The Nick Bare Podcast - 016: Cody Ko Opens Up About His Self-Doubt and Finding Belief In Himself

Episode Date: June 5, 2023

In this episode, I sit down with the multi-talented Cody Ko. Known for his hilarious comedy, today Cody takes us on a journey through his latest triumph of completing an Ironman and upcoming endurance challenges. With his unstoppable rise in Hollywood, from his viral Vine days to becoming a digital megastar with millions of supporters - he is undeniably one of the most captivating guests thus far. He is also the co-host of the award-winning podcast, The Tiny Meat Gang, which ranks in Spotify's Top 10 comedy podcasts. We dive into Cody's pursuit of a music career, building TMG Studios, training like a hybrid athlete, and unpacking his journey that led to where he is today. Cody's raw and honest account of overcoming self-doubt and reclaiming his health and fitness will also inspire you to push past obstacles in your life. BPN Key Lime Protein: https://bit.ly/bpnkeylime (use code NICKBARE10 to save 10%) Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Keep up with Cody here:  YT: https://youtube.com/@CodyKo and https://youtube.com/@itscodytrains  IG: https://www.instagram.com/codyko/ Topics: 00:00 Intro 1:33 Welcome 5:45 Wetsuit strippers 7:23 Nut butters 9:23 Nick’s shaving horror story 11:23 Why Cody chose an Ironman 19:16 “Done is better than perfect” 25:07 Stop waiting for inspiration 28:08 Cody’s first job 33:05 From engineer to content creator 38:00 What happened to Vine?  42:05 Pursuit of perfection 48:56 Building TMG Studios 55:22 Music career goals 1:01:15 Next endurance challenge 1:08:09 Go One More Marathon 1:11:38 Cody’s back into lifting

I was working out and I was surfing, but I didn't have anything to train for. There was nothing on the calendar. And I got really just like in a pretty bad funk. My parents, they hit me up and they were like, we signed up for an ultramarathon. Is this something you'd ever want to do? And I was like, yeah, right. Me, there's no way. After the FaceTime call, I was like, wait, why?

Why not? Like, why would I just dismiss myself like that? And so I was like, this obviously is a problem. And so I signed up for the race. Did a shit ton of trail running. Just the fact that I was showing up every day made me feel like, oh, I believe. in myself again. Like, I'm showing up for myself. And that felt really good. Like, it just felt like I could trust myself again. Whereas before, I got in this, like, horrible cycle of thinking I wanted

to do something, but then doubting my ability to get there. And finishing that was like a big, like, wow, you can do this stuff. So after the ultramarathon, I was like, well, what's next? Before we dive into today's episode, I want to thank you for tuning in and supporting the podcast. Now, we just launched and released a new flavor of way protein. And this is my signature flavor. possibly the best flavor of weight protein we've ever created. And it is key lime pie. If you like key lime pie, you're going to absolutely love this flavor. Even if you don't love key lime pie, you're probably still going to love this flavor.

It's a limited launch. So once we're sold out, we are sold out forever. You can go to the link in our description and use code Nick Bear 10 to save 10% off your order. So go try our key lime pie weight protein and let us know what you think. Today on the podcast, we have Cody Co. And we spent the last, what, 15 hours, lots of training. We did, yeah. Lots of sushi.

Yeah. How you feeling? I feel good. I'm a little tired right now. It was an early morning for that run. Would you say that the pump in the gym or the five-mile run was a better feel? I mean, I haven't lifted in forever, so I felt that this morning. And when we were running, too, I was like, my back is really sore.

And then I was like, oh, right, I did the most amount of pull-ups I've done in a year yesterday. Well, tomorrow you'll probably feel it more. Yeah. The Dom's. Yeah. I think it's going to hit me tomorrow. Well, I wanted to congratulate you on two big accomplishments. One, finishing your first Iron Man.

Thank you. And two getting married. Thank you. Two massive life milestones. Within four months of each other. Yeah. I appreciate that. And I do have to say, thanks for having me on.

And also, this is the most, like, intense. podcast. Just like the lights and the, I feel like I'm about to get fired right now. The table and the iPad. I'm like, what did I do wrong? It's, uh, it's an intimate room. I like it.

I like it. It is. What I found with the podcast at least is for, for me, like there's very few places where you can, or very few opportunities where you can like have a really intimate conversation with people. Yeah. And sometimes you have to like create the environment and setting for that. Yes.

I think intimate's the right. word. I said intense, but I think intimate's the right word. With its intimate setting, people will talk about things and tell stories that they normally want. And I think it's really interesting because we live in this world that's so distracted and noisy. I mean, we got our phones and emails and notifications blasting off all the time. And it's hard to actually have deep conversations. My postmates just arrived now. I'm kidding. It's hard to have like deep conversations with people. So sometimes you have to create like the environment for it. Totally agree. I could see how that definitely would work.

This definitely feels like, yeah, more intimate. As I said to you yesterday, this is pretty surreal because, you know, my family introduced me to you and they're all big athletes and endurance runners and like my parents are both Ironman triathletes. I watched growing up, watched them do them and just was like so inspired by them. And then my sister did one last year, or two years ago. And then when I went home for Christmas, I think this year. And I think it was the two hour 50 marathon video.

The first sub three. Yeah. And they were like, you got to check this guy out. He's going for a sub three marathon. He does these incredible videos about it. And I was like, this guy on the screen? He's way too jacked to do a sub three hour marathon. And they were like, seriously, sit down.

And so I was like, okay, okay. I sat down and I watched that video and I was like, wow, this dude's awesome. And I've been following you ever since. So it was cool when you reached out and when Kat reached out too, because I went to college with Kat, the CEO of BPN now. And so that was like a surreal weird connection. And then when you guys reached out, I was like, wow, this is crazy. And my family's freaking out the whole time.

I just sent them the video of us running and they're freaking out. Well, I appreciate you making the trip. Yeah. No, thanks for having me. It's awesome. When I announced that first time that I wanted to run a sub three-hour marathon, there was a lot of pushback, there was a lot of doubt. It was people saying similar things.

Like, someone with this much size and muscle, there's no way they can run a sub-3. And as I was telling you on the run this morning, I set the goal, and then I went after it, and I ran at 324, which 24 minutes off of a marathon goal. It's a massive miss. And I tried doing that at the Austin Marathon for the first time. and I trained for a whole other year and ran sub three and realized how hard sub three actually it was. And I think a lot more people can run sub three than they think. It's just logging a lot more miles at your low, below max aerobic heart rate pace and then doing that critical velocity speed work.

But I wanted to talk about your Iron Man finish. Sure. Iron Man Australia looked absolutely beautiful. It was. 13 hour finish. Yeah. Pulled your stats. We got a 107 swim.

Oh, we're going through the splits, all right. Six, 24 bike. I had your transition times on there, too. Nine minutes, was it? Nine minutes is your first transition. My dad's friend was making fun of me. Shout out, Brian. I saw the text that you sent my dad.

He was like, what the fuck? Was Cody making coffee and having biscuits in the first transition? I was the slowest one out of my family. Well, dude, I remember my first iron. man that first transition. I took my time. Yeah. Because like you come out of the water, you're freezing.

Did you wear a wetsuit? Well, did they have someone stripping your wetsuit? No. So we had a wetsuit strippers. And you'd come through this line. Like strippers? Yeah. Full on strippers.

And I remember being like warned about this because you, you come through this line and the guy's like, lay down. And he grabs your wetsuit from the top and start stripping it down. Okay. And I'm thinking the whole time. I thought you'd mean like pole dancers. They were there too. Because I did Iron Man Floris.

It was right outside of Panama City. Exactly. It's spring breaks going on. And all I was thinking the whole time was, holy shit, I got to make sure my shorts. Oh, yeah.

My wetsuit don't get pulled off. Yeah. And I remember going back into that first transition. And it's just, you're walking through this line and just naked people. Yeah. Everywhere. It's like a college locker room.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. And just naked people at the left and right. no shame back there. No, I was saying this, I said this on my podcast, but I, so I got changed,

and I felt like I was rushing. Like, I didn't feel like I was taking my time. I was like going as fast as I could. I didn't wear a trisuit underneath, so I had to completely change. I was the same way. Yeah.

Because I wanted to wear like my real bike shorts that I wore during training and stuff like that. So I did that. And so I'm getting changed. I'm going as fast as I can. And then as I'm leaving, I'm like, there's a big table of sunscreen. And so I was like,

oh, fuck, I need to, why? swear on here by the way okay sorry uh i was like i need to i need to wear sunscreen in my face last thing i want to do is get burnt today like that would just make the whole thing horrible and so they had this big ass yellow jug of generic sunscreen so i'm just like and i just lather up my face and then i look beside me and this dude is he must have forgotten his like you know his like grundle butter like vassaline or whatever so he's just doing this and then shorts off just like lathering up with sunscrots and butt cheeks yeah with sunscreen

And I was like, I guess that would work, I guess. See, I always skipped out on the, I think they call it like shammie butter. Shammy butter, yeah, that's what I use. I always skipped out on that because like my mindset going into training was if I can train my nuts to be calloused for race day, they're like durable. Yeah. Well, we were just talking about this yesterday, but it might be the hair for me. I don't know if you want to want to reveal that on here, but like we were talking about like whether or not we like shave our asses,

asses. Shave everything, yeah, exactly. We are getting intimate on here. Yeah. And I was like, I don't.

I don't. I didn't shave my legs and I have a really hairy ass. And so I think I need the shami butter because otherwise the hair pulls. That makes like the worst feeling ever. Like it just makes a long ride like so much worse when you're just like in that, you know, it's like painful there. Yeah.

So I, like, lathered my shit up with chamois butter. That, like, really saved me. See, I've been shaving my entire body for so many years that, like, now it's just part of my routine. Yeah. Like, I don't, like, my skincare routine, I don't wash my face. I don't use anything in my face, but it's like, it's manscaping, shaving everything. And as I was telling you, uh, yesterday when we were working out, this is like probably 10 minutes into meeting you.

I was telling you the story. Yeah. about how the hardest part of shaving your entire body is shaving your butt. And making sure you get into the crack. And there's this one part of the house. I do it in the same. I have this routine for myself where there's this one bathroom.

It's a Jack and Jill bathroom. So I can lock doors from both ends. And I always make sure the doors lock. It's just a Jack bathroom when you're doing the routine. You're right. You're right. And I always make sure my wife can't come in because it's a very vulnerable position. Oh, yeah.

Shaving, like, your legs and your butt. Yeah. And the other day she walked in. I forgot to lock one door. She walked in as I was shaving the inside of, like, my butt crack with these hair clippers. You're like, get out! It's extremely embarrassing. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's a very vulnerable thing, manscaping, for sure. But it helps with the aerodynamics of endurance training. I know. How often do you do it? Weekly. Weekly. Wow. Yeah.

So I really, because I do my chest, but I just eventually I'll like forget or like doesn't. Because even like post workout, I'm still sweaty. So then I'm like, I have to be dry. You're right. And so it's hard to time it, you know? So then I just end up not doing it. And then, yeah, I got to, I feel like you're not truly a triathlete until you like start shaving your whole body.

It makes your forearms look leaner. Yeah. And it makes your tattoos look better. That's true. That's the main reason I'd do it. So I'd love to, like, kind of dive into, you know, why sign up for Iron Man? But what was drawing you towards this challenge? Well, I, so as I said, I grew up watching my family do them.

I have, like, a vivid memory of my dad's first one. It was Iron Man, Florida. and this was back when like this swim start was just everyone on the beach just running into the water at the same time and I had this vivid memory of the gun shooting and beautiful day by you two playing out loud, super loud, and all the families are standing there on like the rock wall watching, you know, their family members just like parade into the water. And then you just see this like, you know, massive splashing limbs. And it was just such a cool thing to watch. and then of course being at the finish,

we actually ran with him. This is back when you could like, you know, your family, like dudes with kids and women with kids would have them come out and then run the finish line with them. So we actually,

like we ran the finish with him. How old were you? 10, I think. But I remember like the, just like how electric it felt and even back then it was so motivating. So, and then they did, and then my mom started doing them

and then, you know, watching them finish multiple. I was like, in my mind, I was like, I know this is something I'm going to do one day, but it just always felt like sort of a distant future sort of thing. And growing up, it was always like I was a college athlete, I was a diver. And then before that, it was like we were, you know, our family vacations would be bike trips. We would go to different places and we would do like, you know, back roads. I don't have you ever heard of that company. They do like active vacations.

I never heard of it. It's like they'll set you up with a bike. and so you'll basically bike from, you know, if you're in Europe or wherever in the States, they do them all over the place, but you'll bike from town to town, and it's like, you know, you'll spend the day doing this, like,

beautiful bike ride through the countryside, and then, you know, they'll set you up with a nice meal and stuff at the end. And so that was always our, like, family vacations. It wasn't like beach, it wasn't like beach and do nothing. It was like we were working out when we were on vacation. So it's always been a part of my life, fitness and, you know, training, and setting goals in that.

way. And then I think I kind of lost that during COVID, obviously. You know, we were stuck inside. And I was working out and I was surfing, but I just didn't, I wasn't like, I didn't have anything to train for. There's nothing on the calendar. And so I kind of like lost that piece of me and I didn't really realize it. And I got really just like in a pretty bad funk, started going to therapy, just didn't really know what was wrong. I just felt like maybe it was like, oh, this is third, 30, I guess. It's just like, just felt like I was getting worse and dumber and just like, I was kind of like, oh, man, it must just all be downhill from here. Like, I just said, my best days are behind me. And I slowly realized that I was missing that piece of my life that had meant so much

to me before and like kind of defined a lot of what I would live for. And so my parents, they hit me up and they were like, or I was talking to them on FaceTime one day and this was last, like, last early spring or maybe last winter or something like that. And they were like, we signed up for an ultramarathon. Is this something you'd ever want to do? And I was like, yeah, right. Me, there's no way. And then I, after the FaceTime call, I was like, wait, why, why not? Like, why would I just dismiss myself like that? I realized I had sort of gotten to this place where I didn't like believe in myself anymore whereas before I was always like anything is possible, you know, you can, you can set a goal and you can achieve it. And I lost that part of me where I was, I was more in this like headspace

where it was like, no, that's not for me. I can't do that. And so I was like, okay, this obviously is a problem. And so I signed up for the race. and trained, you know, over the course of like a few months, did a shit ton of trail running, would just go out on the trail alone and just like put in hours and slowly, like, started to get in better shape again. And I just started to feel way better. Like, I, you know, it's like kind of the simplest thing

just showing up for yourself every day, but that really brought my confidence back. Like, just the fact that I was showing up every day made me feel like, oh, I believe in myself again. Like, I'm showing up for myself. And that felt really good. Like, it just felt like I could trust myself again. Whereas before, I got in this, like, horrible cycle of thinking I wanted to do something

or just, like, having an idea in my head, but then doubting my ability to get there. And that's a horrible, horrible feeling, like, not trusting that you can, that you can show up for yourself, you know? That starts to, like, cycle and just bleed out into the rest of your life. And so it really felt like a whole thing. I found myself again through that process and I finished the ultramarathon. It was a 60 kilometer race with 5,000 feet of elevation or 9,000 feet. I forget, but it was intense, like, nine hours it took me to finish.

And finishing that was like a big, like, wow, like you did it. Like that like reinstated in myself that like, you know, you can, you can do this stuff. And you're one of the guys that can do this. And it just made me feel really good. and it affected the rest of my life. I felt like I started, you know, showing up for my relationship more and for my work. Everything kind of became easier.

So after the Ultramarathon, I was like, well, what's next? And my sister had just finished her first Iron Man. She was 30 or maybe 29 when she signed up. And she did it. And my dad and my mom did it. it with her. And that to me was like, wow, like that was just inspiring, but also a little bit, you know, it was like my little sister did one before me. Damn it. And so I basically signed up for Iron Man because of that. I was like, what, you know, I was in this period where I was like,

what's next? I need something on the calendar. This is always something that I thought I would do one day. Why not today? It feels like this now is the perfect time. to do it. And it was really intimidating because, like, triathlons are a whole different beast. It's like, it's not only just, like, trail running is one thing. You just go out and you do it, right? And there's a lot of problems that come along with it, but it's mostly just your body adapting to running and climbing and stuff.

But, like, there's a lot of, you know, there's a lot of other shit in triathlon. It's like just learning how to work a bike. It's so technical. It's so technical. There's so many things. There's so much. gear. It's, and it's just like, it's a much higher barrier to entry sort of into, and in a more intense learning curve, like open water swimming, long bike rides just all come with their own

stresses and their own problems. And so that first little period was, was pretty intimidating. Just like learning how to use a bike and everything. And, but, you know, it's the same sort of thing. you just show up every day, slowly figure it out. You're not going to figure it out all at once, but over the course of eight months, train for the race, and finished it, 13 hours,

which I'm happy with. I mean, that's why I love the quote, done is better than perfect. If I think back to my first Iron Man prep, I had no clue what I was doing when I first got started. No clue. When I signed up for an Iron Man, I didn't know what an Iron Man was.

and the reason I signed up is similar to you you had this experience of the race and I remember seeing this video on YouTube and it was these two women it's like this notorious I think it was probably at Kona it's this notorious scene

where there's these two women who are racing against each other pros to get across the finish line and their bodies were completely seizing up so in the last like mile they would stand up after falling down they would run, they'd fall back down, they cramp up, full body seizure.

And I saw this clip and I was like, holy shit, this is intense. Wasn't that from the first Kona? It was an old clip. It might have been the first one ever, the first Iron Man ever or something. It might have been because these were old, it was old footage. And I remember this circulating the internet. I remember seeing this. And I also remember seeing this guy at the airport years ago.

And he was, I mean, I was. younger so he probably looked a lot larger than he really was but i remember him like being seven foot tall jacked having an iron man tattoo on his calf in the backpack yeah i'm like this is an iron man like this this guy's a superhero so when i signed up for it i signed up for it because of like the perception of what i thought iron man was and then i finally did research and i realized okay it's you know, a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, 26.2 mile run. And when I first started training, like, my, my bike trainer was a manual trainer. Okay.

It wasn't even an electronic trainer. I didn't have Zwift. I didn't have a power meter on my bike. Like, I'd set the manual trainer on the bike and I just spent an hour on it. I didn't know what I was doing. But the reason I love that phrase, done is better than perfect, is, like, I just got started. So many people are intimidated by. I mean, triathons an intimidating sport.

Yeah. And it's like, what do I wear? Yeah. Like, what bike do I get? Exactly. How do I start swimming? There's so much stuff. So much goes into it.

Yeah. And it's really easy. You chip away at it. Exactly. You chip away. You learn one new thing with every workout. And you slowly get to a point where you have a better understanding. I find that it's that way with kind of any sort of undertaking, even creatively.

Something can seem, like the blank page is so intimidating to me. that I find that's the hardest part of the creative process for me is starting. And I think other people feel that way too. But if you do get started, then you sort of, it's like a trickle effect, you know, where you're kind of in, you're like just following the current. It's like that way, I felt like it was like that for triathlon. It was so intimidating to start. But just even the first, driving myself to the pool for the first time was so frightening.

even as a person that spent half their life in a pool, like being a diver, something about that was like, I don't know what swim trunks to wear. Do I wear a Speedo? What are other dudes going to be wearing? Like, am I going to look like an idiot? How far do I swim?

What goggles do I use? But even just jumping in the pool for the first time and swimming laps for the first time just unlocked this like, oh, it's not that bad. And yeah, I probably did look like an idiot. But like now I know that this guy was, wearing that sort of swim trunks and this guy was so like I probably should get this kind and like you slowly chip away at it you know it was the same thing with biking it was like I got a bike

I slowly realized it was the completely wrong size for me and so I'm dealing with these issues and I'm like I'm just slowly learning that this bike probably doesn't fit and I'm learning more about bikes and what sizes and bike fits and all this stuff but I only learned that just by showing up every single day and doing it and riding a little further and thinking about it a little bit more and you slowly chip away at it. How'd you get your first bike? Did you go into a bike shop? I got it on Craigslist.

Oh, you did? Yeah, this was at a time when, you know, this is last year at the beginning or like, you know, spring. So it was still like triathlon bikes were super hard to come by. I think it's still like that a little bit. Like there's bike shortages. I forgot about the bike shortages. Like from COVID, everyone was like all of a sudden just really into like,

you know, going outside and doing sports. So, like, you couldn't get any sort of sports equipment. And that still has like lagged over where like there's definitely like it's hard to get. Especially last year it was hard to find a triathlon bike. Like I couldn't I couldn't even like the stores just didn't have them. And so we found this trek on Craigslist that seemed to be my size. And it was like the only triathlon bike. So I just bought it from this guy when picked it up.

And he was like a retired triathlet. and he had a like a custom paint job on it. Blames? No, it was like a religious. Like it had a cross on it. And I'm not very religious. So I just thought that was like kind of funny. I'm like, you know, ride.

It was on the like on the handlebars too. So I'm like always staring at this cross. Yeah. It was pretty funny. I felt like kind of a fraud. Were, uh, were aerobars already on the bike? They were, yeah. But it was too small for me.

So I was crunched up and it just like was not, I was like, how do people do this? It's uncomfortable. It takes time. It does, but then when I got a proper fit and I was more, you know, like lengthened out, I was like, oh my God, it almost felt good to be a narrow. Yeah. Like I found it almost more comfortable than being up on the handlebars. You mentioned the creative process.

Sometimes the hardest part is just getting started. I'm curiously what you do to, because you're a creative guy. Obviously, you build a career based off of, art and creativity. I'm really curious what kind of process you use to spark creativity. I read this book, I guess at this point is probably two years ago.

It's called Deep Work by Cal Newport. Okay. And it talks about how a lot of artists or entrepreneurs or creatives in general will use like solitude or moments of silence going like really

to go really deep into their work. You know, some of the best author of all time, we'll go into a cabin, uh, far out in the middle of woods. Makes me think like, you know the movie, misery?

Yeah, uh, no, I don't. So it's like, it's a super old movie where like this guy, he's an author and he goes in this secluded cabin in Colorado to write his books. And it's like,

he's all by himself. But it made me think of deep work because you have these artists who, who need to create this environment or these conditions to, to get started. and once they get started, it's like, then it's flowing. I'm curious, like, what your process is to go from zero to one or just to get started. I find that I'm not that type of person that needs to get away and, like, lock themselves to, like, you know, really concentrate and, you know, conjure up the inspiration. I find I do sometimes, you know, as every creative does, I'll get this, like, crazy stroke of inspiration and I have to follow it, like, this incredible.

credible idea or something out of nowhere, but for the most part, for me, it's a routine. Like, I have to, like, if I'm in a nice routine where every morning I'm waking up and I'm having coffee and spending a little time with, you know, my dog and then my wife and, and then I, you know, go to my office and I just get started. Like, I find that to me is, is the best creative process. Like, I, creativity and thinking is work, you know, and I, I, I don't like always just waiting for inspiration to strike. Sometimes it's like, you just, you got to just, every day, just do something. I find, like, one of the things that, like, with, right now I'm making a lot of music, and one of the things is just, even if you don't want to, even if it feels like you're just,

there's no inspiration to be found, just sitting down and making something, a loop, an A bar loop or something, is beneficial. because for me it's the whole thing is a learning process. I love, that's what creativity is for me is learning something new. And, and conquering that like zero to one phase where it's like you're like, you know, learning what makes something work. So for me, it's like you just got to do it every single day.

When you were in college, were you considered a creative person? Yeah, I mean, I DJed in college. So that was like a little bit, you know, I was really into music. I had a music blog, actually, where I was, like, posting new, like, EDM songs and stuff like that, and writing about them. So I guess that was a creative outlet, but I didn't really consider myself a creative person. I definitely thought I was more analytical, more left brain. Like, I studied computer science, so to me, it was always, like, oh, I'm a programmer. That's, that's the way my brain works. That's how I understand things. It's patterns. It's numbers.

but what I was doing with programming is is being creative like senior year the whole reason I moved to the West Coast was senior year I wrote an app that was basically like a comedy app it was like a captioning it was called I'd cap that and it was like a meme app it was like you would take a picture or upload a picture and it would randomly put a caption on it

in big white letters and it went totally viral because I gamed the review system, the Apple review system. Anytime you submit an app to the app store, Apple has to review it to make sure it's fine. And it was so the captions that I wanted to use were so explicit that I had to write like a little local database that would release those, the dirty captions after Apple reviewed it. So after it was already live in the store, then all of a sudden all the dirty captions came out and it, it was, went totally viral because people were like, oh my God, these are so funny and absurd. Did Apple then take it down? They never took it down.

Wow. Yeah, they never figured it out, which is kind of funny. Is it still live? I don't know. I sold it. I sold the app to a company, a startup, and then I started working for the startup. That's how I got my first job out of college. And my first task was to write, I'd cap that to the sequel.

And I think I sold the app for, I think it was a hundred. grand. It was 50 grand cash, 50 grand equity in this company. And that was, that was right after college. Right after college. Yeah. So it was, it's a great deal. It was a great. I was, I was elated. Like the cash was amazing because it helped me, you know, move out on my own and get an apartment and buy some furniture and stuff. But I really just was so happy to have a job. Because senior year of college, I was diving. So I wasn't doing like internships or I wasn't looking for jobs like everyone else was. So everyone else had a job lined up after college. I didn't. So I was like, what am I going to do? Go back to Canada. I want to stay in the States. And so this job got me not only a job,

but a visa. So that was, and I got to live in Silicon Valley. It was like a dream come true for a kid that was all about tech and Apple and Steve Jobs and stuff like that. Did you build this app with that intent? It's like, I'm going to build this and I'm going to sell it. Well, my intent was to learn how to write, like, iPhone apps. Because I was like, this is the future, clearly. People are hiring for this. So I want this skill set, and they weren't teaching it in college at that time. So I was like, I'll teach myself.

And the way I taught myself is by writing that app. And then ended up selling it. My first task for this new company was to write, I'd cap that too, which we made a paid app. And right away, it made 250 grand. I was like, God damn it. Why didn't I just do that? myself. But I was 18 or I was 21. I knew nothing or 20. I knew nothing about, you know,

business or, you know, advertising or revenue or anything. I knew nothing. So to me it was like a great opportunity. And anyways, that's a long story and saying programming. And then for that company, I kept writing these entertainment apps. So I kept, you know, to me, I was like, oh, I'm still a programmer. This is what I do. I'm an engineer. But I was writing comedy. And I was, was, and I was, that was my thing is how to, how to bring people entertainment through code. And, and also programming, the way you program is very similar to the way you edit a video or make music. It's about recognizing patterns, figuring out what works. You know, in order to get a certain thing done, there's multiple ways to do it in code. And how you do it is kind of a programmer's

like style or whatever. So it's a pretty, it's more creative than people think. Do people who see what you're doing now that knew you in college, are they surprised? Are they like, oh, I saw this from Cody? I don't know. That's a good question. That's a good question. Because, I mean, going from, like, being an engineer developing mobile apps, what you're doing now, it's, there's a lot in there to unpack of how you evolve from one profession to the next. Yeah.

Like, high level, what do that evolution live? look like. How'd you go from developing this app to launching the YouTube channel on a podcast and like now creating a media company? Like what was that evolution? So like as I was working for this company, I am writing these sort of entertainment apps. One thing we started doing is trying to also work on a social media app. This is like at the time when Snapchat was first starting to just blow up when it was only pictures. And so we were like, oh, maybe we'll do a video sort of Snapchat. And so we started working on that.

And so I was writing these social media. I was like involved in the process of building a social media app that was revolving around video. And so as that was happening, Vine came out. And it was a, you know, we saw it as like a competitor. So I was like, I got to download this and use it and see, see how they're thinking about videos. And I started making vines.

I lived alone at the time, and so I wanted to test this app. So I started making them, and it became kind of like a weird little hobby that I would do after work. And then I built an audience that way. People started kind of catching on, liking what I was making. And I built an audience, and then eventually, you know, after a few years of doing that, transition over to YouTube, had to figure out, you know, what made a YouTube video good, what style worked for me. all that stuff is I feel like stuff that a YouTuber has to figure out in their

first like year or two of doing it because there's just so many possibilities with Vine it was six seconds so it's like pretty clear like what you should people were creative with it of course but it was like you know there wasn't a plethora of options like there is with YouTube where it's like

you know you can make anything from shorts to you know hour long content and everything in between so you know that was figuring that I was kind of a scary period because that was also

like I was still programming, still not sure which one I wanted to do or if I even could do content as a full-time thing because I wasn't making any money doing it. And then eventually had this sort of tipping point where I was like I need, in order to

legally pursue content, I have to get a particular visa to do it. And so I I got approved for the visa because I had generated a little bit of press and stuff, like enough, and a little bit of notoriety to get that visa.

And once I got it, I legally couldn't be an engineer anymore. So I was like, I have to give this a go and I have to make it, you know, give it my all and make this the only thing. And- Why couldn't you be an engineer?

Because the visa was specific to the work you were doing. Yeah. If you get a visa, you're taking a job from an American, right? So you can't do multiple jobs. Like you have to, what you have a visa for is what you have to do. And so that,

I got the 0-1 visa. And that was like the performer entertainer, entertainer visa or whatever. So it's like anything I do has to be in that, I can't make money as an engineer anymore. And so, you know, I did it. And my first goal was like, okay, make this, your goal is to make the same.

amount of money you were making as an engineer. And it took a while to get there, but through podcasting, and this is like when the YouTube adpocalypse was happening. Yeah. Where like nobody was advertising anymore and nobody was making any money. And so I was forced to try different styles of content, like doing

a podcast, more longer form, but, you know, more of a chance to like maybe one day read host red ads and maybe, you know, higher average view duration so the CPMs would go up and stuff like that. And so it kind of forced me to adapt and eventually I did. And because of that, we started the TMG podcast. We explored doing that on Patreon, which really helped. I was selling merch. And, you know, I think it was also just, I wanted to continue challenging myself too, like in exploring different mediums. So we started doing music. And, you know, I think it was also just, I wanted to continue challenging myself too, like in exploring different mediums. So we started doing music. And,

that started working out and they started touring. And so we were doing like live shows and we did like this big global tour. And so it just kind of snowballed from there. And then, you know, now my priority has kind of been creating something that outlasts me, I guess. Something that's bigger than just me. Right. So that's where the, you know, the businesses come in. Going back a little bit.

Yeah, sure. I'm curious about Vine. kind of a selfish question Vines were six seconds long Yeah Was that intentional from social media companies Or is that because of the size That their server can handle?

No, that was intentional It was like a gimmick It was like how can we differentiate I mean I think I don't know I don't want to speak for the guys who made it But it was like I think it was just like How can we differentiate ourselves

From every other social media app Working on video right now And that was sort of like, it was a, you know, like creativity kind of flourishes when it's, when you're under, you know, like a limit, like a seat, when you have a sort of like ceiling like that, it forces you to adapt and figure out other ways to, to like, you know, write a story or convey a message or something like that. It forces you to be more creative. So, in six seconds, it's fast. Yeah, but it worked. Like people made the most unreal.

videos in six seconds. And you couldn't edit. All you could do is touch your finger down and it would fill up a little bit of the timeline. It would just record a little bit. That's the only editing you could do. And people were doing like claymation videos, like the amount, the amount of stuff that people were doing on Vine was truly unbelievable. And it's all because you couldn't, it seemed like you couldn't do anything, you know? Yeah. It's all because like at the beginning it was like laughable. People were like, what the fuck I'm going to do in six seconds? But it turns out. out you can do a lot in six seconds. What ended up happening to Vine?

Why did it disappear? I think it was just a little bit before its time. There were so many craters that, like yourself, big massive craters now that started on Vine. Yeah. Yeah, it was a little bit like Twitter, Twitter launched it. Like they bought it before it launched and then they launched it.

And I think also, you know, Twitter was having trouble figuring out monetization itself and then they had this you know big bloated thing that was taking up a lot of like bandwidth costs that also wasn't making money so they were kind of like well we got to shut this down

as far as I know that's yeah and also people were losing interests like I could tell like as a creator on the platform I could tell like just generally across the board people were getting less views and less comments and stuff like the interest was waning

which was funny because people look back and they're like, why did Vine ever go away? And it's like, well, he'd be able to say it all the time. Yeah. But it's like, because people weren't watching it anymore.

They were moving on to Instagram video and YouTube and I don't know. This company that you were working for, this, this development company, app company, I'm assuming they had to raise ridiculous amount of capital to like build and pay for these, these platforms.

Do you remember being a part of that process? I'm just like this company of raising money and capital to keep building and it's a competitive market. I didn't like so as I said I was like 21 didn't know anything about business venture capital raising money.

Nothing. I mean I knew a little bit. I knew like terminology and stuff like that just from you know watching again like Steve Jobs and you know learning about Silicon Valley and reading tech crunch and stuff. But I didn't know anything about actually like the process of raising money and I wasn't really involved in that. But I did see our, I did like kind of see our CEO go through that and I went to

some of our investors' houses. And so it's something I got a little bit exposed to when I worked there. But for me it was mostly I was just writing code and, you know, like raising money and that whole process is something that I've become more familiar with by investing in the last couple years. I'm curious about like this pursuit of perfection as a creator never ends and what your process looks like in terms of planning, creating, testing, refining, and then going through that process again. Like in the military, in the army, we had this eight-step training model. And, you know, You plan, you execute, you refine, and you get through that process again to make it better and better and better. This pursuit of perfection, which perfection never comes.

You just own this pursuit all the time. And it seems like that has been the game plan of this professional career that you built, where it's like there was never this necessarily like mission or intention in the beginning. it's just go out and execute, get punched in the face, learn from it, refine, go out again, get punched in the face. What has that experience been like? Has it been exhausting? Has it been rewarding? Is it fulfilling?

Do you still feel challenged through it? What's that been like? I don't really ever find myself pursuing perfection. but I because and it that might actually be to a fault for me because I try to do too many things like we were talking about at dinner yesterday like I live for the zero to one phase of something looking at something good that I like and I enjoy and going through the process of figuring out the pieces that make that thing work and that make it good, whether it's editing a video or making a song or anything. I love that process, that first bit of the learning curve.

So for me, that's what I live for. That's what I try to do. And so I, what that ends up happening, though, is that I'm kind of like a jack-of-all-trades and I'm not really mastering one and trying to pursue perfection in one of them. I also find that I really like completing the loop of a creative thing. Like I love the process of starting from scratch all the way to release. And I try to do that sometimes a little bit too quickly where like I'll conceive of an idea and then I want it out the next week. So I can start working on the next one.

I can relate to that. Yeah, but sometimes it's really good in creative endeavors to stew on something. Let it sit for a while. That's why I really like music. I know I keep bringing it up, and it's like annoying. People are like, dude, stop talking about DJing. But like, and it's the same thing. I don't know if you know, but I used to make comedy rap as a group called Tiny Meat Gang.

I've listened to it. Yeah, okay. So you know. So we have like a, like that's a pretty successful project. We have like a shit ton of streams. It's really good music. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate that. But that was one of my favorite parts about that whole project is, is we would make something and we would let it sit for a while. And then we would come back to it. And that's what music is about. And that really helps sometimes. Chipping away. Exactly. Like listening to it with fresh years, a couple months later, seeing how the whole industry has kind of changed in that time and being like, was this sound still new enough? Is it still fit in? Do we release this? That whole process? process. With YouTube, that's not

existent. You come up with something, you write it, you shoot it, you edit it, and then it's out. If you sit on it, it becomes irrelevant. Stale and irrelevant. Yeah. But with bigger projects, bigger film projects and stuff, you have to, it's a long process, you know? And I find myself kind of

yearning for that part of creativity, even though it's really hard for me to do that because I'm impatient. But forcing myself to be patient and forcing myself to kind of sit on something and go back to it and try to perfect it in a way has been an exciting challenge for me recently.

I also really like going, we talked about this last night, from zero to one, taking nothing and turning into something. Have you ever felt guilty for not enjoying one to two as much as zero to one? Yeah, I mean, as I said,

I feel like I, I constantly have this feeling where if I were to dedicate myself to one thing, I feel like I could be really good at it. Probably better than I am now. And I might even be, you know, that might lead to more success because if you're really into one thing

and your heart and soul is in it, then like, and you're forcing yourself to succeed, then who knows where that could take you, you know? But I'm just not that kind of person. And I don't think there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah. But it is that sort of, do you ever get that, like nagging,

sort of voice that's like if you were to really dedicate yourself to one thing like you're missing out and I struggle with this because I enjoy zero to one so much like that fills my cup it feels like a double shot of espresso all day

when I'm in that phase and you get the one to two and that same just like energy isn't there and I felt guilt there before I'm like man why do I what do I want more of a challenge?

Why do I want zero to one? And I think it's because it is challenging and it's new and you can be more, you can pivot more, you have more options, you can be flexible, like you have more creative freedom. Totally. You know,

I had Sam Parr on the podcast last week and this is something we talked about because he built, you know, he built the hustle from, from scratch. They ended up selling it to HubSpot in 2021. and I'm really curious on your thoughts on this whole thing because, you know,

in the beginning of, when you started creating content, you had so much creative freedom. And then what happens with some creators like yourself is, that turns into a full-blown business with employees and metrics you, like you want to hit and money you have to bring in because you have overhead, you have a lease, you have payroll,

you have insurance, you have all this stuff. And it gets to a point where your creative freedom is smaller, and now you're operating for optimized growth and scale. Do you ever miss some of the creative freedom that came with operating at a smaller entity, or do you still feel like you have that? I feel like I'm in a place where I still have it, and I've made sure that that's the case. Would you say you've controlled growth of what you're building?

Yeah, I mean, it depends what we're talking about because I feel like with TeamG Studios, which is like the business, you know. It's a podcast network. It's like a real business. We have 14 full-time employees. That definitely, once that started becoming more of a business, we hired an operator like right away, you know, or as soon as we could. At what point did you, would you say it became a business? It was a couple years ago when we consciously made the decision to take the money that we were earning and kind of reinvested back in the business by hiring and by starting to produce other shows as well. That was, it was like a conscious like discussion. This is what we want to do. And it was a tough one because it's like this is our livelihood, you know.

And this is just like, you know, this is revenue, but it's it's the money that we're making by. doing our show that we could just be living off of just putting in our bank account. And to take that and use that instead as capital to grow that business was a tough decision because it's a risk. And it's like, it's a big risk. Yeah, we might just be like burning this money for no reason because this might not work. And so that was a scary risk for sure.

But I'm glad we made that decision. And it definitely did. Like we used to do everything ourselves, you know, like shoot, edit. in the very beginning. We would do everything ourselves. And then we hired someone to help us out with that. And then eventually, you know, hired a couple more people and then built a big set. And then we hide, that's when we kind of hired an operator to, because we realize at least me, I'm a horrible people manager.

I'm horrible at it. And as soon as we started getting into more the weeds of that, it was like, okay, we're, we're, you know, we need to, both Noel and I, my partner, are both, like, creative people, and we need that aspect of our lives to continue. Otherwise, we'll go insane. And so we needed to hire someone to, like, really focus on the business.

And so we did. And so ever since then, it's remained, like, TMG, and then we have our own individual, you know, creative endeavors outside of that. So right now, like, my week is basically, like, a couple days on TMG related stuff like doing my own shows and worrying about the business and then

but it's more like big picture strategy stuff and then outside of that it's my own stuff so it's training it's shooting my own stuff working on music whatever it is there's certain days in the week you have to go into an office do you have office hours yeah basically our Tuesday

is the day that we shoot so like I'm basically in office like all morning until the afternoon. But we actually just got some new creative office space, so I might spend some more time there, just so I'm a little bit more accessible. Because I do feel like that face time is important, especially

as like the owner of the company. Yeah. I think hiring an operator right from the beginning, it was probably one of the best decisions you could have made. I think so too because as a creative person, again, like I need that time to myself. And

the one downside to it though is that I'm not learning as much about how to run a business as I probably could be and managing people and you know the ins and outs of that I feel like that is a zero to one process that I'm kind of missing out on but um I think I'm also comfortable with the fact that I'm just not like I really like big picture strategy stuff when it comes to business that's what I read about that's what I think about all the time and you know, managing people and sort of the nitty gritty, like, I'm horrible at it. So I'm definitely, like, very willing to, you know, hire someone that's good at that and enjoys it. And shout out Ryan, the guy that we hired, he's just, he's incredible at it. So there's only,

there's only one Cody Co. There's only one of you that can do what you do. And it's like, It's an opportunity cost exercise. And I had to learn this a hard way. I mean, a lot of entrepreneurs make this mistake, especially entrepreneurs, business owners that start as creatives. Where, you know, I built the brand based off of content and creating. And I love creating. It's like what fills my cup.

That's what I love doing. But I naturally had to be a businessman and be the entrepreneur and be the operator just because I didn't have an option in the beginning. We didn't have enough money to hire someone. And it got to a point where I was spending 95% of my time operating the business and 5% creating content. And we reached this pivotal inflection point

where it was, if we want to keep growing the brand, where is my time best spent? And it's creating content. Yeah. And it's hiring an operator. Yeah. And that's like one lesson. and I had to learn is, like, what is my strength in the business?

Where's my area of genius? I read this really good book a few months ago. It's called The 15 commitments of conscious leadership. And one of those commitments of conscious leadership is identifying your area of genius and putting yourself in that area of genius. So, yeah, you could learn how to be the best operator in the world. But is that your area of genius? And then where's the opportunity cost of what you could have been spending that time doing creatively?

I totally agree with that. And I feel like my area of genius at least is like in my office alone working on something that, you know, my next idea or whatever it is. What are you most excited about that you're working on right now? I know I keep saying it, but I just really, I really am falling in love with music production. When we started making music as TMG, I would sit with our producer and we would do these sessions and I watch him make beats.

And during that time, I downloaded Ableton and started making beats myself. And so I've been doing it for like six years, but finally feel like I'm now hitting my stride a little bit. And it's that really exciting zero to one process where it's like, well, I think one of the things that's so great about that is it's like beginner gains in lifting.

Newbie gains. Yeah, exactly. Newbie gains. It's like you, you know, you start lifting and your body starts adapting super quickly and you're like, oh my God, this is amazing, you know? That's what it feels like right now. And I just love that. And it was like that when I first started YouTube, when I first started at Vine, you know, figuring out how something works and starting to put the pieces together just gets me going. What do you want to do with it? I don't know. I would love to, you know, I would love to build an audience of, you know, or a listenership of people that like the music

that I produce from the ground up because that would be kind of validating for me in a sense where it's like you figured out how to do it it probably is one of the most intimidating creative endeavors because it's just so vast

so many directions you can go so many instruments, so many things you could play so many buttons on the software that you use it's so intimidating so many people drop off on any point in the music making process you hear that

from people. They say, like, I was, I was one day away from quitting because I've been doing this for five years and nothing was happening. And then one day it clicked and I started writing the best songs that I've ever written. And I think that is, I think sticking that out and finally being able to see a little bit of success, hopefully will feel great if it happens, you know? And I'm not sure it will. That's why it's, that's why this process is fun. Because it's, it's a challenge and it's intimidating and it's, um, you don't know if it's gonna work out.

I was actually thinking about music a few days ago when I was, not for me personally. I mean, I would love to be able to, I was in a band in high school. I've always loved music. I've been obsessed with music, punk, emo stuff when I was younger. And I'm also a country music fan. But if you look at a country song,

it's like, there's typically a very similar riff going on and like, you know, They're singing about the same things. This is no shade or nothing bad against country music. I love country music, but some of the creativity isn't the most in-depth. And I was listening to, I forget what song it was,

a few days ago on Spotify. And I was just thinking about, like, where did they start even the process of thinking about the first, like, 15 seconds of this song? and it completely shifts and it changes the direction. I'm like, do these beats, do these lyrics,

do these sounds just come into people's minds? I'm curious for you as a musician as an artist, how do you start a song? Oh my God, like the process of making music is so not glamorous

from a producer's standpoint. I'm sure if I could play an instrument, it would be a little bit more elegant, right? Because you can riff, you can feel the energy. But when you're sitting down, plugging in like MIDI notes into a DAW, it's so unglamorous. It's the most ridiculous painstaking. You're listening to the same loop, the same 16 bar loop over and over again, like adjusting these weird sounds. And I think a lot of people don't realize

that. Like, it seems like when you listen to music, it's like, oh, everything is, everything must have just come together and all these sounds work. It's like a lot of the times it's just trial and error. it's just like playing something and then you're like wait that sounds like shit and going back and singing gibberish lyrics finding melodies most of them are and most sessions that you do are bad most

of the at least for like for me the way the place that I'm at right now it's like most times I sit down and make music it's bad and then one out of every like five will be like okay this is something that sounds actually cool so yeah it's it's a it's a lot of trial and error and it's less glamorous than it may seem

But that's the same with training too. Very monotonous. A lot of days are just shitty. Yeah. And you feel like bad. But that's no progress is linear. When I was in high school, I mentioned I was really into music. And we would set up this condenser mic.

And it was the room above my parents' garage. It's like a bonus room. They built out. We'd set up this condenser mic and we press record. and then someone would be on guitar just playing a riff. Someone was on the drums just playing a basic beat. And we'd have mics and mics dance set up everywhere. And we would just make up lyrics as we went.

Yeah. And we'd sing about stuff that, like, we were experiencing as high school students. And some of the most fun times my entire life, it was just nonsense. It wasn't any good, but me and my friends just riffing on four chords and making up lyrics.

So fun. So much fun. fun. So fulfilling, too. I always tell myself I'm going to start playing guitar again. I haven't pulled it out for a while. My dream is to be a singer. Yeah. A good singer, but I'm such a bad singer. And I've been meaning to take like singing lessons to get like somewhat decent.

Yeah. But I think the ship has sailed. You should. No, it's never too late. That's what they say. Yeah. It's never too late. So let's talk about your next challenge. 50 mile ultra. Yeah. Why, what, where, when,

what's it all about well I so the altar that I did last year was a 60k so it's 30 what is that 36 miles 32 miles 36 maybe and at that time they also had a 50 miler and a 100 mileer

so I saw you know I saw people doing the longer distances and also my parents have done them so it also is something that I'm like oh maybe I'll do that one day and then when I was training for Iron Man I was like I want to this is such like a it is such like a self-indulgent

thing. I'm constantly just, it's me, me, I got to train, I got to train. I want to make sure that I'm doing something for other people too. So we started raising money for a charity and one of the you know, one of the incentives we came up with was every thousand dollars we raise I'll run one mile in a race sometime after Iron Man.

And 50 was the goal. And we hit it. So now I'm like legally binded. I got to do it for the fans, for the people that raise the money. And I'm excited. You know, it just seems like a great next challenge. So I'm probably, you know, it's been two weeks since I did Iron Man. So I'm

kind of still, like I'm just starting now to getting getting back into like a training cycle. So I'm going to start putting in some like longer distances and start training for it and then maybe do it in the fall sometime like when it starts getting cold again. And I still don't know if I'm going to do a trail run or just go out and run 50 miles on flat ground. What about 100 after that? My dad and brother,

brother-in-law are training for 100-mile or right now, as are you, right? Well, it's the last man standing. Right. So, like, the goal was well over 100 miles. Right. But it's a 4.2 mile loop every hour on the hour. So you go until you either tap out

or you miss the, you don't complete the 4.2 miles in an hour. If you don't complete the 4.2 miles in an hour, you can't go back out on that next lap. Oh, I see. So there's cutoffs. So how do you think you're going to finish? Is it going to be the cutoff or are you going to just cut off?

Yeah? Yeah, I won't like, I won't let myself say I'm not going out for another lap. Right. It's going to have to be, I miss the cutoff. So that's basically like you're walking for the 4.2 miles, right? You got to think like 4.2 miles in an hour, you got to hold like a 1330. But so you'll be walking, like, you'll have to get to the point where you're like, walking slowly.

Oh, yeah, you'll get to a point in both my hundreds that I've done, get to a point where it's like a run walk. Yeah. Especially on Leadville, there was a lot of climbing, a lot of walking. On the Rocky Raccoon 100-mile or like, I kept moving for most of it. But yeah, you get to a point where it's got to be a run walk. Yeah. At some point.

Yeah. For you, is fitness, at least running or endurance training? Is it a form of meditation for you? Do you have clarity? Yeah, definitely. And I do, I get runners high a lot. I get crazy. It just makes me feel great.

And I really genuinely enjoy running. I think that it's a great way to be a part of the landscape. Even if I do the same run every day, I enjoy it just as much. And I'm blessed to live in a beautiful place. So I get to run by the beach every day. and it's amazing, but I never get sick of it. You mentioned surfing earlier.

Do you get the same type of feel and clarity from surfing? I do, but I'm not as good at it. Like, I think part of running is that, like, I can feel myself getting better, and I feel like it's this, you know, it's like a strength. Like, I feel like I'm good at it. I enjoy it. I feel strong when I'm out there. But with surfing, like, you know, I picked up surfing as an adult.

I started when I was 24 or 23 or something. So surfing is one of those things that you have to do as a child in order to like, you know, hardwire those connections in your brain. And if you start as an adult, you always kind of look unnatural during it and you always kind of have that, at least for me, it's like I'll always have that sort of fear of big waves and stuff. So I still feel like I'm a novice when I'm out there on the water. I love it. I love it to death.

Like I do it all the time. But it is one of those things where how. the sessions I come back just like hating myself. I'm like, you're a pussy. I think I'd be frustrated from surfing because, you know, with running, you get these long strides of just clarity. Surfing, I can imagine, it's a lot of getting up falling, getting up falling, maybe a few.

It's a lot of not even getting waves. That's what it is. Like, that's what a bad session is for me is that sometimes, depending on the conditions, it's like, you might just not get a wave. And so you're like, I just wasted two hours out there on the water. At least when you go running, even if you have a shitty run, it's like it feels like you made some progress. You put in a little work. Yeah.

With surfing, it's like sometimes you come back after an hour and a half and it's like, I fucking didn't get a single wave. And you just feel like a waste of space and time and energy, you know? Yeah, it's tough. Yeah. So that's the most difficult thing about it. But it's so rewarding when you have a great session. It is the best feeling in the world.

I'm in Texas. I'm in Texas. We're not hitting any waves. Well, no, you have Waco. We do. I've been to BSR. It's fun. Wave park. I've been there. I didn't do this surfing, but they have this massive slide where you get, like, I mean, massive slide. You get thrown in the air like 30 feet. Yeah. I know they have the wave park, too. The wave park is so fun. I went there for my bachelor party in November, right? Yeah, November. And so this is like, I was supposed to do. the California International Marathon in December as part of my training for Iron Man.

I was like, I'll get really new shape, hit a PR on the marathon that's going to make me feel great. That's like halfway. It's a good course. Yeah, and it's a fast course. It's like one of the fastest marathons in the States because it's like net downhill. So I was super pumped on it.

I was in the best shape of my life in November. I was running like seven minute miles. You know, I did my fastest half marathon in training that I'd ever done. I was like, I'm set up for this. I'm going to get, I'm going to do 3.30. That was my goal. And I went to that surf park on my bachelor party.

My very last wave, I tried to get barreled. And I got hit by the lip and taken up. Slammed on the ground. My legs went over my head, which is fine. But I must have tweaked my back or something. And it put me out for like four weeks or something. Dang. So depressing.

Well, hey, man, we do a marathon every year here to go on more marathon. Okay. So if you want to do the marathon with us, When is it? So this past year, or this year it was in April, and it's a pretty baddest experience where everyone shows up the BPNHQ the morning of the race. And we get on buses and we shuttle out to this secluded ranch.

It's about 45 minutes away from here. It's the middle of nowhere. And there's no spectators allowed. There's no one on the course. It's just like you, ranch land, surrounded by cows. and there's about 300 runners there. And we may get this experience. We call it the Going More Marathon.

And I'm the guy at the end. It puts a metal around everyone's neck and gives everyone a hug. Nice. But it's a sweet course. That's awesome. It's the first course where I ran sub three. Oh, nice. So I did that in 2021.

And then we hosted, that was a small marathon. We had about 40 people there. The next year we had 200 people. This past year we had 300 people. Wow. So every year we'll just grow more and more. and it's always on that same course. What's it like organizing a race like that?

Because I've kind of felt like maybe I want to start doing that one day. Like, you know, with the Cody Trains community. Right. I get people tagging me all day long in their first half marathon and like the races that they're signing up for. And I'm like, I would love to get everyone together to do this. I'm sure that was your motivation too. Was it difficult figuring out a course and organizing a race like that?

This past year, I didn't have to do it. anything for it. Adam Klink, who's our community director, he took lead on all of it. We hired a race course director, race course director this past year, which helped down a lot. But logistically, planning a race

is an undertaking. Yeah, because it's like people's safety. Is that, you know, you got to make sure you have like enough water and enough aid stations, enough bathrooms. EMTs. EMTs, yeah. Police, you just shut down roads.

Yeah. We got it certified. So it was a Boston qualifier. No way. That's cool. So you bring a certification, certifying body out there to certify the course, food, water, everything.

It's a big logistical operation. How many people is it going to be next year? I think we'll try to do like five to 600 next year. Maybe do two different days, like separate the half and the full. Or do staggered starts. Because it's not a massive course. it's backcountry roads

you know we pull everyone in and there's a small ranch house where everyone kind of just hangs out before the race starts so like the course itself and the building and bathrooms and all that can only that'll never be a course

that can hold a thousand plus people which makes it cool and interesting like Thrillist did an article on it this past year and said it was like one of the top races to to do because it's exclusive and selective.

So if you want to do it, let me know. Yeah, I'm down. Count me in. Sub three. Let's do it. I'm committing now to running that marathon sub three. Well, hey, I appreciate you making the trip down here. Thanks for having me, dude.

This has been great. Thanks for training with me last night. Yeah. And getting some sushi. Thanks for training me last night. I did train you last night. You did. You got me back into lifting.

I needed that. It's like the blank. page again. It's like when I don't do something for a while, I'm like that first time going to the gym to make myself lift is so hard, even though I've done it so much in the past. Like I know, you know, what I'm doing generally. It shouldn't be that hard to like go in and just like start lifting shit, heavy shit off the ground. Makes you feel good. Yeah, but I needed that like, just get up there, do some pull-ups, do this, do this, do this. And now I'm like into it again. I want to go back home and hit the gym. That's great. Yeah. So I appreciate that.

Thank you. Yeah, thanks for making the trip, man. I really appreciate it. And this is great. Yeah. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Shout out to everyone listening.

Thanks, everyone. That's a wrap.