I tore my hamstring the second week of practice I was like this is this is brutal I don't feel like I belong but then we had a coach come on and it was it was like this really wonderful meritocracy I think in a lot of ways where we had

competitions that you could kind of prove yourself in on the weight room and the meeting room on the field, like all these different arenas. And I found that my niche, like where I, where I kind of settled in was in the wait room, I could be the guy. I was not the guy in the field. Like I was not that talented in the meeting room. I was whatever. Like not that I'm not super great on X's and O's and strategy. But like in the weight room, I could bring the energy. And so ultimately I end up getting voted captain two years in a row just because of like my contribution in the weight room. And so to me, you know, I guess a, I guess a good. kind of goes back to insecurity, but I always had this like thing where, gosh, I get eight plays

a game as a long snapper. What am I? I'm not actually contributing here, but gosh, look at our schedule. The games are, we get 12 games a year. We're in the way room every day. Let me stand out here. You know what I'm saying? Like that's an opportunity that you can, you know, arbitrage to use a fancy word.

But shoot, let me be the guy in there. And that's what happened. This is such a good life principle because it's like, be a good steward where you are. No matter where you are in life, give it your all, give 100%, be an encourager, cheer everyone else on. Like, you know, do those things with excellence. And so, and then that opens up other doors later on, right? And I think your presence and how you've done that in your career and also your relationships. I mean, Sean and I, again, we were talking about how you've built a lot of these great friendships

because you see the best in people, you invest in people. That very same demeanor, the very same thing that made you the best teammate makes you a best friend. And so I think that's powerful. I'd love for you to share the story because I remember one of the first conversations we had, we were driving around and I asked you why you chose Vanderbilt University to play football at. And you told this really amazing story about how you were given that opportunity. Yeah. So I went to high school in Indianapolis.

Shout out North Central Panthers. And again, I was good at football. It wasn't insane. So my whole junior year, I spent trying to get recruited. And my head coach at the time, like, we just didn't have a lot of players playing college ball out of our high school. So I was doing it all myself. I got every single email of D1 special teams coaches. And I sent them an email with my tape with a letter.

Just like, here's the thing, dude. There's, there's however many high schools with however many long snappers or linebackers. What are you going to do to stand out? It's like, I'm not saying act like a dofist, but like there's a lot of ways that when I ultimately meet the special teams coach, from Vandy. He's going to remember that. I sent him, oh, yeah, you're Andrew East. I remember getting that random email. How'd you get my email address? And it's like, that's a card you can play. So anyway, I sent an email to every D1 special teams coach. And then that summer, you know, we had like an eight-week summer. I think I went to 12 summer camps for, for D-1 programs,

just trying to like get in front of people. I wanted to play D-1 college ball more than anything in the world. That was my goal. I was going to go to, I was going to go to Princeton. I was going to Alabama. And wherever it would have me, I would play. Fast forward to signing day, which is this big day where everyone who has D1 offers chooses where they're going to go. And I didn't have any offers. And thus, I didn't choose where I was going to go. That's in February. By the time April rolled around, like, this is when even non-athletes have chosen where they're going to go to school that next fall.

I still hadn't because I was like torn. I had the opportunity to play D3 college ball with my brother or maybe like walk on at Princeton. I get a call from the Vanderbilt head coach and he's like, Andrew, we want to offer you a scholarship. I was like, Coach, Shining Day is come and gone. What happened? And anyway, ultimately, Vanderbilt's highest rate of recruit at the time,

Ray John Bennett, he's just running back out of Georgia. His mom had a boyfriend who broke in their house in the middle of night and had a gun, was shooting around. Ray John jumps in front of his little brother who had a disability took a bullet for him literally. And he's like, that happened and we want to give you a scholarship. I was like, oh my gosh, this is, wow, what do I do with this? It's simultaneously my dream come true, but under such tragic circumstance.

I've tried to reconcile that and the analogies to like Jesus in that in my life where it's like, okay, wow, we have all this wonderful freedom and opportunity in life. but you know Jesus took it all for it anyway yeah I haven't quite made sense of that so I showed up on campus and you know ultimately my class won the most we're the winningest Vanderbilt class of all time and wow I still I try to mention Ray John's name as often as possible just because he has this essay called Strength that you could look up online still it's amazing but he was just of top-notch character and I honestly just feel um in a lot of ways, like, not worthy to step into his shoes, but I hope I did somewhat justice with it,

you know? That's so good. You know, I think, I think about this, like, when there's a couple ways to handle something like that. Somebody does something sacrificial and something maybe you're undeserving of, and but, but you're given an opportunity, even though you may not deserve it. I think some people maybe go through life and feel like, well, I don't deserve it. I'm not, I don't deserve this privilege or this opportunity and kind of be like that and kind of have this level of like guilt.

I mean, that's, I actually see a lot of people. I see this whole, a whole culture today of people walking around with guilt because I was rich or as color of my skin or something like that. But the other one is going around with this idea of I'm so grateful. I'm so blessed, you know, and so, you know, it's, it's all about its perspective, right? It's mindset. And that's, it's really powerful mindset to kind of even, even correlate. with that. Somebody sacrificed for me. I'm going to live in the state of gratitude and make the best of that.

Because I think that's the best way to honor somebody. It's not walk around guilty. So you know what? I'm going to make the best. And I look at what you did, being captain, from what I know of you, and I'm sure one of the reasons you got this, the most greatest encourager, you know, the most inspirational person in that locker room. And so, and that's honor in that person, right?

It's like, that's anyways, I love that. We're reading through mere Christianity. right now and CS Lewis talks about raw materials and like not everybody has the same raw materials, but I think it's a responsibility to try to use whatever raw materials you've been given as well as possible, as, uh, you know, effective or generously as possible. But it's like, okay, game on. What are my raw materials and what can I do with it? Shoot, it's kind of a fun game.

It's like, let's navigate this thing. Oh, yeah. Anyway. Yeah. How has having kids for you guys changed your relationship and view of God? Oh man, I love thinking about the analogies of marriage and how that informs my perspective of God and parenting and how that informs my perspective. There's so many analogies and things that I've learned. One of which I think about our two-year-old son, we had a birthday party for him just a couple months ago.

And I'll never forget, he woke up after his nap, came downstairs and we had while he was asleep for the last two hours, decorated the whole house. with like dinosaurs and balloons we had to food out we had all his favorite things toys and bikes and all the things and he was walking on the stairs and just had this awestruck look on his face and i was like jet this is all for you this is all for you man we did this and i don't think he fully understood but it's like i i do feel that way now where god is just like he's here for us and has provided all of these things and you know he closed the the the lilies in the field and the birds of the air. It's like he'll do the same to me.

And he's done this for us. And I think there is to me, I started crying when I saw the look on his face. I was like, oh my gosh, this is such a strong picture. And I'm so glad that I get to experience this, despite all the frustrations.

You know, it's like you put the kid down. And sometimes it's an exhausting day. But you wake up the next day and there's like so much purpose in it. And you're like, okay, I thought taking an ice bath was hard. And I love seeing these people online saying like, oh, wake up and dip in cold water performance. How about you pair it for 24 hours and feel how exhausting that is or strenuous that is?

But just that thought of God providing everything here for us. And then also the discipline side of things where it's so hard to get that right as a parent. where my intention here is to love you and love looks different depending on the situation. Sometimes it looks like standing at an altar looking at the love of your life just with, you know, big hearts in your eyes. Like so much love you could cry. Sometimes it looks like me sitting my son down on a couch and reprimanding him or like correcting him. But when you take the long view of that too, like it's like, okay, I don't think God is like moving chess pieces around or like making this happen and not making

this happen for me. But when I think of discipline and when I've erred away from of like God's intention and plans versus when I feel like I'm really in tune with the word and like with the, with the communities, he's put me in touch with there. The discipline aspect I feel like is enhanced as well. just from what I've learned as a parent. Yeah. Do you think God's ever set up anything for you that you feel like, has you ever set up anything for you? You feel like the person you've married,

like Sean, or done any, you know, anything like that? Do you believe in the one? I mean, hmm, wow.

You know, I believe in a really, a really sort of beautiful combination, or I believe in a combination of free will and predestination. And I think this could be getting a big, even theological, discussion. You know, you've got a lot of reformed Calvinists who are going to be very staunch on, hey, everything is, you know, this idea of predestine, everything is already written versus, again,

you get more methods, it's free will. But I think for me, the way that I look at is I think that God orchestrates for certain things to happen. But I feel like he's very hands off. I believe that Christ's coming in orchestrating that or God coming himself and in the death and resurrection. I believe that was orchestrated. I believe the end is already written in terms of of there will be a new heaven and a new earth. And we'll be here on this new heaven, reunited with our bodies. And we will be back creating paradise as Adam was, the Garden of Eden. And so, but I also do believe that, you know, the Bible talks about, like, here's what I would say.

If he doesn't orchestrate anything, then why would I pray? You know, that's the way that I think about it. And so when I think about prayer, I think that there's a combination of God and then, you know, angels that are. working on our behalf, you know, I think about Daniel, and he's praying at a point, he's praying at one point. And actually there's this, there's this angel that's coming to help. He's praying to God. And then God sends an angel. And the angel's like, the prince of Persia, this specific demon, like kept me from getting here, but I'm here now. It took me three, you know.

And so it's really interesting when you look at the Bible. So my answer is, do I believe that God orchestrates every last piece to where we're almost robots or everything is predestined? I don't believe it like that. But do I believe that he orchestrates certain thing? I do. And then do I believe that there is one. Do I believe in soulmates? I think I do.

I'm not 100% certain. Now, listen, I believe that a lot of people can be compatible. So I do believe that if somebody felt like, hey, you know what? I married the wrong person. I believe that if you're in that situation, you're called to love. and serve that person and be faithful until the day you die. So I do believe in compatibility, in being compatible to be married with multiple people.

But do I also believe that, let me give an example of this, I prayed for, I had a buddy Pete, came home, you met him. And before I got married, I was probably 27. And I realized God put on my heart, I'm like, man, I really feel like I'm ready to get married. So Pete and I, we did a prayer call every night for, on Sunday nights, before the week, we'd pray for each other. And Pete would pray for my wife.

And I would think about, okay, what do I want a wife? And I want her to be, you know, I want her to, I want us to share the same values. I want her to be a Christian. I want her to have a strong faith. I want, like, all of these things. And, you know, and then two years later, I met Chelsea. We got married. And so I'm not saying for sure that maybe their, God was like, hey, I've set this up from the very

beginning where you'll marry this person. But I'm also saying not, I'm also saying that I'm not, maybe he did. I don't know. I did. You know, I think there's some of those answers where I don't know. It's interesting. I think prayer

is, like God doesn't need us to pray, I don't think. So I think prayer is more for us and our relationship with God than anything else. Like your prayer for Chelsea, it's almost like, if I say yellow VW buggy, you're like right now, you're going to go out the next couple months. And because I've mentioned that, you're going to look and be aware of more yellow like yellow VW buggies now just because it's like top of mind.

I think prayer kind of has that effect. Here's another parenting analogy that I think plays into this. It's really hard to fight this temptation of like, okay, Jed is clearly a really good athlete. My two-year-old son is like physically. He is. Yes, he is going to, he's an athlete. So, sure. But I'm not setting that as his final destination.

You know what I'm saying? So it's like this really pleasant journey of watching these kids grow up and exploring their passions. It's like a treasure hunt that you get to lead them through for the first couple of years of their life and then maybe watch them like navigate it themselves where it's like, hey, there's a lot of good ways to live life. Yeah. Yeah.

I think God kind of, it's like kind of the same way. So predestination versus free will, it's like, it's like, I think God it has these hard boundaries set where it's like stay away from this, stay where from that. But like there's a lot of fun, exciting things I've placed you here. I've placed on this earth. I think that goes the same way for finding the one or, you know, your spouse where I think I probably could have married 10,000 different people.

And Sean, I'm super, this was this was just like one version of how the story could have ended. I'm super, super thankful. And I can't imagine it any other way. You guys are super busy. I mean, you guys are some of the busiest people I know. But here's the thing. Anytime I talk to you, it's like a good busy. It's like you're doing great things, fun things for the family.

I mean, things that are meaningful. It's not like there's a proverb. And it's like, teach me to number my days that I may get a heart of wisdom. Right. Teach me to count my days. Like teach me to value time in that sort of way. You guys, what is your process of prioritization for you and Sean in order to create these meaningful moment?

And talk to me about meaningful moments. Because I get what I, when I say something serious, when I think about somebody who's really intentional about creating meaningful moments, I think you guys are really conscious of that. Well, I appreciate that. We did just form a foundation. I'm excited to build called moment makers where it's like delivering these, you know, you don't remember years of your life. Like if I ask you, what was the best part about last year?

You're going to tell me about like a day or one like 10 minute period in your life. You mentioned your birthday party, your 40th birthday party the other day. And it's like, I'll never forget being in that restaurant. I saw like, you know, that's fun. You almost got us kicked out. That was a blast. But it's like, how can you, how can you provide those moments for other people and then have this like follow-on sequence that actually like, you know, leads to more. meaning and purpose in life.

But this goes back to the scheduling thing with friends that I learned from you. And people say they're busy all the time. Like that's just, I think, a side effect of Western culture. Sean and I have pleasantly fallen into or work towards, you could say we're busy. I like to say that we're committed to the things that we love the most.

It's like we have a full schedule. If you look at my schedule, like boom, boom, I'm going to get out of here and go meet Joey and Heath. They're great. I'm excited about that, you know. But busyness has this undertone of like, oh, shoot, like franticness or lack of control or lack of, you know, excitement about things. So how do we prioritize?

I'm super thankful for my wife in that realm. I think I would probably skew towards just over-indexing work and my personal hobbies. She's always tugging me back. You brought up this term beneficial adversary, which is brought up, I guess the Hebrew word for Eve. What's right? In Hebrew, as in Adam and Eve, it means beneficial adversary.

I love that image. To me, it, like, unlocks this freedom as a spouse to, like, challenge my wife, but in a healthy way. You know, it doesn't always feel healthy,

but it's like, how can I be a beneficial adversary to my wife? And then also acknowledge that she has a different perspective, and I feel like there's so much friction in this relationship, but it's all for good. It's like, okay, she's coming at it, prioritizing our kids and our marriage, which might not come naturally to me all the time. So I'm so thankful that she's injecting that where I inject, you know, hey, let's knock X, Y, and Z out the schedule. Let's make sure that we're going, you know, a little more logistics oriented. So I'd say to answer your question, wife and then feeling free to ask for help.

I think we've grown into that habit. and actually like writing things down or putting things on the schedule like you have to or else you're gonna you're gonna miss it or skip over it you know yeah that's good i mean what you're really good at this too i i i on a podcast rice i did a news episode and talked about foobing which is when you're on your phone and like you know in the middle of a conversation phone snubbing people and you guys literally have a box in your kitchen where you guys just regularly just put your phones you're always present time conscious like your with like I know when I'm with Andrew I am with Andrew like like you're your your your alert you're receptive you're you're there you're present um is there did you did you did you just is that just naturally the way you are or have you actually really been conscious about no I'm I'm going to I'm going to get rid of my phone I'm going to be present and conscious with people I think part of it I mean generationally I grew up when we saw like the flip phones I my first phone was like in freshman year high school I had the Samsung it was not like like like a

like always a part of my life, which probably contributes to it. And then I, yeah, my dad had a saying that love is not always efficient, but it's always effective. He used to hammer that home to us. And that's kind of just how we grew up where he always had this eagerness to engage with people, the same type of curiosity that I've stumbled into. I just think I use my phone as a tool to get me in front of people that I'm excited. about or like it's how can this is not the end goal I don't want to spend my free time on my phone and so I I have tried to be unapologetically unavailable to people who aren't right in front me you know like who aren't my priority right so that I can be unapologetically available to the people

like to my wife to my kids that's what matters most you know it's like I don't know could we have made a couple more bucks if I answered emails quicker maybe could I have a couple more followers on social media if I was on it more, maybe. But it's like, you know, what are we doing here? When I think about you, one of the things is, is when you think about priorities, it's people, right? It's not phones. It's not, you know, emails. It's not those things that's a big priority for you of is people and investing in people and loving people and connecting with people.

What is your biggest piece of advice for people if you're in, well, I mean, I have two questions left. One question is, you and Sean, I mean, even from when I first met you, and I feel the same way for Chelsea and I, too, but we've all continued to grow together. Like when I'm like, hey, where, you know, where is Andrew's wisdom from when I first met him? And it's, wow, he's, you've continued to grow in wisdom and, uh, your business, all these things, you continue to grow. What are some of the most important growth habits that you have that you, you, you have on a regular basis? Oh, I appreciate that. Honestly, you've paid such a big part of that. And you asked me all these challenging questions.

I'll never forget, like, the first time you asked me to, like, write down all my assets. And, like, you're like, how much money you're going to make this year? I was like, what the heck is this? Yeah, I get up in your business. You said earlier, I asked these questions because out of humility, I think it's probably Hutzpah more so. But it's, yeah. I think, sorry, what was the question?

question. I lost it. Well, so one of the things that, again, like you and Sean are growing. You're growing as people, parents, spouses. What are some of those habits that you have that have allowed you to continue to grow? Okay. So we do this big goal setting thing at the beginning of every year where the first year we did it, it was so hard and so vague. We didn't know what we were talking about, but like we went through every aspect of our life. We have 12 categories. And we said, okay, what do we want life to look like a year from now? We added this vision aspect of it, so we'll actually write,

we'll write the goals down, but then we'll write like a journal entry as if we were living a year in the future. Do that make sense? So it's like, oh, I love that. We have our three kids and we play each morning before we go to school. It's like, I don't know,

it adds this more real element to it where it doesn't become this like far off distant thing. It's more of a, oh, this is just, this is super attainable. We can do this. And the fun thing about this is, I feel like this applies to a lot of different aspects in life, but like the startup cost is much higher than the ongoing maintenance cost that you pay. Like if you think about starting a business, there's going to be so much that you have to

learn and invest into something as compared to making tweaks to the advertising budget or changing the website here and there. changing something is so much easier than starting something. And like marriages too. If you're going through a hard time in your marriage, okay, if I, like I should just work on the maintenance of this.

Because if I don't and I get remarried, this is going to like that startup cost is high there. So the goals, the same thing for us, that first year was starting it was super hard. But then now we use last year's goals and we'll just like edit it. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Which makes it super. super easy to like go through it. And it's also a such a fun process. We take a full day to do that. We have monthly checkup, Sean and I do where we try not to gripe at each other all the time. So we'll kind of save them for like a, you know, predetermined time during the month where a pattern's built up. And it's like, hey, Sean, I realized you're not taking a lot of showers. And you're like, You know, it's like you've allowed time to expose this negative habit or that you want to like gently talk about something with. That's been really good for us. And then I think that you got to have.

I feel so spoiled. I feel like in every aspect of my life, I have a group of people around me that like is better at me than things. So Saturday mornings, I wake up at 6 a.m. I'm training with like CrossFit games athletes, Navy SEALs. Army Rangers, they put me to shame physically. And I feel like I'm in pretty good shape. So I'm always striving. In business, I have mentors like you where it's like, man, your leagues leaps and bounds ahead of me. I'm always learning something from you. And it's like, I've definitely benefited and like feel so spoiled to have that. But that also then has this side effect of like

accountability. So it's like, okay, I don't want to text messages at 615 on Saturday morning saying, Andrew, where are you? You drop the ball. It's like, no, you want to show up for the people that are doing you. So having a community definitely makes a difference. And then trying to be super intentional with what your habits are and make it as easy as possible to get there. So, you know, whether it's a macro diet or like working out to whatever extent, like Peloton cycling, having that as a exercise equipment that people can have in their house, like people are getting more exercise now.

because now they don't have to drive 15 minutes to the gym. They can just go to their living room. But that goes for like diets too. So it's like, oh, you have a macro plan that you need to, you have to get 200 carbs in. It's like, I just think there's not shortcuts, but you can be strategic with like teeing things up, whether it's like pre-making meals or whatever. And the commitment also plays a role in that of just like planning. So, you know, we have a men's group meeting.

in October. That's on the calendar. That's locked in. That's done. I know I'm going to get a little bit of personal growth on that. Yeah. So I think those are a couple things that come to mind. Those are good things. I kind of want to go through those. So you get around people that level you up. That's a big thing, you know, and I think that's just so important. I think mentorship, I think iron sharpens iron. Those things are big. I love that. You guys goal set together. You and Sean, that's so great. You didn't say this one. but you're an avid reader. You're always reading and learning,

whether it's listening to an audio book or just reading yourself, probably at least a book a month. I see that too. You know, you're part of a growth group so you're intentional with your community. But anyways, I love that.

All those things add up. Last question. What's the best piece of advice you have for anybody who is saying to themselves, I want to grow, whether it be spiritually and their relationships.

So what's your advice for anybody in terms of your best advice for growth? Best advice I have for growth. We have so many, tools that you can look up a group of people who are also interested in the thing that you're interested in. Go show up to the rock climbing gym and like be a part of that little hour long exercise. Go show up to the cycling group that's at your, you know, local neighborhood. Find the thing that you're interested in and then find the group of people who are also doing it. And like,

oh my gosh, when you're, I think it's a directly correlated to the connections that you have. I think personal growth is directly correlated to the connections you have in the sense that like, oh my gosh, you never know who you're going to meet on the cycling group who might then invite you to the men's group. But it's like getting engaged with the thing, like dialing that knob up of like, okay, I really like to bike by myself. Well, the next step would be going to do it with other people, I think. Get connected. Get to know people and like do more of it. And then if you don't like it, do less of it. Cut it out.

Do the next thing that you're interested in. you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But if it's, if there's resistance and it's like, oh, this is just hard, but I still like it.

Double down on it. Like just say, okay, all right, challenge accepted. I have to conquer this next move or I got to climb that next hill. That's great. That's really exciting.

That's like where you want to be in life. It's always on like, you know, if you think about the yin and yang, not to get super fru-frou, but it's like you want to be on the edge of chaos. Jordan Peterson does it. It's like always pushing towards that.

And people, having a group of people around you to help you do that is essential. That's so good. It's so good. Hey, I want to encourage everybody. You guys can find Andrew at Family Made. Their YouTube station is awesome. So if you go to YouTube and you just search

Andrew East or Family Made, they have such a great channel where they're putting out family-friendly content on a regular basis. Also, you can follow Andrew on all his social channels if you just follow at Andrew East. And Andrew, I appreciate you coming on today. Thanks for having me, Josh.

All right. Well, let's go. All right. Everybody, hey, thanks for watching. Another episode of The Growth Lab. Again, thanks so much to Andrew East for sharing his wisdom today. Remember each and every week we go through how to grow yourself, your health, your wealth, your relationships, your spirituality, your career, and so much more. If you're not subscribed, make sure to subscribe.

And we'll see you on the next episode.