The Nick Bare Podcast - 017: Done Is Better Than Perfect - Just Get Started

Episode Date: June 8, 2023

Today I'm answering some of your most-asked questions over the past few weeks. As always, we are keeping it fully transparent and honest. I open up about what scares me most, reveal my decision to rerun the Leadville 100, offer valuable advice for new runners, and break down the concept of "done is better than perfect." Enjoy the episode! Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: https://www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: https://www.youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 00:00 Intro 1:45 Books I’m reading 7:53 3 things I’ve improved on this past year 19:16 Things I’m working to improve on 21:35 Running Leadville 100 again 26:42 Best advice for new runners 30:26 Why you should take creatine 36:12 Evening family routine 43:04 Advice to young entrepreneurs 47:09 Losing body fat with intuitive eating 53:07 My biggest fear 56:59 Most challenging time of building BPN 1:00:51 Hybrid athlete training program

Welcome to the Nick Bear podcast. I've spent the past decade as a CEO building an industry leading supplement brand. There's a story. There's a mission. Serving in the U.S. Army. First video in Korea. And creating a community of inspiring leaders. The mission isn't changing, but it's evolving.

So I'm excited for this next chapter. It's out of you, man. Through powerful, unfiltered conversations. You have to be careful with entrepreneurship. You can get hurt. My mission is to help you unlock your full potential and create the life you desire. This is it. I'm a different person now.

Cameras rolling and we're on. I'm your host, Nick Bear. Enjoy the episode. Before jumping into this episode, I want to thank you for tuning in and spending your time with me. Every watch and listen truly does matter. Now, we've decided to not take on any sponsors for this podcast

because we don't want to interrupt your listening experience. But if you do want to support me, you can head over to BPNSups.com for all of your performance, endurance, and wellness supplement needs. We offer a wide range of products from amazing tasting protein powders, effective pre-workouts, green superfoods, multivitamins, sleep support, and much more. I've spent the last decade building this brand community and product offering,

and I'm extremely thankful that it has helped so many people. So if you are in need of a new supplement routine, head over to BPNSups.com and use code Nick Bear 10 to save 10% off your order. Now let's jump right into this episode. What's going on, guys, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today's is a question and answer. Ask me anything that I posted on Instagram about a week ago, and I wanted to cover some of these questions that I've been getting a lot of recently.

And to be honest, a lot of the questions that I've been getting over the last couple months have specifically been around how I balance work, family, and fitness, especially as a new dad. You know, my daughter literally turned 10 months old yesterday. Just crazy to think, you know, it's people ask all the time, does it feel like it's going fast or does it feel like it's going slow? And I tell my wife, I can't remember life before. having Charlie before she was born. It feels like this has just been our life forever. But to think that she was born 10 months ago, I remember those days and weeks like they

were yesterday. So I'm sure a lot of parents say this. It goes really fast, but it also, it just feels like this has been our life for a long time, which I love. But I wanted to kind of provide some context into how I'm navigating being a dad, being a husband, building the business, maintaining my health and fitness and nutrition, because, you know, while I've taken on more responsibility as a father these last 10 months, I've still prioritized my business and leading a team and building the business and my health

and my diet, those have not fallen off track by any means. But before we dive into some of these questions, I did want to go over what I have, I've been reading and listening to as of lately. I share it some time to time. I get a lot of questions on social. What am I reading? And when I share what I'm reading, there often is a lot of interest in what I'm reading

because typically what I'm listening to or what I'm reading is guiding a lot of my thoughts. And right now I've been listening to a lot of audiobooks while I'm running in the morning. And the one that I'm reading right now that I highly recommend is called The Courage to Be Disliked

and I found this book literally 10 days ago someone that I follow who's a runner in the Austin area recommended this book and I was intrigued by the title The Courage to be Disliked so I downloaded it on Audible

I started listening to it on one run It was very interesting because it is this curated conversation between this philosopher, who I assume is the author, and this younger man, and they are talking about the lessons that this book describes. So I recommend it. It's been one of my favorite reads in this past year, the courage to be disliked. I am about halfway through right now. It's an easy listen. It's an easy read, but gives you some very interesting perspective.

on how to live a life that is fulfilled with purpose and passion and happiness and happiness that is internally driven and not through external validation, which I think is a huge issue in today's society, today's age, especially with the growth of social media. And as I raise our daughter with my wife, this is something we talk about all the time. This is something that I think about all the time is, you know, when I grew up, my parents raised my brother and I, it was before the boom of social media. And now as I'm raising a child in the boom of social media, there's a whole different perspective and approach to social and external validation that my children are going to have to go through that I personally did not have to experience. So books like this, just for me, provide a lot of context in color. The book that I listened to or read before this one was called Supergut.

We're having the author of Supergut Dr. William Davis on the podcast in a few weeks. Before that, The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry by Mark Comer. Great book. I'll probably read that book once a year, every year. I've heard from a lot of people who have read the ruthless elimination. of hurry. That is one of those books they reread every year. Right now I'm also rereading the molecule of more and books that I have on deck that I plan on getting to in the next couple weeks. I'm always reading and listening to multiple books,

as I've talked about before. I'll kind of balance between a few based off of what I'm desiring or what kind of fuel that I'm requiring in the moment. Like as you can see, some of these books are self-help books. Some provide a new perspective or thought process behind, you know, being a leader in a business or your family or just life in general, fulfilling happiness. And some are, you know, fitness or health-related books. Like one of the books I have on deck is called peak performance. The other one is called the creative act. One is called the culture map and one that I've had on deck for a while is called Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters. So that's what I'm reading right now. That's what I've read the last couple months and that's what I have

on deck that I plan on reading over the course the next couple weeks, months, and year. So diving right into the first question, I thought this was a really good one. What is one thing that you've improved this past year and what is one thing that you can still get better at? Something that I personally think that I've improved significantly this past year. And Steph and I were having this conversation this past Sunday. Something that Steph and I have been doing, and this was Steph's idea, you know, we were sitting on the couch a few Sundays ago, a few weeks ago. and she had the idea of let's give each other three compliments of something that each one of us has been doing really well

in our life personally, professionally, in our relationships. And we've been doing that. You know, we just sit down on Sunday night, we share three compliments to each other. It feels really good, and it kind of just facilitates a really good conversation and some good thoughts. something that I have improved in this past year.

I have a few listed here. One is prioritizing family. The second is setting boundaries in my life. And the third is eliminating the need or desire to always be working. So let me dive into those a little bit. Kind of a side note too. You know, Steph and I were talking, like I said, it's past Sunday. and one of the things that I've noticed,

probably since Charlie's been born, is, you know, Steph and I have been married for a few years now, and a marriage is a partnership, and I knew that, and I thought I understood that, but in reality, I really don't think I did,

not until we became parents. And I've seen our marriage, our relationship, turning into this true partnership where we really do support each other in the goals that we set, the objectives that we go after, the time that we allow each other to have

by ourselves and with Charlie. So like really building a true partnership in a marriage is something that we've been working on this past year and I'm proud to say it's definitely grown and improved. But going back to my improves, the first being prioritizing family, you know, this is one of those things that I've always said family was a priority to me. And someone mentioned this to me on a podcast a few months ago.

They said, you know, look at your calendar. Look at the things that you put on your calendar and then look at your priorities. Does your calendar reflect your priorities? And if it doesn't, something might be wrong. So I used to always say family was a priority. but if you look at my calendar, I would have, you know, meetings and calls, podcast, days we were filming, travel for work, birthdays, you know, but family time was never on there. I never allocated actual time to spend on with a family. It was always an afterthought.

It was always if I have a few extra hours in the evening or if I have an open Saturday or Sunday, well, that would be family time. which typically then in reality turned into this is prep work for the meetings or calls or media production I had for the following days. So one of the things that I've actively tried to improve this past year that I think I've gotten better at is actually prioritizing family. And Charlie being born was definitely a catalyst for this. and me realizing how I didn't prioritize my wife and my relationship was a huge awakening for myself, but I've learned to prioritize family over all other things in my life.

And that is one of those things that when you do it, you instantly feel and experience the return, the benefit. It has improved all aspects of my life. to be very, very honest with you guys. The second thing that I've improved this past year is setting boundaries. And this is something I haven't or didn't realize was an issue for me for a long time. And it's something that I've been more active talking about more recently. You know, bootstrapping a business, building a business with people,

and as that business scales and grows, more people join the team. and there's more responsibility, there's more obligation, and I made myself very, very accessible to everyone and everything. And when I quickly realized was that by the end of the day, I was exhausted. I didn't save any time for myself. I didn't save any time for what my priority should have been, being family, because I didn't set boundaries.

And when I finally set boundaries of, I won't answer emails before, after a certain time. I'm not going to spend time on my phone before or after a certain time. I'm not going to take meetings on certain days. I'm not going to over-commit to projects or things that I'm working on. And when I set those boundaries and I really cleared up and cleaned up my schedule, it allowed me, one, to have more clarity into what was important. It allowed me to have more energy and creativity into what I would.

was working on, and I was able to put more effort, more focus on less, which made those things that I was actually working on and spending time on so much more effective and productive. So setting boundaries was a big improvement. Setting boundaries in my life, both personal and professional, was a big improvement this past year. A lot of people reach out trying to get an hour of time, a day of time, 30 minutes of time. And what I used to do is say, yes, I was a yes man. I would take all the opportunities I could, which at one point in my career I had to. To get to a certain point, sometimes you just have to say yes to a lot of opportunities because you don't want to burn bridges. You want to create these opportunities and networks to grow and scale in your profession.

but you quickly realize that that's not sustainable. And sometimes setting boundaries is ending relationships that aren't providing you happiness or value or benefit. It is saying no to people or things or quote unquote opportunities. and when you can learn to say no more often, it's so powerful. It's so powerful. And it's definitely easier said than done. And then my third that I improved on this past year

is the need and desire to always be working. And I think this has become a habitual habit based off of the result of bootstrapping in business for the last 11 years. You know, this August we will celebrate 11 years since I started BPN. And those first eight years, nine years, maybe almost 10 years. It was probably 10 years. It was nonstop work.

That was the focus. That was the priority from the time I woke up to the time I went to sleep. That was all that I thought about. That was really all that I cared about was work, building the business, taking care of the team, sacrificing my time and my health and my energy to build the business. And that's what I had to do to bootstrap this brand to a certain point. But what I realized is you can only do that for so long. And sometimes you keep doing something even when you don't have. have to because it becomes a habitual routine.

Here's an example of that. You know, say a year and a half ago, we would finish eating dinner. And we've always done family dinners, like me and staff always sit down weekday, weeknight, and we have dinner together, say six, seven p.m. And for years and years and years during like the heavy days of building BPN, And as soon as dinner was done, I'd go back to work. And it would be filming videos, editing videos, working on the website, creating content, building systems and SOPs and infrastructure to facilitate growth.

And even when I built the team to a certain point, and I didn't have to do that anymore, I found that I was still doing it because I knew what got us here. And my ability to work all the time resulted in a certain outcome. And I was afraid to stop that level or amount of work because there was a fear that things would stop growing at the rate they did historically. And what I realized is that I could eat dinner and then spend time with, with my family or friends and have a social life and not go right back to work and momentum wouldn't slow down because the team was built. I had systems and infrastructure and operating

procedures implemented that facilitated our growth and I think there's a great learning lesson there that sometimes we do things based off of this this pattern. in recognition of what we've experienced or built in the past that results in a certain outcome. So we keep doing it because we're afraid that if we change what we were doing, it's going to change the desired outcome or result in a way that is less desirable. And that is false. That is not true. You know, the quote, the saying, the phrase, what got you here will not get you there.

works in both ways. And sometimes you actively have to break your routines. You have to break these habits you've created, typically based off of a fear, to experience personal and professional growth on another level. So those are three things that I improved this past year. Something that I'm still working on. And I'm going to get really very real and vulnerable in this one.

still working on improving my relationship with God. It is something I've been working on for years now, and it has improved, it has gotten better. I don't think that is ever something that you've perfected. It's something I will always be working on, but it's something that I want to put more effort into over this next year. I really do. I want to spend really hard quality time building my relationship

with God and focusing on my faith. And still working on, this kind of contradicts what I have improved, but I'll explain, still working to improve an addiction or being reliant on a routine. Now, we filmed the YouTube video this past week all about why routines are making you weaker.

And one of the reasons or the things that we identified is that it's important to distinguish a responsibility and a routine. A routine is something that we do to be more effective with a desired outcome in our time. A responsibility is something that we have to prioritize in our life that outweighs a routine. and something that I'm still working on is I have these routines that I've built into my life. I have a morning routine. I have a pre-workout routine. I have a workout routine. I have a routine through the workday and the weekends.

I have a nighttime routine. And if we're too reliant on these routines, we often will or can neglect our responsibilities because we are so focused on the effectiveness of a routine. and that we stop applying just common sense and intentionality to the things that we're doing. So even though that has been an improvement in my life, it's still something I'm actively working on. Question number two. Would you ever run Leadville 100 again? I would, and I am in a certain capacity, I will be there this year pacing Adam Klink,

who's our community director here at BPN, I'll be pacing clink for a few miles. When I say a few miles, it's probably going to be like 20 miles out in Leadville. But I don't ever plan on running the entire Leadville 100 again. And here's why. Leadville 100 for me was this absolutely remarkable experience. and I don't use the word remarkable often.

You know, Seth Godin says that the opposite of great is remarkable. That is the significance of difference between great and remarkable. Remarkable is just breathtaking. Leadville 100 for me, which is a 100-mile ultramarathon in the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado. That was such an amazing experience. One, it was my first ultra ever.

Up until that point, my longest race that I've signed up for was, well, an Ironman. It was my longest triathlon, but my longest foot race was a marathon. So I went from, you know, Iron Man training, Marathon training into ultra training. and what makes the Leadville 100 so unique and special I have only done two ultras up until this point I have my third coming up in this September which is a last man standing race in Maine but what made Leadville 100 so unique

is there's all these moments I mean you land or we landed in Denver, Colorado and we drove up into Leadville and the scenery you experienced on that drive is breathtaking and then you pull in this small town of Leadville, Colorado which there's not much there. It's a small

town and you're surrounded by the mountains. You're in this valley surrounded by mountains. And from the way the race is kicked off to all the checkpoints and the history behind the race and how difficult and challenging it was

and how broken I was, how cold I got and couldn't breathe at certain points and climbing a hopes pass and walking through streams and filling up my water bottles in fresh flowing streams and the best tasting water

I've ever tasted in my life to falling and bleeding all over the place. You know, there was just like all these moments that I experienced there and I want to remember that race for the way that I experienced it that first time. and my fear is that if I do it again,

that experience will change. My perception of the race and, you know, the 28 hours I spent out on that course will change even in a small degree and I don't want that because my memory of that race and that time spent there in Leadville with our crew and our team was so special

that I don't want that to, feel any other way. That's why I will never run that race again. Yes, I will do other ultras, but I want to keep that memory the way that it is. And part of that is ignorance. For me, at least, and I could be the only one that thinks or believes this, but when you do something for the first time, you have this ignorance going into it. It's new.

It's, there's an unknown to it. Whether that's your first marathon or your first time running a specific course on a marathon, there's an ignorance to that experience. And that first time you experience it, it is, it's new, it's enlightening, it's like, it's powerful. And when you go and do it again, I found that it doesn't have that same power. It's almost like when you're, you're, Your favorite movie ever creates and launches a part two or a sequel.

And you loved part one so much. And you have such high expectations for part two because of the way that part one made you feel. And we are almost always let down by the sequel or part two. That's the way I feel about doing certain races for a second time is I don't want to be let down based off of round two. because round one was so unique and special. Next question is, if your best friend who doesn't run came up to you and told you that they wanted to start running,

but wanted you to draw them up a plan, what would the first four weeks look like? So I think this is a really good question for new runners, and I'll explain it pretty easily. You've probably heard me talk about the math 180 formula before, and that's based off the maffatone method. So what you do is you take 180, you subtract your age,

and you use that number as your max aerobic heart rate. So you want to keep your heart rate below that number when you go out and do your easy runs to build your aerobic base. This is how you become a more efficient runner. You get faster over a period of time of training in this aerobic zone, and you need to build an aerobic base. to improve your cardiovascular conditioning or endurance performance.

I don't recommend new runners follow the Math 180 formula. And here's why. What's typically going to happen if you're not a runner and you go out and run for your first time, your heart rate is going to jack up. You're just not used to running.

You're not used to that stimulus or that type of training. So if you try to keep your heart rate below a certain number in those first couple weeks of training, you're probably going to one become discouraged, and you're not going to be able to control your heart rate at all. Those first couple weeks, say the first four weeks of transitioning into a running program, just get out there and run.

Just have fun with it. Go out there, spend some time on your feet. Don't even have a GPS watch going. Don't track your mileage. Just say, you know, I'm going to go run for 30 minutes. And that might have to be a run-walk approach in the beginning. You know, to tell someone brand new to running, go run for 30 minutes or go run for four or five miles, it's intimidating, right? So what you can do is you go out and you just slowly jog.

Jog as far as you can go. And when you start feeling uncomfortable or that you need to rest, transition it into a walk and walk for as long as you need and then start running again. And that first couple runs just do a run-walk approach. Get time spent on your feet. And as you start building some confidence and some comfort in running, you can extend that time of running and decrease that time of walking. Or maybe you're running the entire time. And you slowly start increasing the amount of time on your feet,

whether that's time or distance. What you don't want to do is increase time or distance more than 10% week over a week. And the reason for that is you don't want to have overuse injuries. You want to allow your body to acclimate and get comfortable with increased time or distance mileage. So don't increase time or mileage more than 10%. And don't worry about heart rate for this first couple of weeks. Now when you're a few weeks in, you start feeling more comfortable running. Yes, then you can start incorporating the MAF-180 method or the Mapaton method to start making sure you're running in an aerobic zone below your max aerobic heart rate.

But in the beginning, just get out there, spend some time on your feet, use a run-walk approach if you need to, and don't increase time or mileage more than 10%. Now we're getting into some supplement talk. Should you be taking creatine if you're trying to lose body fat? I think everyone should be taking creatine. Specifically, creatine monohydrate. Now, the creatine monohydrate that we sell at BPN is sourced from Creepure. It is the most pure form of creatine monohydrate you can get on the market. It is produced and synthesized in Germany by Alaskam.

There is Creepure and there's everything else. So if you're going to take creatine and you want to take the most pure, effective form of creatine, make sure you're taking Creepure, whether it's BPNs or not. Now, the reason I think everyone should be taking creatine is because it is

one of, if not the, most studied supplement in terms of performance, performance enhancement, has been shown to increase strength, power output, mental processing. I mean, there are more and more

studies being conducted on creatine monohydrate, and the benefits continue to improve and increase with every study that's published. It has been extensively studied. Now, there's a lot of misinformation about creatine. People think that creatine is going to make you bloat. People think that creatine just makes you store more water. People think you're going to gain a whole bunch of weight on creatine. Now, what's interesting about creatine, and this is the reason, or one of the reasons so many people struggle with being consistent with creatine. One, this is a supplement that you need five grams every single day, whether on a training

day or not training day. You take five grams every single day. Creatine does not have any acute benefits or results. You know, you could take caffeine, for example, and say you take 2 to 300 milligrams of caffeine pre-workout, you're going to feel that caffeine kick in in 20 to 30 minutes. You're going to have a heightened sense of awareness and energy and alertness. There is this acute feel from taking caffeine or pre-workout.

Creatine, you don't get this acute benefit or feeling. You're not going to feel the effects of creatine right away. It's going to take about four weeks to saturate the muscles with creatine phosphate to start getting the benefits of creatine supplementation. And that's why you want to make sure you take it every single day. Now, one of the issues and the reasons people can't or won't and don't maintain consistency with creatine is one they forget, because there's no acute benefit.

You're not necessarily feeling it right away. And there is this a certain amount of time that it takes to saturate the muscle cells with creatine or creatine phosphate to start receiving the benefits. So you'll hear from a lot of people, they forgot to take their creatine. They're not consistent with their creatine. They're often on with creatine. Five grams every single day, every day for the rest of my life. That's the way I'm going to supplement with creatine. Like I said, it has been extensively studied and researched and proven to improve performance enhancement.

Now, the way that creatine works is you're going to supplement, like I said, five grams every single day. And it takes about four weeks to saturate the muscles with creatine phosphate. That is how your body, it's how your muscles store creatine in the form of creatine phosphate. So as you're working out, as you're training, and your muscles start to use the energy source of ATP to generate energy to produce a certain movement, that ATP or energy in the muscle, it breaks down. Now, since you have creatine phosphate that is saturated in the muscles,

it is going to donate a phosphate molecule and help regenerate that ATP, providing more energy to the muscles that have performed. a certain exercise. Now, creatine is going to pull more water into the muscles, intracellular into the muscles, which is exactly where you want it. So if you do gain some weight from creatine,

it's because it's pulling water into the muscles, which is where you want it, like I said, it's not going to make you look or feel watery or bloated. If anything, it's going to make your muscles look and feel full. and it's going to help with performance in and out of the gym. So should you be taking creatine if you're trying to lose body fat? Yes, it does not affect body fat loss. What's going to affect body fat loss is your diet and your training.

Are you in a chloric deficit? creatine, if anything, is going to support better performance in the gym, which will support body fat loss. Now, yes, you might gain a little bit of weight over time because you're holding more water intracellular in the muscle, which like I said is where you want to store it. But that is not affecting body fat loss. So whether you're bulking or cutting or running or lifting, creatine supplementation can be beneficial for you.

Next question is what does your evening routine look like with the family? I thought this was a really interesting question because a lot of us talk about morning routines. I did a podcast a few weeks ago talking about my morning routine. I did a YouTube video a few years ago on my morning routine as a hybrid athlete and it popped off. I think it has like 3.5 million views. but we rarely often talk about evening routines. And my evening routine now, since becoming a dad, is very routine. Because if you have kids, you know, kids are on a strict routine schedule.

And the more routine you help them maintain, the easier your life can be. So let's talk about my evening routine as a family. So I get home from work. I try to get home from work around 4.30 p.m. Sometimes it ends up being 5. Sometimes it's later, depending on meetings or calls or work dinners. But I would say 85% of the time I'm home between 4.30 and 5 p.m. And when I get home after work, Steph and I work together.

it's like a back-and-forth trade-off of watching and hanging out and taking care of Charlie and preparing dinner. And we typically make dinner at home. We have a plan of what we're going to eat going to that day so that we can have the groceries we need or certain things prepared or marinated or just ready for dinner because we typically eat around 6.6.30 p.m. So from the time I get home from work until the time we eat dinner, which is maybe an hour and a half, hour, hour and a half, maybe two hours. It's spending time with Charlie, preparing dinner together, and we're all kind of in the same area of the house, which is the living room and the kitchen.

We spend a lot of our time in the living room and kitchen because we love to cook, we love to entertain, and we love to be around each other when we're in the house. And it's kind of just the way our house has been built and structured. It doesn't make much sense to spend, any other time in other parts of the house because they're more isolated and secluded. So we eat dinner and right now Charlie being 10 months old, she eats exactly what we eat. So we take, like last night I'll give you an example.

Yesterday before leaving for work, I put a chuck roast in the crock pot. I recently bought half a cow from a local farmer. I'm going to take a quick, a quick little turn. I'm going to tell a story. then we get back to this. I bought half a cow from a local farmer here in Georgetown, Texas, called Bar 3 Beef.

It's grass fed, it's grass finished. Jeff Rusk owns the ranch and the farm, and he puts so much time and care into those animals. And in some of the grasses that he feeds them throughout their life,

he adds radishes. which adds a very sweet flavor, a subtle sweet flavor to the meat, and also helps with the marbling of the fat. But I bought half a cow. And I picked that up this past weekend. I think it was 230 pounds of meat, which is being stored in my chest freezer right now. And the meat is absolutely incredible.

So we wanted to cook some of that yesterday. So I threw one of the grass-fag, grass-finished chuck roast in the crock pot in the morning with some seasoning, some mushrooms, some chicken broth, olive oil, and garlic. And I let that cook for about nine hours on low. So when I got home, that's what we were having. And we made some potatoes and some zucchini to go along with it. But Charlie eats pretty much what we eat right now. So I took the potatoes.

I took some beans that we had left over and some of that, that slow-cooked beef and a little bit of chicken broth just to make it a little softer with everything in there and I threw it in a little food processor for and then that's what she ate I mean that's what we ate that's what she ate hers was obviously

mushed and mashed and it's something that she could consume but she eats what we eat right now for dinner and then she has a few other meals around the day with some bottles too as soon as dinner's done

we do a quick sleep at the kitchen and we typically go for a walk. A 15 to 20 minute walk with Charlie if it's a nice out. I like moving my body. Staff likes moving her body after dinner. It helps with digestion and just feeling better and just being outside, especially this time of the year. I mean, it's middle of May.

It's absolutely beautiful here in Texas. When we come back from that walk, we switch off. Sometimes we switch off based off of rock paper scissors. but someone will give Charlie the bath and then the other person finishes cleaning up the kitchen. So like last night I did bath with Charlie and then Steph cleaned up the kitchen as I was giving Charlie a bath.

And after her bath, we get her room ready, we give her a bottle and we put her to sleep around 7 p.m. We shoot for 7 p.m. every night. You know, the rest of the night for the next two, two, two and a half hours, it's time for me and Steph to spend together. Some of that is just preparing for things we have to do the next day. Sometimes we're still getting work done. I'll be preparing for podcast during this time.

She'll be preparing for some work the next day. We'll prep our meals for the next day. We'll saun it together. I might have a glass of wine out in the front porch together. Or just have a conversation and discussion on the couch together. And we try to be in bed by 9.30. wind down, talk some more, and then, you know, ideally asleep by 10 p.m. That's our nighttime routine.

You know, the goal is dinner, have a really good dinner, and then get Charlie down, and then Steph and I have two, two and a half hours to spend together at night. And that's what our evening routine looks like. And we thoroughly enjoy it. I mean, this time of the year I love just sitting on the front porch with a glass of wine with Steph and just catching up on the things that happened throughout that day. Next question is, what advice would you give to a young entrepreneur who is just getting started with their own business?

So I wrote down this quote and our CEO, Kat, says it's a lot. Done is better than perfect because perfect never gets done. Honestly, one of my best pieces of advice is just get started. Every business owner probably tells you this, but guess what? It's because it works. And anyone who has reached some sort of level of success, no matter how they determine that, they've gotten to that point because they got started at some point. And so many people never get started because of paralysis by analysis.

When I started my business in 2012, I had no clue what I was doing. I had no mentors, I had no family in the new business, I had no guidance on what to do or how to do it. I just knew what I wanted to do. I knew how to take out a loan, and I knew I wanted to get started. And I just got started. And it was by no means perfect. It was the farthest thing from perfect. I messed up so many things.

I wasted so much money. I wasted so much time. I mean, if I look back over the last almost 11 years of building this business, the amount of hours that I've wasted of working on something that has led to a dead end or didn't work out, countless. Endless. But guess what? I had an idea.

I had a vision. I knew I had to execute on that. And a lot of times it didn't work. But when it did, it got me to the next phase, the next chapter of growth in the business. So my first piece of advice is if there's something you want to do and you really want to do it, not because your parents want you to do it, not because your friends are telling you you be good at it, not for social or external validation, but because you want to do it, you're passionate about it, just get started, just get started.

Done is better than perfect because perfect never gets done. My second piece of advice would be play the long game, be patient, and invest your time early on. In my honest opinion, the reason BPN is successful today is because we played the long game. I was never looking for the quick buck. I was never looking to build and sell.

I was never looking to be occasionally great, but we were always focused on being consistently good. And now that we're a decade in that has paid off to our advantage. Those first couple years were brutal. Brutal. Very, very painful. But you get these small wins,

and these small wins would provide some confidence to keep going, keep pushing forward. So be in it for the long game. Look 5, 10, 15, 20 years out and be patient. and invest as much time as you can early on. My third piece of advice is be innovative, be disruptive, be different, be you, know what you sell and who you're selling to.

I'm not going to spend much time on this one right here because it is straightforward and to the point. You have to be innovative. You have to be disruptive to stand out and have some sort of competitive advantage. And if you're not you, you're not showing up authentically as yourself, from the brand that you intended to be, you're going to lose yourself through the process and you're not going to make it for another six months.

And know what you sell, what's your product or service, who are you selling to? And if you say you're selling to everyone, you're wrong. If you try to cater or sell to everyone, you're not selling or catering to anyone. I thought this was a really good question.

And it's can you lose fat while intuitively eating? Now, what is intuitively eating? This is consuming food as a normal human would do if you're not tracking everything you put in your body. A lot of people track their nutrition. I track my nutrition when I have a very specific goal. You know, when I was doing this bodybuilding show

that I just wrapped up a few months ago, I tracked every little thing I put in my body from condiments to protein to carbs to fats, everything was tracked and accounted for because I had a very specific goal that I was trying to achieve. There was a lot of specificity in that plan that I set out. Intuitively eating is just eating based off of a feel.

Eating based off of what makes you feel good, what you're hungry for, eating when you're hungry, eating what you're training for. For example, if you know you're going to run 10 miles in the morning, you're probably going to want to consume some sort of electrolyte and carbohydrate prior to that run. You might not be weighing it out and putting it in my fitness pal or accounting for it in some sort of food tracking app, but you intuitively know that you need fuel to run those 10 miles. Now, can you lose fat while intuitively eating?

Yes, you can. There's pros and cons. If you want to lose weight, you want to lose body fat, we know that you have to be consuming less calories than your body requires to maintain that certain weight. So if you require, let's say, 3,500 calories to maintain 200 pounds, well, you know then if you go into a chloric deficit, say you start consuming. 3,000 calories and nothing else is changing, you're going to lose weight.

You're going to lose body fat. The easiest way to do this is having objective data, and that is tracking. That is using some sort of fitness or food tracking app and inputting the things that you consume, whether very strict and rigid or just loosely and being aware of what you're consuming so you can maintain that chloric deficit. That is objective data. and then we're going to use the mirror in the scale to reflect that objective data. Now when you're eating intuitively and you're not tracking food,

you just have to be mindful and aware of what you're consuming and how much of it. And the best way to lose weight, lose body fat while intuitively eating is watch the scale and look at the mirror. Do you see visible changes that are happening to your body after a few weeks on this? this diet, are you noticing that your stomach looks leaner? Are you noticing that you feel lighter? Running feels more effortless. And then just being mindful and aware of what you're consuming and at what amounts.

It is doable. You can lose weight. You can lose body fat by just being aware and intuitively eating. But I do think that it requires some previous nutrition, education, or food tracking, nutrition tracking experience, to really be successful with intuitively eating to reach a certain goal. So it's a long way of saying you can lose weight, you can lose body fat with intuitively eating. Is it harder than tracking everything you consume?

Yes, probably. But if you have the experience of knowing what certain foods and amounts look like, and you're aware and mindful of how much you're consuming of that over an extended period of time, you can achieve the same desired results, but you have to be very aware and mindful. One thing that you can do as well is if you don't want to track everything, you can just make small changes to your diet because if you're like me, I'm assuming you might be 70 to 80% of your meals day in and day out might be the same. Like for me, for example, my breakfast, 95% of the time is four whole eggs, half a cup of egg whites,

a slice of sourdough, a banana, and some blueberries. And then my lunch is eight ounces of ground beef, 300 grams of jasmine rice, some pickled jalapenos, and some primal kitchens buffalo sauce. And then my third meal is a sludge bowl, and then dinner is always variable based off of what Steph and I are making. And then for my like late night snack before going to bed, I'll have cottage cheese and some fruit and like a high fiber cereal typically. So that that fourth meal is what's variable. And if I wanted to make changes to lose weight or lose body fat, I would probably make some changes to that meal or just change one or two variables to the other constant

meals that I consume on a daily basis. Maybe for breakfast, I don't consume the sourdough bread, or maybe I replace the whole eggs with egg whites, or maybe for lunch, instead of having ground beef, which is typically higher and fat, I replace it with chicken. Maybe with my sludge bowl, I remove the peanut butter or the honey. You can make these small changes to the meals that you're consistently consuming without having to track very strict or rigid to achieve. the desired outcomes that you

hope to successfully achieve. What scares you the most? I had this conversation with Steph last night because I was going over these questions with her. And you guys know the movie Click with Adam Sandler

because I like referencing this movie a lot when people ask this type of question. And if you haven't seen it, in this movie Click, Adam Sandler finds this remote control at Bedbath and Beyond in the Beyond section, and you can use this remote control to fast forward certain parts of your life that are less desirable. For example, Adam Sandler is hoping for this job promotion, and he thinks that it's going to happen in a few months.

So he uses remote control to fast forward his life to the moment he gets to. it's at job promotion. Well, what ends up happening is that job promotion doesn't happen for years and years and years. So he ends up missing a massive part of his life. He ends up missing these pivotal moments in his children's lives and these just present moments in his life and his marriage and his relationships. And he's there, but he's not present.

He's just there because he's on autopilot as he's fast forwarding with this remote. What scares me is that I live a life similar to the life Adam Sandler lived in Click. Where I'm spending too much time on the wrong things, I'm prioritizing parts of my life that don't hold the most meaning being family in relationships and friendships that drive and create true fulfillment and happiness and my greatest fear in life which it's great this is a fear because this is something

that I, we, you can control like starting right now we can control all these variables and these things but I think there's this fear of spending too much time on the wrong things for too long. You know, years and years and years. It's really easy to say, when I get to this point in my life, I'll relax.

When I get to this point in my life, I will spend more time with family. When I achieve X, Y, and Z, I will work less. You know, it's really easy to say that and you find yourself chasing these ambitions for years and years and years and maybe decades

when initially you thought it was only going to take weeks and months. Like I said, the best part is that we can control these outcomes and these decisions, but it would be a great regret to be old and gray and realizing that I prioritized the wrong things in life and missed out on these great moments that we're supposed to be lived and be present for and built relationships between my children and my wife and my friends. And skipping out on those or sacrificing those for some more money in the bank or a bigger salary or a greater ego-driven position and title, I think that's a fear. But like I said, it's something that can be controlled and you have to be aware that you can change those decisions starting right now to avoid that fear. I sat on this question for a while, and it was when was the most challenging times of building BPN? I thought back to 2017 when cash flow was an absolute nightmare. 2017, we were five years in.

It was just me, Preston, and Joe. It was our first year doing seven figures in revenue, mainly organic, just by building an audience and a community online behind a bootstrap brand. but 2017 was also the most fun year of building BPN because going back to the story of running Leadville for the first time we were so naive and ignorant to the risks that we were taking that it was brand new, it was fresh, it was exciting, and as hard as it was, all the positives outweighed the negatives. And I thought back to 2018 when I tried starting another business.

We launched this apparel business called Law Supply Apparel because I thought being a serial entrepreneur and owning multiple businesses was the way to live a happy, fulfilled, successful life, and I quickly realized, you only have so much time, you only have so much energy, you only have so much money to spend on certain things, and there's an opportunity cost when you reallocate all of those things to something else. So we ended up closing that apparel business

because as soon as we launched the apparel business, it slowed down the growth of BPN, and that's what I wanted to prioritize. So 2018, it was a learning year in terms of my professional career. In 2019, we moved into a new HQ, which we're currently in right now, and we were the first business in this business park, and there was no internet. We operated off a hotspot, like a Verizon hotspot for like six months. It was brutal.

It was painful. We had no AC in the warehouse. House. John and Preston were sweating bullets packing orders back there. And it was a really stressful year. And in 2020, in 2021, COVID hit. Businesses were shut down. Supply chain was an absolute nightmare. Getting inventory in to fulfill orders was extremely challenging. We navigated that supply chain crisis and issue. In 2022, the team grew significantly. So it was building out the infrastructure for growth. It was building out retail expansion plans.

It was building out new rules and responsibilities, which came with personnel management and leadership obligations and responsibilities and challenges. So I kind of paint a picture from 2017 to 2022, and now here we are, 2023, to say that every single year building BPN since the beginning in 2012 has had pros and cons

and positives and negatives and every year was challenging in its own. Every year has challenged me and it has forced me to grow. So it's really hard to say what was the most challenging time. What was the most challenging year of BPN and building the business?

I can't say there was a year that really stood out because every year since the beginning, beginning has been extremely challenging, but that's part of the passion. That's part of the joy. That's the reason we do it, right? It's hard. It's challenging. It's forcing growth. It's creating opportunity. If it was easy, everyone would do it. If it was easy, a lot of people would be attracted to do it. But when it's hard and challenging, it makes you work for it. When you work for it and you achieve some wins, you build some confidence, that is extremely fulfilling.

Last question I'm going to answer in this episode is, what does your training look like right now? And I kind of want to lead into this question with how did hybrid athlete training come to be? And I was on a podcast episode yesterday and we were talking about this. and I wanted to share the story because I don't know if I've ever shared this story before. And I remember sitting in a house that Steph and I were renting in 2018, downtown Austin,

right outside of Barton Springs, which is this spring that runs year-round. It maintained 60 degrees from the winter in the summer and it gets jam-packed with people and the energy downtown Austin and the summertime is just absolutely amazing. I love it. And in 2018, I was experimenting with new training.

You know, historically, I was a strength athlete who loved hypertrophy and bodybuilding. I just wanted to get bigger and stronger. And then in 2018, I signed up for my first marathon. It was the Austin Marathon. And it was a few months after transitioning out of the military. And that marathon, I ended up running. running three hours, 57 minutes, but it was this introduction to endurance training. Because what happened when I transitioned out of the military is I said I would never

run a day of my life again. And I quickly realized that I missed running. I missed the challenge. I missed doing something hard that I didn't necessarily want to do but felt obligated to do. And then when I did it and finished, felt really good. So I wanted to reintroduce running into my training program again. So in 2018, I start running alongside weightlifting and strength training. And when I decided to share my training program, there was this training program I launched in 2018.

I launched it for free. And I'm sitting there after I wrapped up building out this training program that I was about to do based off my goals, which were strength training, bodybuilding, and running at the time. I was like, what do I call this? I was like, well, it's a cross between running and lifting. And I by no means came up with this term hybrid athlete. Hybrid athlete, hybrid training has been around for a long time. But I was like, I'm going to call this a hybrid athlete training program. That's what it is.

It's a cross between these two things, running and lifting. So I launched my first hybrid athlete training program or model in 2018. And I self-identified with this style of training. And that's how I've been training over the last five, six years now

with this hybrid approach, running and weightlifting. Up until this point in my life right now, it's been that approach. It's been hybrid, running and weightlifting. It will always be that way. I see these massive benefits in return from

cardiovascular conditioning, endurance training, running specifically for me, and strength training. From a health perspective, longevity perspective, vitality, performance, combining those two, for me just makes sense for the most optimal way to train for health span and lifespan. This is the way I'll always train. hybrid. So that kind of provides context into how I'm training right now. But what's different right now compared to the way I maybe was training a few months ago

and maybe the way I'll train in the future, you know, this might change next month, is I was talking to someone recently about the difference between working out and training. Working out is when you go to the gym, you go for a run you might not have necessarily a very specific goal

at this moment of time but you enjoy going to the gym and moving weight around you enjoy breaking a sweat and going for a run or hop around and you enjoy working out and there's nothing wrong with that like if you are moving your body

and you're working out that is great that is perfect and for most people majority of the population that's all you need is to work out The difference between working out and training is that there's a specificity to the goal and the plan to that approach. When you are training for something, for example, when I was training for my marathons the past couple months, and when I was training for ultras and Iron Man's, I was training for my bodybuilding show, there was a lot of specificity behind the program itself in order to achieve a desired outcome result and goal.

Right now, I'm working out, I would argue. You know, I'm in between these two things that I've been training for. I just finished this bodybuilding show, which I was training for for months, and I had a lot of specificity behind the training and the nutrition required to achieve that desired outcome. Next month, I'm going into a training block for my next race, which is September 2nd, last man standing in Maine, which is an ultra. and that's a 4.2 mile loop you every hour on the hour until there's one person left.

So there's going to be a lot of specificity behind that training program. Right now I'm in between, I'm just working out. I'm enjoying strength training. I'm enjoying running. I'm running about 35 to 40 miles a week and that running will increase as a bit closer to this ultra. I'm strength training about five days a week coming in and throwing some weights around. I'll have one day dedicated to push, one day dedicated to pull, one day dedicated to legs, and then one day dedicated to shoulders and arms, and then sometimes there's a free day where I'm coming in and I'm hitting chest and back or legs again.

And I'm just working out right now. I'm having fun with it. I'm enjoying it before we go into this next training block. I'm in between training blocks right now. So I'm working out through a hybrid method and approach before we add more specificity to a very targeted goal. So these are some of the Q&A questions I wanted to go over. But like I said in the beginning, a lot of the questions I've received recently have been around balancing work, fitness, and family. I hope that some of these questions addressed those topics and those things.

And it's definitely something I'll talk about more frequently and more often as I personally navigate this next chapter of life. I by no means have it all figured out. I'm still learning daily how to be a dad and a better husband and a better leader for my family. But it's a priority of mine right now. And it's a priority that will be a priority until the day that I'm. die because of the legacy that I want to live and leave and lead my family with the vision,

mission and values that I want to represent. So thanks for tuning in to another episode and we'll see you guys in the next one.