The Nick Bare Podcast - 034: Q&A | Marathon Prep Updates, Forcing Growth, And Moving To Nashville

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Today’s episode is audio only. Why you ask? Because we are currently building out our new studio here in Nashville, TN! We’ll be back to video episodes and hosting incredible guests on the show in the coming weeks. For now, enjoy this Q&A style episode where I break down all things marathon training, share lessons fatherhood has taught me, and address my recent move to Nashville. 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 9:24 My proudest moment 19:21 Marathon prep training 21:59 Marathon prep nutrition 25:11 All in vs. all consumed 29:13 Lessons through fatherhood 34:31 Moving to Nashville 44:08 Determining nutritional needs for training 49:51 Letting your business run you

What's going on, guys, and welcome back to another episode of the Nick Bear podcast. Right now, I am recording in our new studio that is located in Nashville, Tennessee. In the past 30 days, we've moved a small creative team, including myself, out here to Nashville. We're building a satellite BPN office that I'm currently sitting in right now. I will be and am splitting time between Austin, where the BPNHQ is at, and Nashville. And throughout this episode, I will talk more about this. This is a Q&A that I opened up on Instagram. We'll be talking about the BPN business.

I'll be talking about the move to Nashville, my marathon training. There are a lot of questions in regards to the evolution and growth of myself as a father and husband and balancing life with that new chapter and season of my personal life. So I'll dive into a lot based off of the questions that were answered or asked in the Q&A. But right now, the reason I'm not recording video, this is just an audio episode, is because the podcast studio is, it's almost built out. It's not fully complete yet, but we're really, really close. Uh, right now that the office is located in downtown Nashville and it's 3,500 square feet.

Below us is a 3,500 square feet or foot gym that we will get access to in December. It's actually currently a gym, but that gym outgrew the space. They are moving into a larger facility in the Nashville area. So once they move out, we will take over that space. will build our gym out. And the BPN Nashville satellite office that we are calling the G1M Club will start coming to life.

But the studio I'm in right now, if you could see it, I'll kind of paint you a picture. We have the acoustic panels up. It looks very similar to the podcast studio. We have in Austin. There's a wood shiplap. You know, I love shiplap.

I shiplap everything. I would shiplap every wall in my office. office and home if I had the ability. But there was one accent, shiplap wall. We got this new table. This table is actually a reclaimed piece of wood from the Nashville area. It's over 100 years old.

And I found this really cool shop called Sons of Sawdust that find this reclaimed wood. They mill it and they create really cool custom furniture. So we got this new table for the podcast. podcast studio. Everything else is black, so it looks really, really similar to the previous studio. But we're not recording any video yet, probably not for another week. So this is just an audio episode, like I said. But, I mean, we've had access to this office now for three to four weeks, and we've hit the ground running.

We've made a lot of progress to get it up and running. And hopefully in the next, I'd say two weeks, we're fully operational in this space. podcast studio is rocking and roll. And again, we already have some guests lined up. And it's been fun. It's been really, really fun. But we'll get to a little bit more of that. But we'll get to a little bit more of that.

The time I did want to bring up and identify before we dive into some of these questions. We're launching a new product on October 10th. This is a product that people have been asking for. You guys have been asking for for years now. No exaggeration, years. And the truth is, we've been working on this product for years. It is an endurance gel. It is called the GoGel.

I am so excited for this launch and this release. You know, ever since I started endurance training, I had to learn the hard way how to properly fuel and the importance of fueling for performance, especially when it comes to endurance training. That's why we created and launched G1M Sport. That's why we created and launched our electrolyte powder. And that's why we created the GoGel.

And another product we're launching here in a few weeks called the Go Bar, which is an endurance bar. Now, the GoGel, it is 24 grams of carbohydrates per gel, 110 milligrams of sodium. The first flavor we are releasing on October 10th is apple cinnamon. And it is absolutely delicious. It actually tastes very similar to like apple pie. I'm not kidding. It tastes like apple pie. And the primary ingredients, it's very simple, whole food ingredient gel.

You have apple juice concentrate, apple puree, brown rice syrup, sea salt, cinnamon, lemon juice. It's very simply formulated. And the reason we chose to do a whole ingredient gel is, you know, a lot of the gels in the market are multodextrin-based. And if you've ever experienced a multodextrin-based endurance gel, you probably have had stomach discomfort, gut rot, GI distress, gas, bloating. It's just not really easy on the stomach to digest and handle,

especially during training. And that's why I've always avoided multodextrin-based endurance gels. And I've always leaned towards these whole-food ingredient gels, but the issue with a lot of the whole-food ingredient gels in the market is they are not hot-filled, which means it has a short shelf life.

And if you've ever ripped open a whole-food ingredient gel that has a short shelf life that is expired or spoiled, mid-run, ripped it open, put it in your mouth, ate it, and you can instantly tell it spoiled. That's not a good experience, and it doesn't make for a pleasant training environment. So what we did is we hot-filled this gel, meaning we pasteurized it. It's hot before it goes into the packaging and then sealed so that it extends to half-life,

the quality and the safety of the product. So it can improve your training. You're not going to get stomach discomfort, gut rot. gas, bloating, and you don't have to worry about spoilage. It has one year shelf life. The GoGel has been in the making for a long time now, and we're so excited to offer a premium endurance gel for you guys. Selfishly, I'm very excited to have it for my training,

especially getting deeper into marathon training. You know, you can use it before you go and train, but a lot of people will use gels during workouts. It's like the way that I use my fuel options. I'll give you a clear example. This past Wednesday I had a critical velocity workout. It was a two mile warmup. It was 1K and 2K intervals and a two mile cool down.

And it was a little over 11 miles of total volume. So I did two scoops of G1M sport before the run, about 25 minutes before the run. That gave me 40 grams of carbohydrates, 700 milligrams of sodium, before starting. And then midway through the workout, I had a gel, which gave me an additional 24 grams of carbs,

110 milligrams of sodium. If you've ever been in a big workout or even during a run and you're starting to get fatigued and tired and you rip open a good gel and you consume it and you get that quick hit of carbohydrates and sugar and energy,

it brings you back to life instantly. So the goal was to provide a very fast-acting carbohydrate source that won't cause stomach issues and that would fuel your performance for optimized and improved fueling strategies to get the most out of the work that you were doing.

The GoGel launches October 10th. I'm so excited, guys. I can't even explain the excitement that I have for you guys to try it, to taste it, to see how it affects your performance and optimizes your training not only for workouts, but races too. So it's going to be fun.

And October 10th, we are launching that new product. Going into the Q4 of 2023, we have a big endurance expansion. And this kind of marks the start of that expansion. So again, October 10th, the GoGel in apple cinnamon, our endurance gel, our whole food, simple ingredient, endurance gel, 24 grams of carbohydrates, 110 milligrams of sodium per gel served or offered in packs of 10. So let's dive into this question and answer. The first question, and I loved this question. I thought it was a great question.

What has been your proudest moment the last few months? And kind of the way that I like to address these Q&As, I think I'm going to start doing more of these because I really do enjoy them. I'll post the Q&A poll on on Instagram so if you're not following me on Instagram that's where I kind of pull some of these questions from

my Instagram is at Nick Bear Fitness and then I'll go through the questions and I'll pull maybe 10 to 15 and then I'll write those down and when I go for my morning runs I will think about these answers and this first question popped up and this is one that I was thinking about on this morning's run.

And that question is, what has been your proudest moment in the last few months? And I thought long and hard about this one. Because I thought I could have taken many different directions with business, with fitness and training, nutrition, fatherhood. And I came down to this one. It was, it was and is the realization that we're always getting ready to live. I follow this Instagram account called Daily Dad. And they made this post a few weeks ago and I screenshotted it and I've been thinking about it since.

And it said, Seneca said the one thing all fools have in common is that they're always getting ready to live. You know, imagine you're working a job and you're waiting for this promotion or this pay raise. or a new project, and you say, when I get this promotion, I will, X, Y, and Z. When I get this pay increase, I'm going to work less or I'm going to spend more time with my family. You know, it's working now to live later. We're working to one day live. and that that made me really think like what am I doing right now or focusing on that I'm spending so much time and energy almost neglecting or postponing my life or to live a life to work. We're always chasing the next thing, right?

It's like when I accomplish X, I will do Y and Z. When I make this much money, I will take a vacation or spend more time with my family or reinvest time into my faith and going to church. This speaks to me very strongly because I've been there and I'm still there. I still do this. You know, it's like when I get here, when I accomplish this, when I make this amount of money, I will then spend more time with family. I will then relax.

I will then be less stressed. I will then be less uptight. I will then be more flexible with my routine or schedule or my time. And the reality is once we get there or by the time we get there, the goal was already pushed out. The bar is already set higher far beyond what you've already accomplished or where you already are. So I think that the proudest moment in the last few months from me,

is just the realization, just being aware. I think it's the biggest piece of a lot of things. You know, we often feel like we need to solve problems. But a lot of times we don't even know that problems exist that we're avoiding or that are causing issues in our life. But becoming aware, you know, having self-awareness around a lot of these things we're experiencing, that's like the first step. It's like admitting you have a problem.

Like, oh, I am now aware that I have this problem or this issue. The proudest moment in the last few months for me has been the realization that, hold on, what am I postponing or what am I working on right now in hopes to live one day? Because I don't know if that one day will ever come. I should live right now. I should live every day like, it sounds cliche, but I should live every day like it's my last. You know, spend time with my family. do things that aren't a part of my routine,

eat the meal that I want, have the drink that I want, go on the vacation, leave work early and take my family on a trip. We always postpone these things. I always postpone these things because I say, one day I will.

When I accomplish X, Y, and Z, I will do something different. Work is important. Personal, professional growth is very important, but doing so with the intent of one day living is foolish. And I've become aware of that. I can't say I've necessarily found a solution for it yet.

It's something that I am actively working on. And I think something I always will be working towards. But just having the realization, you know, one of the things that I've done or realized I've done on these morning runs the last couple weeks since getting to Nashville, the running has been beautiful. The weather's great. There's some nice hills, rolling hills,

big green trees, cooler temps. And often when I start my run in the morning, there's a certain amount of stress that is just there. And that's why I need to run because it eliminates some of that stress. But there is some stress for what I have to accomplish in that day or later in that day

or that week or just projects that are hanging over my head that I haven't gotten to yet and or things that I want, things that I want to accomplish. And when I'm running, the longer I get into that run, the more miles I log, I kind of settle in and I think to myself, Nick, you just got to be grateful for what you have right now.

Just chill. It's all good. Stop worrying. That's what those morning runs do for me. and that's why I need them, because it allows me to realize, focus, and have the self-awareness around the gratitude that I need to have for what is in my life, not focusing on what I don't have

or need to do in the future. It's this self-awareness around that. And that is what I'm most proud of in the last few months. Funny thing about this morning's run I don't know if any of you guys run with I wanted to say animals But you're dogs

I doubt anyone else is running with anything else Other than a dog The way I start my run every morning And I'm about to get into a question about marathon training Because there's been a lot of questions around My marathon training right now But I will do the first two miles every morning With our one dog, Remy

We have two dogs, we have Remy and Ryder. Ryder is older, Remy is younger, Ryder refuses to run, I've tried, Remy loves running. When we would run in Texas,

it was just a subdivision. So there was no, there were no distractions or like stimulation for her to be preoccupied by. But here in Nashville, I run kind of throughout the city

and there's a lot going on. There's people out running. There's car. driving by, there's animals. There's just a lot of movement in the morning here. So every morning when I run, I take Remmy for the first two miles. I come back, I drop her off, then I finish my run. And she's been more skittish on the runs recently because, like I said, there's a lot

going on in the morning. So this morning we're running, and she didn't see these other two dogs up above. But I saw them. They were being walked by their owner. As we slowly got closer, I realized Remy still didn't see them coming. And we were moving fast. We were probably moving at a seven minute per mile pace. Remy can cook.

She's quick. And as we got closer, I realized that Remy finally saw these dogs. The dogs jumped out at her. She went nuts, ran in front of me. I've been waiting for this moment. I knew this was going to happen one day. Today was the day. and I tripped over her, moving at a good speed and pace,

and I went down so hard on, I don't know where I landed, but my hip is killing me right now. I landed on my hip, my knee, my elbow, I was bleeding all over the place. I took Remy down with me. We both made like these awkward, uncomfortable noises. The owner of the other dogs came and checked on us. We were good.

We popped back up, finished the run. But I tanked it this morning on my run. But you know what? Still finished. 11 miles total for the day, baby. And that's the lead way into talking about marathon training. There was a lot of questions, like I said, about weekly structure and mileage, about my diet. There was a good question that asked, like, how much of my day is consumed mentally and physically by prep.

So let's talk about it. As many of you guys may or may not know, I am currently prepping for CIA. am, the California International Marathon, and that is on December 3rd. So we're about eight weeks out right now. And based off my conversations with Jeff, Jeff Cunningham, Cunningham is my running coach. He says we are, we're on pace, we're ahead of pace based off of my current splits and workouts. He's pretty impressed where I'm at right now in terms of hitting my tempo

and critical velocity workouts for the sub 245 that I want to run at CIM. So weekly structure and mileage. Right now at this point in prep, weekly mileage is sitting at mid-70s. It's like 73 to 76 miles a week is what I'm accumulating. Monday is an easy 11 mile run

Tuesday is an easy 11 mile run when I say easy I mean below my max aerobic heart rate in an aerobic zone Wednesday rotates between a tempo workout and a critical velocity workout on the track so this past Wednesday like I said I had the 1K and 2K splits the week before that I had a 14.25

mile tempo workout. And those are big workouts. So Wednesday is always some speed work. Thursday, 11 mile run. Friday, 10 mile run. Those are easy runs again. And then Saturday right now is Saturday or Sunday is my long run. And then I'll take off one day.

So if I run the long run Saturday, I take off on Sunday. If I run the long run on Sunday, I take off on Sunday. golf Saturday. This past week was a 17 mile long run. This upcoming week is an 18 mile long run. And then as we get closer to the marathon, we'll start using these Saturdays as big workouts with marathon paste splits in there. So that's my weekly structure and mileage. You know, every day I know I'm running at least 10 miles, nothing under 10 miles, but 11 miles is pretty much like what I expect to run every single morning at least. Now my diet, how is my diet changed? I've talked about this already because one of my goals for this prep is

I want to show up race day around 190 pounds. I showed up at the Buffalo New York Marathon in 2022 and I weighed, I think, 187 pounds before I started my carb load. So I was probably 190 pounds on race day. But I would argue that I almost underfueled during that prep. And the one thing I have really dialed in for this prep is my fueling strategy. I have decreased dietary fat. I've increased my carbohydrate consumption. because my goal is to always have muscle glycogen topped off,

accessible carbohydrates for the workouts, the runs, and recovery. So I'm making sure I at least have 500 to 550 grams of carbs a day. Protein right now is around 200, probably 225 grams a day. And fat, I'm trying to keep it 90 grams, which is honestly hard. I love fatty foods. So to give an example, one of the things I've done to reduce my fat intake,

usually at lunch I consume 8 ounces of an 8515 ground beef. Love ground beef. 300 grams of rice, some Primal Kitchen's buffalo sauce, coconut aminos. There was some beets in there. But 8 ounces of 8515 ground beef,

it's a lot of fat. you're probably getting 30, 34 grams of fat in there. So now I only do four grams, or excuse me, four ounces of ground beef. And then I add a 0% fat Greek yogurt in there to still get the protein in there, but less fat. So carbohydrates are very important to me right now. I'm trying to keep fat lower.

Protein always stays consistent, electrolyte and water consumption. all day throughout the day. And as I go into some of these bigger workouts, like Wednesdays are these big speed workouts, Saturdays or Sundays are my big long runs. The day before those, I will always put an extra emphasis on carbohydrate intake.

I'll get a little bit extra carbs in. So that's like really the only way my diet has changed is pulling fats down a little bit, getting carbs up. I'm shooting for around 4,000 to, maybe 4,500 grams, or excuse me, calories a day. And that's where I'll start is about 90 grams of fat, 500, 550 grams of carbs, 225 grams of protein.

And then to get to the calories that I need, I'll just pull from anything I'm really feeling at night. You know, I always have a meal right now before going to bed just to get more calories and especially carbs in before that next morning. Now, I love this question. how much of my day is consumed physically and mentally by prep. And one of the things that my coach, Jeff Cunningham, said the last time he was on this podcast, was that there's a difference between being all in and all consumed.

I love that. I personally loved that. There have been many times in my life where I have been all consumed by a prep or the business or just a project in general. What's different about this marathon prep for me is I'm all in. I am not all consumed. So I am thinking about my training the marathon when I'm running in the morning for an hour and a half.

And right now I run from like 545 a.m. to 7.15 a.m. That's when I'm running. And then I'm also thinking about prep just kind of subconsciously as I'm making food, prepping meals or making selections at dinner based off the amount of carbohydrates I know I need to get in. Other than that, that's really the only times

I'm mentally thinking about this marathon during the run itself and then when I'm making food, I'm just aware physically how much of my day is consumed. Like I said, it's an hour and a half in the morning and then sometimes in the evening I'll do some stuff for recovery, like foam rolling, I'll use a therogun,

sauna, cold plunge, compression boots. But I'll do that after we put Charlie down and I'm just kind of hanging out with Steph winding down for the evening. So it doesn't consume me to an extensive amount physically or mentally. And like I said, the one difference right now from this prep compared to other preps I've done,

I'm definitely all in. I am not all consumed. And what's interesting is that this is the best running shape I've ever felt like I've been in. This has been one of the most productive and effective preps I've ever done for a race

or a competition. Even talking to Jeff, we're like, thought the progress we're making is remarkable. And it's not taking over my entire life. I am all in on this race. I am all in.

I'm going for that sub 245. I'm going. all out for that race, but I am not all consumed. And I think that difference allows just so much more joy and passion and purpose and intention when we are training and we are eating. We're choosing what to and what not to participate in that may distract us from our goals. I feel like I'm the best running shape of my life. And maybe it's because the weather here in Tennessee is a bit more mild than it is

in Texas right now or the Texas summer was. It could be because I'm running a lot more hills here in Tennessee. Texas was just very flat. So I'm getting a lot more work on my legs. Like my legs are getting really, really strong. And then when I do these big workouts, I can just feel how much stronger my legs are. But it's been a great prep so far. It's been a great prep.

So that's marathon training right now. December 3rd is the race. As we get closer, I'll share kind of what the tapers looking like. We've been documenting this whole process on YouTube if you haven't been watching the marathon prep series but I share a lot of how I'm fueling for workouts, how I'm using G1M sport,

how I'm using the go gel around my workouts or my long runs, what I'm doing for recovery, everything. And as we get closer to the race, like I said, I'll share the taper. I'll share how I'm carboloading. I've kind of dialed that end over the years and what that process looks like leading into race day itself.

Next question. What lessons has fatherhood taught me that I've been able to apply to other areas of my life? And I was at Todd Anderson's house yesterday. We were doing some contrast therapy between his sauna and his cold plunge. which I'll tell you, I love doing that. We did two rounds.

We did two rounds. We were probably in the sauna for 20 to 25 minutes each round and then three minutes in the cold plunge. And the amount of energy, I mean, we did that at 1 p.m. The amount of energy I had, the rest of the day after that, was remarkable. It was astonishing. I felt great.

And I woke up this morning feeling really good for, my run. But I was at his house and we were we were doing some contrast recovery therapy, like I said, between the sauna and the cold plunge. And when we were in the sauna, we were actually talking about this, just talking about like some of the things we've learned over the years of growing as professionals and partners to our wives and building businesses. And, you know, for me, one of the lessons that fatherhood has taught me that I have been able to apply and I want to continue to apply to other parts of my life is that time truly is our most valuable asset. And it has an opportunity cost.

It is one of the greatest opportunity costs that we have to consider when we choose where to spend our time. What I mean by that is if I decide to spend my time, for example, recording this podcast, there are other things that I cannot do with that time because my time is dedicated to this podcast. And from the time I'm recording this podcast, I can't do anything else. That is the opportunity cost in our decisions. Where we spend our time means we can't spend it somewhere else. unless you clone yourself or you have doubles or triples of yourself or AI somehow advances so ridiculously that there's a way to solve this, to fix this. But right now, as we're currently discussing, time is our most valuable asset.

And there is an opportunity cost. And you have to ask yourself, what do you value the most in life? where do you want to spend your time? And I think it goes back to my realization in the beginning of this Q&A, the realization that we're always getting ready to live. So how am I spending my time right now in preparation to live in the future

that may never come and that we're not promised? So how do I and how should I be spending my time right now to live for the things that I'm. I want to be present for. That's one thing that being a father has taught me and then I've applied to other parts of my life. When I'm at work, I can't be with my daughter.

When I am mentally and emotionally distracted by a project or a call or a meeting or a problem that I'm dealing with in my life, when I am mentally. not present, even though I'm around my daughter, my time isn't necessarily spent with her. My presence is spent with her, but my time, I would argue, is spent elsewhere. And that's been a great realization that I have learned since Charlie was born.

She's now about 15 months old, and her personality is changing by the day. she's more aware she makes eye contact she engages she laughs she smiles she's trying to talk she just started walking literally last week

and she's just growing up so fast which again it sounds so cliche and you hear people say it all the time but when you experience it for yourself it's like wow if I don't slow down

and make sure that I'm living right now I'm gonna miss a lot I'm gonna miss it all I don't want to miss it all. I don't. I want my time. I want my time with my family. I want my time with my business.

I want my time on my personal and professional goals. But where we decide to spend that time, there is an opportunity cost associated and we have to get comfortable with that and have a really honest conversation of where do we want to spend our time and what do we want to want? That's been a huge learning lesson

since becoming a dad. especially the last couple months as Charlie has grown. So the next question, what is the story? What is the vision behind the expansion to Nashville? Like I said, I'm currently in Nashville. I was in Austin last week, so I am bouncing back and forth between the Austin HQ and the BPN Nashville satellite office.

many of you know that I stepped down from the CEO role over a year ago now, or almost a year ago. Yeah, it was almost a year at this point. Kat Thomas took over as CEO in December 2020, January, 2023. So we're approaching a year. And part of that, me stepping down from the CEO role, one, I knew where my area of genius was and where I could best serve the business. And that's creating content and being very strategic and intentional with my time

because like I said, I value my time and where I'm spending it in and on the business. And that's brand awareness, that's brand amplification, that's creating content, recording podcast, sharing the mission, the message, and getting the brand out there in front of people. That's like what I love. I love brand.

I started BPN in 2012 because I love products. I loved formulating dietary supplements. I loved taking and I love taking supplements. I was so passionate about the space and I wanted to help people. And I wanted to create products that would help people and build a really fun, badass, gritty, aspirational brand around that. And that's what we did for these last 11 plus. years. And as the business grew and scaled, obviously what happens is you become a business owner

and you're in the day to day of the business and a lot of my time wasn't spent doing things that were amplifying the brand anymore. But it was a lot of management of people and systems and operations. And I knew I had a very honest conversation with myself. One, I knew that I had a very honest conversation with myself. One, I knew that I wasn't best serving the company in that role, focusing on those things. And I also knew that someone else could do it a whole lot better than I was doing it. I've learned that I'm a good leader in my honest opinion, but I'm not the best manager. So it was a natural progression of cat moving into the CEO role. And it's been one of the best decisions I've ever made in the business, truly.

It was, it was, it was, is one of the best decisions I've ever made. So after stepping down from the CEO role and really leaning more into creative and brand amplification and building BPN through content, the mission, messaging, it was always a thought of how do, how do I keep expanding and scaling? the brand. And when you're creating in the same space for so long, you know, I was creating in Texas in that, that business park for a long time, that you start to creatively get a little exhausted. I don't say burnout, but you creatively start getting a little exhausted. And I'm a huge fan and advocate of change. And I think that change, no, I know that change facilitates growth.

And for the last year, I was trying to do a lot of different things to spark creativity back into me and find that edge that I had for the last 11 plus years. And I knew deep down after having conversations with my wife, my friends and mentors, advisors, Kat, the leadership of BPN, I knew that in order to get the business to the next level, I required a certain level of change because I knew that change would facilitate growth. And that's one of the reasons we moved to Nashville. We decided to put a satellite office here because I knew the change would facilitate growth. I knew it would. I also was just thriving for something new and to build something from scratch again. You know, building this office out right now that we're building out has been so far.

fun. And so purposeful and it feels like BPN, you know, five years ago. So we're building out the satellite office where we're grid and the creative spaces done up. We'll have the gym starting to get built out in the next couple months. We'll be hosting events here in Nashville as well as in Austin where our HQ is at. HQ is and always will be in Austin. And I'll be there frequently. but now we have this satellite office in Nashville. So it just brings this new spark of creativity and brand positioning and opportunities. And I can feel this spark.

I can feel the passion to create again. And I personally needed that, personally and professionally. And, you know, it's been really good so far. It's been really good. It's been really fun. You know, when I think about the concept of change facilitates growth, I've done this a lot in my life,

but I think back to when we were operating out of our first warehouse. Our first warehouse in Texas was about 6,000 square feet. And we were at a point where we didn't necessarily outgrow it, but we were going to be approaching it in the next couple months. And I knew that if we moved into a larger, bigger space, that scared me, that intimidated me. I would be forced to grow into it. And that's what we did.

We moved out of that space before we needed to. We talked to the landlord. We signed a lease for a new building that they allowed us to transfer our commercial lease to. That one was a little over 9,000 square feet. So we got 3,000 more square feet of space. more warehouse space and we moved in there

it was intimidating you know all of our inventory that used to fill our old warehouse now only fit on the ground level of the new warehouse it was more expensive there was more overhead there was more space

and me and press and look at each other we said we need to fill this we need to outgrow this this space right here this change will facilitate us it will make us it will force us to get creative and find solutions to grow in and grow out of it.

And that's what we did. That's what we did. I've always seized opportunities that have felt so uncomfortable and scary and intimidating. It's new. It's different. It's change. I love change. Change forces me to grow.

And that's what it's done for me in the past. And that's what it's doing for me right now. You know, when you become so comfortable in what you're doing and where you're doing and where you're at and you can just ride that for eternity and forever and yes you can still continue to grow but doesn't scare you I wanted something that that scared me that intimidated me again that made me like really sink my teeth into and say all right let's go and that's what this has been for me

it's been it's been challenging for my family to move out here especially with a baby and build out a new office again and you know, it's inconvenient. It's uncomfortable, but I know that the change will facilitate growth. It is facilitating growth. I challenge you guys. If you are super comfortable in what you're doing right now, change it. Find something to disrupt that comfort.

Because if you find something to do or a way to disrupt that comfort, you will experience a massive amount of growth. I guarantee it. it might not feel like it in the beginning, but give it time, be patient and you will see the fruits of the labor of putting yourself through inconvenience and uncomfortable times and positions.

I'm a huge fan of it. And that's part of what this move was for me and why I needed so much. I needed to shake up what was convenient and comfortable for me and force myself to grow for this next chapter of, of myself, Nick Baer, as an entrepreneur, as a father, as a husband, as a business owner, and as a leader of Bear Performance Nutrition. And there's a badass running community out here.

And it's a cool area. I'm not going to lie, I love Nashville. I love Austin. Both very similar cities. I'm very grateful and appreciative that I can go back and forth between Nashville and Austin because I love them both equally. But it's a fun chapter for me, the team, and the business. Now the next question was how do you determine your nutrition fueling strategy based off of your goals, your training, and individual needs?

So I'll kind of just explain to you guys how I approach this personally and then you can take that and apply that to your training. So for my easy runs, my easy runs, I always fuel the same way. and like I said, my diet throughout the day right now is very carbohydrate rich. It's very carbohydrate heavy. So I'm ensuring that my glycogen levels are topped off. Glycogen is the way that your body stores carbohydrates. And it stores carbohydrates in the form of glycogen in your muscles and a little bit in your liver. And you can store a lot of muscle glycogen.

That's why it's really important, especially for endurance athletes, to stay on top of your carbohydrate intake. So I'm always staying on top of my carbohydrate intake to make sure that I'm fueling and replenishing, especially after big workouts, to keep muscle glycogen topped off because your body can tap into these stores and use it for energy while training,

and it also promotes effective recovery. I also like using carbohydrates around my workouts before and during because that's an even quicker source of energy that your body can use instead of having to break down glycogen. So for these easy runs that I'm doing in the morning, this 11-mile easy run that I'm doing Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday.

That's typically two scoops of G1M sport. Lately I've also been adding some more. And so I've been doing two scoops at G1M Sport and a go gel before I take off for that run. Nothing during. So with that, I'm getting 64 grams of carbohydrates and a little over 800 milligrams of sodium.

And I consume that with like 16 ounces of water, then that will fuel me for my 10 to 11 mile easy run. So that's the way that I personally fuel for those training sessions. Now for these bigger workouts, like the ones I do on Wednesdays, for that I will do typically two scoops of G1M sport in the morning before that run.

I'll also do like a piece of sourdough with some honey on there. I like to get close to 90 grams of carbohydrates before these bigger workouts and I'll have one to two go gels during those workouts, depending on how big the workout is. If there's a workout that has a greater amount

of volume and intensive, intensity, intensity meaning faster splits, say I'm on the track or tempo, I'm going to want more fuel during that training session to stay on top of just replenishing.

So I'll make sure I have plenty of go gels and I'm carrying. And then for these longer runs on the weekends, these low and slow aerobic long runs, again, I'll do two scoops of G1M Sport

plus a piece of sourdough and some honey. Again, 90 to 100 grams of carbohydrates before these these workouts, these runs. And then I'll do a go gel every four miles. So I'm getting another 24 grams of carbohydrates,

110 milligrams of sodium, every four miles for these longer runs. And what you'll find is that when you fuel appropriately, not only does your performance increase, but you feel completely different the remainder of the day. Like you're not dragging, You don't bonk.

You're not like extremely fatigued and tired in the afternoon, the evening. So like staying on top of nutrition and appropriately fueling for these workouts. It's not just for the workouts. It's for the remainder of the day and the way you feel, the way you perform, the way that you recover. But that's the way that I approach my training right now. I am a massive advocate of using carbohydrates before and during workouts. and when there's a longer workout or a workout or run at higher intensities or higher paces, that's when I'll add more carbs in.

Now, talking water and electrolytes, because I do get this question a lot, I will consume water with my G1M sport before my runs in the morning, but I actually don't carry any water with me during these workouts or even these big runs. I'll just do go gels. That's me personally. Some people require water. I can make it through these runs without water, especially being here in Tennessee right now

where it's not super hot and I'm not sweating a ridiculous amount. You know, when I was doing some of these bigger workouts in Texas, especially in the peak of the hot summer months, I really had to focus more on getting extra electrolytes and water in. So before some of those bigger runs, I was doing 15 to 2,500 milligrams of sodium before some of these workouts because I was sweating so much.

But here in Tennessee, I'm not sweating as much. So I'm not using as many electrolytes before and during runs and workouts. But I personally do not carry water with me for any of these sessions. The last question that I'm going to answer, and I thought this was a really good one, It's how do you run the business without the business running you? After building a business for over a decade now, since 2012, I think any entrepreneur can say that you don't learn this lesson the first couple of years. It takes a long time to learn this.

For a long time, the business ran me. Only recently did I learn how to run the business. the business and the business not run me. I'll kind of approach this in a few different ways. First off, I think that you almost have to go through what I call the mud to get to the other side. I think that, and I could be wrong, but in the beginning of building something, especially from scratch, a startup, it's going to consume every second of your day, every single second.

And if it doesn't, most likely you're not going to succeed. you have to be all in and all consumed for a long period of time to get it to a certain point. And that's what I personally had to do. Bootstrapping a business was very, very challenging and scaling it was extremely difficult. And me and my brother,

every waking second of the day for a decade, we let the business run us, but it got it to a certain point. Now, there are multiple different ways. many, many, many different ways to build a business. This is the grassroots bootstrapped approach that the Bear Brothers took. Some boys from central Pennsylvania growing up around a bunch of dairy farms.

This was our approach. We didn't know any better. There's more effective and efficient ways. But in the beginning, me and Preston both worked harder rather than smarter because it's all we knew. We knew how to work hard. We learned that from our parents. We learned that from our grandparents.

We learned that from our family. We knew what hard work looked like and we knew how to do it. So with that being said, the business definitely ran us in the beginning. But what ended up happening is as the business grew and scaled, this is just based off my personal experience. We got to a point where we could hire professionals. We could bring in experience professionals to help with operations, build out an executive team,

people with previous extensive marketing experience, and financial experience. And when you bring in professionals like that and you delegate and elevate, delegate and elevate is a term used in EOS, which we have implemented it into our business, the entrepreneurial operating system, massive fan of it.

When you delegate duties and responsibilities to people who have skills and experience and you elevate them into a position with ownership and discipline, and direction, the right people will own those duties and responsibilities and run with it.

They will solve problems. They will optimize solutions. They will focus on the day to day of the business. And I never thought I would get to this point. I never imagined getting to a point where you could bring in these highly skilled professionals

delegate and elevate to these responsibilities and watch them just take complete ownership of it, which has been so amazing because what it had finally allowed me to do was to run the business and not let the business run me.

You're able to detach from the day to day and focus on the spaces, the faces and the places that are going to move the business in the right trajectory towards your mission and vision. You have to get above the business. You have to get out of the day to day.

And if you can get out of the day to day and out of the weeds and up above, like a bird in the sky, looking over onto the operations, onto the people, onto the brand, on the messaging, on the products, it allows you to move everything forward and progress. But for me, it took time, it took patience, it took a plan, and it took an extreme amount of strategy. But it also took the right people. and bringing the right people on the ship to help steer it in the right direction

and delegating, elevating was just huge. That's how I've been able to run the business and the business not run me or me and Preston anymore. We had to get it to a certain point before we could get help. We couldn't afford help before that. And you get it to a certain point where you can finally bring people on

to help assist you to grow and scale and take over some of those duties and responsibilities that you might not be, and I was not the best at, and I needed assistance in doing them, and then focusing, for me, focusing on my area of genius, where I can really amplify, scale, and grow the brand. That's been game-changing for me, but it's taken over a decade to get there. It was not overnight. It was not quick.

It was not easy. It took a lot of time, a lot of time, a lot of, of intention to do it, but it can be done, but you got to be ready and willing to go through that mud before you can get there. In my honest opinion, that's how I did it, and that's how I've seen a lot of other successful entrepreneurs do it as well. So guys, those are the questions that I'm going to answer in this Q&A. They were some of my favorite. You know, we talked about fatherhood and balancing life with business and fitness. Talked about marathon training.

Talked about the GoGel, which is launching, like I said, October 10th. So guys, thank you for all the continuous support. I am recording here at the G1M Club in Nashville, Tennessee, the satellite office of Bear Performance Nutrition. I appreciate all your support, your love, what you've shown the brand, what you continue to do for this brand,

and this mission and message. I love you. I appreciate you. And we'll see you in the next episode. Go on more.