The Nick Bare Podcast - 072: Survive The Night: Recapping BPN’s 50 Mile Overnight Ultra

Episode Date: June 24, 2024

Today, Hope and Tony are joining me to relive the adventure of BPN's 50-mile overnight ultra. This race truly embodied who we are as a brand—a gritty race where runners are challenged to hold the standard. Not only were the runners unaware of the course or location until the day of, but we also had to contend with loose bulls, rugged terrain, and a significant course change just an hour before the race started. This race was another milestone in shaping the BPN brand that I and the BPN community will never forget. Save 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio Follow for more:  IG: instagram.com/nickbarefitness/ YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness Topics: 0:00 Intro 1:30 Welcome 3:26 Hosting the race on a working cattle ranch 10:12 How to race came to be 18:45 Designing a race for the committed 25:43 The concerns involved 30:24 Starting the race 39:34 Mapping the course 51:49 Marking the course 56:34 The hardest events to plan 59:24 Building a brand in drops 1:03:22 Medals for the finishers 1:06:14 Hope & Tony’s history at BPN 1:19:34 The confidence-boosting moments 1:23:24 Growing through failure

We connected with Joe Gatlin. She was kind enough to allow us to use her property and survive the night became a thing. The ranch that we hosted this on is a cattle ranch. Big Mike is a bull that they have. 45 minutes before the start, they go, hey, Big Mike is still on the loose. Literally a loose bull on the property where we were about to have 100 runners running through the night. I was afraid of injuries. I was afraid of heat.

I mean, it's a scary experience. People would drop, seize up, shake convulsively. I was also concerned about wild animals. I was afraid of the hogs, first off. And then Joe said, oh, you shouldn't be worried about the hog. You should be worried about the deer because if the deer gets spooked, they'll come at you. She's like, hey, this is an operational ranch. There's tetanus on these barbed wild.

I'm like, oh, shit. That got me jacked. It was a challenging course. Like, it was hard. And in the middle of the night, there were parts of that course that were super technical. You had to absolutely watch your step. We had cliffs. There was ponds.

I couldn't believe so many people finished. I remember running down that course road, not a cloud in the sky. Sun was coming down, starting to set. Two cowgirls running by with an American and Texas flag. I mean, I've never run so upright and proud of my life. I left that ranch Saturday morning. We were obviously all tired. No one slept throughout that night.

And just leaving knowing the impact it left on the brand that we're going to feel for years to come. Survive the night. Tony, Hope. put on this massive, amazing effort, which was our 50-mile Ultra for BPN this past weekend. First off, welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having us. Thank you. Great work this past weekend.

Thank you. Yeah, it was wild. It was wild. Our first ultra. Biggest project yet, for sure, since starting here. I mean, from my experience this past weekend, it was our most successful. best fully BPN event we've ever done. So before we dive into this 50 Mile ultra recap,

so we want to show some appreciation for you guys. You guys crushed you. I know how much work it was. You know, we've done many events in the past for BPM. I've said it before, I'll say it again. This one just felt different, not just for the team internally, not for the brand, but for also the people involved. So great job.

Hats off to you guys. kicked ass. It was absolutely amazing. Thank you. Let's go. I know. Feels so good. Doesn't get much better than that. Be proud of that one. Yeah, no. We definitely are for sure. We talk about it so many times. Like all the different projects that we worked on here, this is by far the thing that I'm most proud of easily. Seems like we leave, like my experience, every event that we leave immediately my head spinning with like, what could I have done better? I would have changed this, this, this. And we left that ranch that day. and we just like kept staying over and over like okay we did it like it was the one where we're just so proud of it yeah i mean i i'd left that ranch Saturday morning we're obviously all tired

no one slept throughout that night and just leaving knowing the impact it left on the brand that we're going to feel for years to come it's amazing yeah and it really did like like you said it really felt like a BPN event like if It was just like the perfect culmination of all the things to make it really feel like gritty, tough. It was just like, it felt good. It felt really good. Especially that next morning when I was by myself when I was just driving the course, just like checking it for trash again. I just had a couple moments where I just parked the gator out there and just looked out over the course.

It was like, damn, this was a good event through and through top to bottom. I just felt really, really proud of that. So before we dive into planning, execution, everything about the race, I would like to hear from both. you your favorite story from the ultra this past weekend. Something that you will remember forever, whether it's funny, impactful, memorable. What is that story for you guys? I got a couple, but you go first. Well, we might have the same one.

It's a tie for me. There's two that I'll just think I'll laugh about for forever. The first is Big Mike. I feel like we have to talk about Big Mike. You have to talk about Big Mike. Big Mike was the star of the show we didn't know we needed at the Ultra. Yeah. Yeah.

Go for it. So Big Mike is a, well, the ranch that we hosted this on is a cattle ranch. And so they have all the cattle there. And Big Mike is a bowl that they have. So we're driving the course about what, two hours, an hour and a half before. They had sort of gathered all the cows and put them in the Penn area. But as we're driving, we see this massive bull. And so we kind of radioed to Joe.

we're like, hey, there's still like a bull out here. So Joe and Colin, they hopped in and they got this bull sort of corralled and put away. And then about 45 minutes before the start, they go, hey, that bull that we put away wasn't Big Mike. Like, we don't know whose bull that was. It's a bull from another property. We don't own it, but Big Mike is still on the loose. And we were now looking for Big Mike. He was somewhere on 300 acres of property. We were about to have, literally a loose bull on the property where we were about to have a hundred runners. Yes. Running through the night.

Like, we're a little stressed about that. But it was also, thankfully, like Joe, Joe Gatlin and Colin, they, uh, Joe owns the ranch. Her family owns ranch. So she knows those bulls like, you know, members of her family, right? And so she said, Mike is a very calm bull. He's not going to, like, bother anybody. But he is still a bull.

And he's never been around that many people running, like, who knows if he gets spooked or whatever. So it was a little stressful. But yeah, we basically spent the rest of the night trying to get eyes and locate Big Mike. I saw a Big Mike. Big Mike made multiple appearances. And he was cheering on the runners. He was vocal.

Yeah. There was like one part of the night where me, Colin and Joe were like hauling in the gator to get out to Big Mike. We finally found him. We were trying to like corner him. And we both we got like sticks and we got like fencing stuff. We're trying to, like, get him in this, like, corralled thing. It's, like, getting late. We don't have, none of us have headlamps.

We just were, like, so excited to, like, find him finally. It was just, it was nuts trying to, like, corral a wild bull. I mean, I basically, I felt like a ranch hand, which was awesome for me. Well, you pretty much were. I pretty much were. And being quite the city boy myself, it was like, you know what? I held my own against that bull. That was, yeah, chasing Big Mike was a great, a great story for the night for sure.

Well, we got to give a huge thanks to Joe Gatlin and family and Colin involved for allowing us to host this race on their property on their ranch. And like Joe said in the beginning of her speech before we kicked off the race, as she was talking to the runners, this is an operational ranch. Yeah. So there are things out there. I remember she was like, there's, there's tetanus on the barbed wire fences. There are bulls. There are wild animals. I mean, that morning, we saw wild hogs while we were staking the course.

Yeah. So it's like, it's wild out there, you know. But we got to thank Joe Gatlin and family for allowing us to host that race on their property. Extremely grateful, super helpful. They were involved in every part of it. And when like the loose bull on this property was loose, Joe was over there like trying to corral this animal. Yeah.

So that wasn't coming after the runners. I mean, that was the first piece of information I learned about once we got out there. Like I rolled up and when I rolled up, first of all, I was mind blown by the race experience that you guys brought together. Because we've hosted races in the past. We've done,

they go on a marathon. We've done community group runs. We've brought people together for an experience. But this one just looked at, and felt different. Like rolling up off that county road and you see the campsite set up, you see Eric and El-A-Ombre-Taco throwing down burgers and hot dogs in the back. You got the start finish line, all the cones, all the lane markers, people pinning on their bibs.

I'm thinking, holy crap, this is a race. We're about to throw down a legit ultra in the hill country of Texas. And rolling up into there, just seeing the beach. beautiful property and what we were about to experience and go do, I was mind-blown. But again, to the Gatlin family, huge thanks for allowing us to create this experience at their home. Yeah, not only did they allow us, but like Joe and Colin like broke their backs working that, that, that, uh, course for us, you know, like, we put in a lot of work for sure,

but like they really did like step up and were, with alongside us for every single. single part. I mean, they were working on that for days and weeks before we even, you know, wherever out there. So they did a lot. There was no course. Like it was just a working ranch. And Joe was a runner herself. And so Joe was out there running, creating sort of a five mile loop helping us. And then her and Colin three days before spent hours in the Texas heat mowing down the course that we had created. So really like would not have been one possible to what it was because we knew going in like one of the first things that came to my head when you were like, hey, I want to do a 50 mile overnight. I was like, okay, well, we need private

land because if we try to do it publicly, we're either going to have to go through a ton of permits, we're going to get a ton of complaints, or like private land was the way to go. So they really just came in clutch. And I think the race was what it was because of their generosity. Yeah. Tell the story you told me yesterday about when we talked about the race happening, and then when it became official, like an hour later. So when I first started working at VPN, And multiple people told me, hey, Nick moves fast. And that's just kind of all they said. They were like, Nick moves fast.

And I was like, perfect. Like, that's what I'm here for. Like, I'm ready for it. But I feel like I got my first taste of like Nick moves fast with this ultra. You stopped by our office. And you were like, hey, this has been an idea for a while. But when you had stopped by our office about 10 weeks ago, you were like, hey, I think we should do the 50 mile overnight ultra.

And we were like, yeah, great. Like, just an idea. Like, we'll talk through it. Obviously had some, like, concerns, but we'll talk. talk through it, kind of set a date, and work towards it in the future. I was even thinking, like, post summer at first, just because of the Texas heat. And you're like, yeah, I think I might want to tie it to the TSP premiere. And I was like, okay, like, yeah, like, you kind of threw out the idea. I was like, we can talk through it. I don't have to, like, you know, bring the mood down.

Like, we'll talk through the issues later and we'll kind of set a date. And that was kind of it. You went back to your office, open my phone two hours later. You had posted an Instagram story saying, what's up guys, we are going to be doing a VPN 50 mile overnight ultra in June. And I was like, okay. I was like, Nick moves fast and we are doing this. But it was very positive pressure. I think you have a great leadership style. And it's something I reflected on a lot during this planning process where you don't put anybody in a situation where you don't think they can succeed. Like you will not set us up for failure. You will only set us up for success. So you did that because you trusted Tony and I. And you were like, I know, I know.

that they can do this. So I'm just going to put it out there. And you're the type of person where you give us full trust to make it happen. And if we need anything, we can call you right away. So yeah, my stomach sank when I saw it on your story because I was like, okay, we've never planned a race, let alone like a 50 mile overnight ultra in Texas. We had no location at the time. We didn't know if we could use the ranch at the time when you posted it. So we had no location, like no platform to run this thing. Like we had nothing. And but it like put so much positive pressure on it. Like, okay, like we said we're going to do it. Like, let's do this.

I'm a big fan of having vision and always having ideas. And it's one of those things. If I try to articulate what I think my brain looks like, it's like all these ideas are floating around. And I just like let them marinate and I'll revisit them every once in a while. And then when I feel convicted to act on one, when I go and grab that idea and pull it into me, that's it.

It's like that that is the moment where it's official. We're doing this. And then I oftentimes need to do something that holds me and everyone else accountable. And that's putting that out into the universe. Because once we put it out in there, we can't go back. I mean, I feel like there's so many brands and people, even in general, with their own goals and stuff that will say they want to do something and like put it on their back burner or just like keep it in their mind and like never actually say it and put it out in the world. And you do that often. and that helps a lot, like actually sticking to it.

Because otherwise, if we would have just put this on a like task manager software, you know, it had just been an email chain, we could have planned this for months and months and months and dragged it on and dragged it on where it's like we didn't need to do that. Like we, it was a lot of pressure and a lot of work, but like we got it done. And it was so much fun. And because of that pressure, it was like literally the most rewarding thing that I've gotten

to work on at BPN. So like, yeah, it's, you know, stressful in the moment. But it's like, okay, I mean, Nick has obviously thought this true. Like this, like it's possible. We can do it. We're the right people to do it. Let's get it done. Yeah.

Let's talk about the concept of the race where it started, how we got to this point. So to go back a few years, it was 2021. I was preparing for the level 100 trail race. And in preparation for that race, I wanted to do an overnight 50-miler. So it was me, Ian. in Yoli. We went downtown Austin, and I ran 50 miles around Lady Bird Lake or Town Lake Loop. It's a 10-mile loop, did that five times. And I loved that entire experience. Running at night, under a headlamp, no one else out there. I feel like I was by myself in this

super active and busy city. And I just, I left that training runner. I remember. remember the next morning, sun was coming up. People were arriving to auditorium shores where we ended and they're getting ready to go for their run. And we just wrapped up our run 50 miles, logged my watch, went home, racked out for a few hours, woke up feeling very just appreciative and grateful that I could push my body to those efforts in preparation to go run Leadville. And ever since that training run, I've wanted to recreate it for other. other people to experience because I just had so much fun with it. It was challenging.

It was hard. It was a distance that, depending on your fitness level, won't crush you for weeks and weeks like a 100-miler does oftentimes. But a 50-mileer definitely pushes you outside of your comfort zone. It hurts. It's painful. It's doable. And it provides you this confidence that, all right, I can do this.

What else can I do? So I wanted to create this experience for other people at some point. I knew I wanted it to be in Austin. I wanted it to be overnight in the dark to recreate those conditions. And when we started talking about it, we originally wanted to do it downtown Austin around Lady Bird Lake Loop. But then just thinking of logistics, bringing all these people in, having porta potty, having food, fuel, all of these things.

it really wouldn't be doable or realistic or feasible. So that's where we came up with the concept of finding this ranch. We connected with Joe Gatlin. She was kind enough to allow us to use her property and survive the night became a thing. So what was the first thing we started working on once we solidified the idea that we wanted to host this race? we have a location where we know where we wanted to be how do we bring this to life like what did you guys do i mean for me personally i was just like mostly concerned with like the vibe of the race and like making sure that like it held that theme of your first training run of like

still being gritty and still being kind of like raw like obviously being planned and like really thought out but um you know i mean that that like theme of like being raw went into every decision we made, like even the bucket for the DNF. Like, I didn't want it to be a new bucket. I wanted to be spray painted and rusted and, like, kind of, like, have that feel and that aesthetic. So I think it was more so, like, just kind of concepting the idea of, like, what do we want to do?

And then Ethan did a ton for the branding. Like, Ethan and Cade, like, crushed the branding, like, so huge. I think, did he come up with Survive the Night? Who came up? Ethan did. Ethan, yeah, Ethan is the one that came up to the title, Survive the Night. So a ton of credit to Ethan and Cade. Like they, there are designers and art directors and, like, just an incredible job.

They designed everything for the race. So they started working on that. And like once they did that theme and the design work, that really, like, led a lot of, like, the vision for the race and how it felt. Yeah. I was going to say, Tony and I kind of attack this from two different angles. I think we really, like, worked together super well. But Tony has a media background.

He has that creative vision background. So he kind of worked on, like, again, working with each. Ethan and Cade kind of cultivating the BPN feel, the BPN vibe. My background is in supply chain, so I'm a big logistics person. So I tackled more of the logistics. Okay, what do we need to rent? Where are we going to rent it from? What's that going to look like?

How's it going to look like on the ranch? And so I was tackling like the logistics and the course, and Tony was tackling kind of like the vibe and the design. And that's what allowed it to just kind of come together full circle. Is both of us were working on different things, but simultaneously to create this race. I think we need to talk about this is really important for anyone planning something, but especially for brand builders, the intentionality behind the decisions we made in the way we set up this race

or the way you guys set up this race, because we've hosted events in the past. Like we were talking earlier, the go on more marathon, completely different look and feel compared to the Survive the Night Ultra. And as we have refined our messaging over this past year, we've really leaned into, like, who are we? Who do we serve? What do we do? We fuel performance for the committed.

For the committed. For the committed. We fuel performance for the committed. The committed individual who is committed to doing hard things, being consistent, dedicated to the process, and during the process, choosing the hard right over the you're wrong. Maintaining their diet, even when things get tough. Maintaining a training schedule, even when things get tough. Because if it matters to you, you will make time.

All these things that we say all the time are built off this foundation of for the committed. And we wanted this race to serve the committed. So as we went through the planning process, you know, how did that shape some of the things that we did, you guys did plan for, try to intentionally set up? to show that we walk the talk for the committed. I mean, we wanted the course to be hard. You know, like we didn't want it to be like a cakewalk. So like, you know, when people came out to do this,

they're going to earn that finisher medal. And you would have to be committed to finish this. So I think that the course played a huge part into it, the heat of Texas played a huge part into, you know, our thought process of like throwing a race in the middle of June. that's like it's very hot and humid even at 9 o'clock at night. Like that's sometimes a peak heat of the day. And a lot of these people that came in, they weren't Texas natives.

Yeah, a lot of people fluent. Most were not. Yeah. Yeah. We'd someone come over from the UK, Canada. Scotland. Scotland. Yeah.

Dude, it's crazy how like, you know, our community is absolutely committed. And like a lot of these people also, by the way, this is the first time they've ever ran 50 miles. A lot of them, most of them, only run like a half marathon. But we did a lottery for it. And they got in. And so they're like, okay, I'm running 50 miles. Like, I've never done a marathon, but I'm going to run 50 miles because I'm committed.

Like, that's crazy. Also, just the sign-up process as well, a fairly tight timeline. So we decided 10 weeks ago we were going to do it. I think we opened the lottery eight weeks after that. So they knew the lottery was open for 48 hours. 100 people got in. So they knew they had about eight weeks to train. when they got into the lottery, they knew they did not have the location of the race.

They didn't have any details about the race. They didn't know it was a five-mile loop when they entered into the lottery. They didn't know if they could have a pacer or not. They didn't know anything about this race. And these people were willing to throw their name into the hat. And then they were willing to show up when they got selected. So it just speaks to the caliber of human being that towed the line that day. They weren't scared.

And that was all intentional too. Like we wanted to keep that location secret. We didn't want that location getting out. Like we had Joe when she was helping us course map the course. We were like, hide your Strava location. Just in case people follow you and think that they might know like, oh, maybe they'll use Joe or maybe they use this person or whatever. Hide your location every time you try to course map this because like I didn't want anyone knowing the course. Like our athletes, nobody knew until the day before the race where the race was.

I think there's something like so sick about that and like lends so much to the energy leading up into it because all of them are. telling their friends and family, oh, I'm going to go run a 50-mile or in Texas. And people will be like, oh, cool, like where? Where's the course? And they're like, I don't know. But I'm going to do it. That's cool. There's so, like so many elements of the race that we try to, you know, intentionally have that,

that energy of just like, just show up and do it. That I think that lended a lot to it. For anyone who's unfamiliar with the lottery system, essentially we've, we opened up this race and an unlimited an amount of people can go and put their name in for the lottery. So you submit your entry, and then we had a drolling, which was a randomized selector. What platform do we use? We use Run signup. Run sign up.

So then run sign up would automatically choose the 100 runners that were going to come out and do this race with us. So randomly selected 100 people out of all the people who, enter the lottery, were notified that they had an accepted entry into the race, and then all communication started with them, correct? Correct. And then when they showed up to Austin, Texas, the few days before the race kicked off, check-in was at HQ. That was the first time they got any insight into where the race would be.

So a lot of these people, all of these people, committed to enduring a process, committed to traveling out of state, out of country to come to central Texas, to run a race that they didn't know anything really about other than the few photos we shared with them and go all in to do a hard thing and challenge themselves. That is the BPN community. Exactly. That is for the committed. Yeah. I mean, like, we did share enough to make sure it was safe. Like, we send them pictures of, like, kind of a little bit of the property so they could see, like, it is a trail.

You are going to need headlamps. You are going to need some, like, legit trail shoes. This isn't, like, a pavement. And it is going to be a challenging course. But other than that, they didn't know anything. Yeah. The first time they, anyone had, like, touched the course was when that gun went off to start the race.

I mean, even like other ultras that are very difficult, like Ledville, like you can watch videos. You can talk to people who have done it before. So they really came in and they were the first ones to run it and have that experience. So pretty incredible. And we can talk about like the amount of people that finished was also just like unbelievable. I was actually really surprised by that. So surprised.

We may have like put out some like we had like betting numbers and mine were not that high. Because I mean it was a challenging course. It was hard in the middle of the night. And it was technical too. There were parts of that course that were super technical. You had to absolutely watch your step. We had cliffs. There was pawns.

There was like a lot going on there. And I couldn't believe so many people finished. It was awesome. I was afraid for a few things. I was afraid for injuries. Yeah. Sprained ankles. I don't think we had any sprained ankles.

We had one girl, Izzy, who showed up with a broken foot, but she got in the lottery. And she was just like, I'm taping this thing and finishing it. And she did, which is crazy. So I was afraid of injuries. I was afraid of heat because even in my military experience, seeing people become heat casualties as you're walking out in the woods, it gets really hot. I mean, it's a scary experience. People will drop, seize up, shake convulsively, and you're trying to cool them down. I was for sure expecting people to have some sort of.

heat issue down there. We really didn't have anything crazy or of massive concern happen. No. No. It was a large concern for me as well was the heat and twisted ankles. We hired, we had two EMTs on an aid car on site, and then we had two ice bass in the medical tent. And we were just like, I told them, I was like, guys, you need to be ready because

it's super hot out here. And they're going 50 miles straight. And a lot of them are probably going to push really hard. And everyone just was an absolute dog out there. I mean, one small issue with the heat, and he recovered pretty quickly. But really, I mean, the medics were very rarely used. Everyone crushed. Yeah.

I was also concerned about wild animals, wild life. Same. Yeah. Big concern there. Because I remember one of the things Joe told you guys that she wasn't necessarily concerned about hogs. Because hogs can be aggressive. Yeah.

Like, I was out on a training run. a few weeks ago. My neighborhood that we're living in right now, right now we're renting until we move into our home in September. And in our rental, for me to get to my morning run route, which is back country ranch road, I have to hop on a main road for half a mile.

And I'm running back. My run's almost complete. I'm about a mile and a half away from my home, maybe closer. And I could hear this gnarling off the side of me. I don't if I told you guys this. No. And I could hear this gnarling.

And I run with my watch light on. Like the garment epics has this crazy good light. Yeah. Like you double click. It's bright. Oh, dang. Because I'm shining you guys in the face. It's bright.

So I run with that. So if any car sees me, like there's some sort of light source. And I'd move my arm. so I could use the light on my wash to see what was going on because it grabbed my attention. And there's like this pack of wild pigs, hogs that start running at me. Holy shit. Like coming right at me. So I go dead sprint.

I mean, I'm probably running like a four minute mile for like a quarter mile, half mile. Like heart rate, max heart rate. I'm sprinting dead stop. And I finally turn around and there's nothing there. But those pigs can be aggressive if you, you piss them off. Those pigs would have got me. I ain't running no four-minute mile. Dude, I was afraid of the hogs, first off.

Yeah. And then Joe said, oh, you shouldn't be worried about the hogs. You should be worried about the deer because if the deer gets spooked, they'll come at you. Yeah. And there were, we saw deer there. We saw hogs. Like, we saw everything. So, I mean, we basically.

Snakes as well. Yeah, snakes too. Yeah. We tried to make a lot of noise on the course, the days leading up. So nothing was bedding down. Nothing was like getting comfortable there. We were driving that course a lot leading up. it. And I had Ethan and Kade do one last lap literally right before. Like they got back and the race

had started. So they had ran it. You know, we made a lot of noise on the course leading out to that. So I was hoping that that was going to be enough. But I mean, other than that, like, that's literally what we said at the safety brief before we started the race. Like, hey, this is a, this is an active ranch. There's stuff out there that can really hurt you. And if that is too much for you, don't tell the start line. You know, like this is your. own choice. I mean, they all signed the waiver. We were covered. We were covered. Hey, you're bad. No, thankfully nothing happened. It was a concern, though. But yeah, it was just one where we had to do as much as we could to prevent it by making as much noise. And then we knew

there was going to be, you know, 100 plus runners out there once Pacers joined in. So I think the foot traffic was enough, too. Yeah. When Joe gave her speech, like, you know, all the runners showed up race day. Eric from El Alameda Tacos serving up food. Everyone's getting settled in. Campsite's going up because we only allowed each runner to bring one crew member. Yeah. Plus one pacer.

Yeah. So runners could only bring a crew member and a pacer. You can't bring this massive crew. But a lot of runners actually kind of form groups together. It looked like in campsites. And the first thing we did is we brought everyone together. and we had a, like, pre-race, um,

safety briefing. You kicked it off first, Tony. You didn't get me too jacked up, but it, well, you weren't supposed to. What,

you weren't supposed to? But then Joe came in. Yeah. And she wasn't really trying to jack anyone up, but I think it was, like, her just, like, hardcore ranch woman. Yeah.

She's like, hey, this is an operational ranch. I'll never, she's like, there's tetanus on these barbed, I'm like, oh, shit. That got me jacked. Yeah.

So then when I went into my pre-raced speech, I was so jacked up. That was like some of the most energy that I could feel. There was this kinetic energy in the entire just like ranch location. And I could feel it building up. So when I went and gave my pre-raced speech, I just let it rip. And then we had a national anthem go. And blowhorn. First off, we were supposed to shoot a gun.

What happened to the gun? Well, okay, so we were supposed to shoot a gun. I had this whole plan, shoot a gun. I was like, cool, we're in Texas. Obviously, you can get blank ammunition anywhere because we're in Texas. Apparently, it is very hard to get blank ammunition. And so... I had a feeling about that, actually.

Yeah, and I never even got a chance to even talk to you about this before the race. Because, like, leading up to it, it was a gun. We were going to fire off my 357 magnum was going to be... thick and then we just didn't get the blank ammunition. And then Joe's like, why don't you just shoot a real round? I'm like, we're not shooting a live round in the middle of a freaking crowd, Joe. So we went for the less sexy blowhorn, but it got the job done. I let the blowhorn go too long, though.

I know. I didn't know it was the thing. It was like, man. I was so like, oh, I was like, dang it. I should have told you because I tested it. once. And it's like three seconds, you're good. More than that. And it starts to sound like the blowhorns going through puberty. Yeah. And it was wrong. I didn't know. I didn't know that. That was my bad. I'll take that hit. That was my bad. Yeah. Well, I heard that happen. I was like,

oh, I want to redo this. I know. I know. And you're already running. Can you imagine? Oh, let's just back it up, guys. It's just back it up. Yeah. It didn't affect the vibes, though. It didn't, it didn't affect the vibes. Vibes were so high. Energy was so crazy. So I ended up running 20 miles during the race. I went out and did four loops. I ran each loop. I ran each loop with a different runner. I just found someone that was out there and met some amazing people, had some great conversations. But talk to me about once the race kicked off, you know, you run maybe 100 meters down the road, the ranch road, you turn right as you enter in the ranch property. And as I'm turning right moving to the ranch property, on my left, I see these two horses.

Hell yeah. Talk to me about the horses. This was very important for me. I wanted. I wanted horses and I wanted either cowboys or cowgirls. I wanted cowgirls. I wanted cow people out there. Right. And I want, because it just was like, this is Texas. This is like, we need horses. We need a flag waving through the sky. We need old glory zipping down this field. And that was like so important for me. And so like, thankfully, Joe, Joe initially had this idea. And I was like, oh, yes, I got like hung up on it. I was like, we need cowboys. We need an American flag and we need this. So whatever we got to do. And then we had our Cowboys, we had a whole string of cowboys that were supposed to show up.

They completely flaked on us the day before the race. Joe puts it out in her Facebook group for the whole neighborhood, like, hey, is anyone out there that has a couple horses, a couple show of ponies that can come down and like, you know, run this field next to these racers holding an American flag? Literally within an hour and they're like, yeah, my daughters do it. And they came the next day, showed up with their horses. And in fact, these girls that showed up with these horses, they just showed up to run. Like, I saw this like epic shot of like the runners running and then the horses are right next to them.

Old Glory's flapping in the sky. And it was like going to be beautiful. That's what they were supposed to be there for. Then when this rogue bull comes out, they jump into cowgirl mode, grab out some rope and lasso this bull. in the middle of the field. They take their horses, and they're the ones that lasseled the bull and got the bull put away.

So thank God these cowgirls were there to help us do that. Because, I mean, that bull was aggressive. Like, that was no joke. It makes you feel so useless. Oh, I would have, what am I going to do? Like, I could take a picture of the bull. You know, I'm not going to do anything.

They were, like, fearless. They were out there. And, yeah, they lacer up this bull, got them out of the way, pinned him up. And then we're back in time for the race to start. And yeah, it was just like, I mean, there's Trevor, shout out to Trevor, got this epic drone shot of, of the horses and the runners right down this path. And it was just like, it was just straight vibes. I was just so excited for that because, like, nothing feels more American or Texas than that moment right there at the start of the race.

And it was just like a nice send-off. It really is what I want. It was just a send-off for the runners to, like, have fun, give it hell and, you know, take off. Yeah. It's got to be one of the coolest moments of the race for sure. Yeah. Especially because you couldn't see them at the start line. So none of the runners knew that that was even going to happen.

Right. It was specific to what it was like after the first turn behind a barn. You didn't know the horse was there. And it was just more of like a surprise. And like I said, a nice little send off for the for the runners. So I'm so stoked that worked out. Huge shout out to those girls that showed up. Not only brought all the vibes, brought the horses, literally lassoed up a bull.

A rogue bull. A rogue bull. shortly after the race started the dad of those two daughters they came and found me and they were thanking me for allowing them to do that I was like, no, thank you. You're doing us, you are helping us.

But they were so grateful for the opportunity to be able to do that. Yeah. For sure how much fun they had. That community out there is something else. You know, like Joe just posting their community Facebook group and like people just show up to help. And like that's why I moved

Texas and that's why I love being here. It's like the community, the people, you know, they didn't ask anything of us. Like, obviously we paid them. But they just, they just wanted to show up just to just to help. And, and they literally did. They did not have, they put themselves and their horses in harm's way to, to lasso up that bull. And they did it. And just because that's what they do. And it's just so cool. Yeah, it's awesome. We, we started the race, like the perfect time. 7 p.m. I remember running down that course road, obviously coming off all this like just adrenaline from everything kicking off.

Not a cloud in the sky. Sun was coming down and starting to set. It's a beautiful property out there. I've walked a bunch of different ranch properties in Texas because I've always wanted land and property here in Texas. And for the last six years, I've walked. dozens of ranches, trying to find the perfect spot. But what's unfortunate about so much property here in central Texas

is that it's just invaded by cedar, mesquites, all this small brush. You don't often find a piece of property that has rolling terrain features, water, access, big oak trees that are mature and provide shade coverage. And Joe's property has all of those things. So running out in that course, sun coming down to cowgirls, running by with an American and Texas flag. I mean, I've never run so upright and proud of my life.

Yeah. Seriously, it was like, it just felt so good. I ran that first loop with Drew. And we, I mean, we cruise in that first loop. First five miles, we held, I think, like 746 minute per mile pace. We went out hot. but I just wanted to embrace that first lap. That first lap was exactly five miles.

Tell a good story about that one. What are we got? This is all you. You deserve to tell this story. This is literally my proudest moment at BPN. And that might sound ridiculous, especially because I spent the last 16 years of my life doing media work and being a storyteller. But having that course be exactly five miles,

I'm not proud of anything as much as I am of that. So for some reason, like Joe, Colin and I and hope, like, we have been planning this course. And every other time we've done this course and, like, had mapped it, like, because there's no real way to map. Like, you're way out in the middle of nowhere. Self-servis is kind of spotty. And so, like, we've been using Strava and been using Garmin.

And it was always about, like, five, right? for some reason the day of the course, I run it twice. The first time we come back is 4.86. And I'm like, that's very short, especially over the span of 50 miles. If your course is 4.86 miles, that's going to add up. And you're only going to end up running like 48 miles. It ends up being a big deal. It's a big deal.

And I know, like, you know, how we are at BPN. It's like, and how you are, it's like you got to hold a standard. And I was like, this is, this cannot go. Like, we have to change this right now. Mind you. So, anyway, I run it again, okay? And by this time, the second time I ran it, it was, again, 4.86 miles exactly. On three devices.

Yeah, I was running three different devices just to see maybe there was an issue. Like, we were stopping and, you know, starting stopping or whatever. And so I got on the gator and ran it on three different devices. I drove the course super quick. I get back. It's 445. The race starts at seven. our safety check is at 615.

So I've got an hour and a half before our safety brief with all the racers, have an hour and a half to redesign the course and add in 0.16 miles to this course. I'm absolutely freaking out. Like I literally think the first thing, the first thing I think of is Nick's going to run the first lap. He's going to come back. He's going to see it short. And he's going to come up to me and be like, what the hell happened? Why is it short?

and I wouldn't have an answer. I literally don't know how that happened. And dude, when I tell you, like, my heart sank. I went into absolute crisis mode and was like, no one talked to me. I am doing nothing except fixing this course right now. And I was like, we have to fix this course. So I grabbed Colin.

I was like, Colin, you get a lawnmower. You follow me. We're going to make a turn here. And he's like, well, what if we do? I was like, there is no other chefs in this kitchen right now. Because if this doesn't happen, it's going to be on me. So like there's no other, there's no debating right now. We just, I just, we just need to all be in listen mode.

And I'm going to take this gator. I'm going to carve out extra spots in this course. I did some quick math, which math is not my strong suit. And I grabbed my Garmin. I grab Collins Garmin. I grab my Strava, his Strava on our phones. And I basically just plowed through an open field. Literally an hour before our safety meeting, I just plowed through this open field.

and was just carving it. Collins behind me with a lawn mower mowing. I finally carved the extra spot, but at the same, like, so I'd carve the extra spot in the course, the extra, like, I created like a whole turn, which actually ended up being nice because it brought the runners back close

by the finish line before they were actually finished so we could see people as they, like, made their final assent into, in the base camp. So originally, as you were coming up, would you get back on the, the, the, You did, but that whole extra bit, that whole extra turn by the airstream and when you get close, like you're running basically on the opposite side of base camp. Yeah.

You weren't there. It was a turn much further away from base camp. Okay. And so instead of making an immediate left turn once you get out of the, out of the trees, I had you go straight for a little bit longer. And I basically just added like, you know, point one four into this course. And I was just hoping that it was enough. Like we didn't have any time to make it like I didn't have a time to run the course again. I didn't have time to like measure it out perfectly.

I literally had enough time to plow through this field with this gator have Colin start mowing the grass because the grass is thigh high or waist high. It was it was very high grass. And shout out to Colin because they had used a like mower that you ride on to do the whole course. But it had broken a few hours before. So all we had was a push mower. So Colin is using a push mower for very. very high, like very thick, tough grass. I suppose it made it through it.

Yeah, we all were. Thank God. Because we literally wouldn't have, other than with like scissors, like, lawn scissors, like, you know, lawn scissors. I mean, it was, dude, I was, it was a very high stressful situation. I was like, I can't believe this is happening this close to the end of the race. All the planning we had done, all the foresight we had done. And this is what's happening, an hour before this thing is supposed to start.

I was literally mortified. And so I'm out there. I'm grabbing extra reflectors. Thank God I had saved some reflectors. We had exactly like 25 reflectors left. I'm in there mallet hammering them into the ground, mapping the course out, caution taping it up just to make sure it's like, because it's a brand new part of the course.

So like just making sure it was clear of where you're supposed to go. At that same time, that's when Colin finds out there's another rogue bull on the property. So he can't mow anymore. Now he's got to go deal with the bull because that's like a huge safety issue. I'm sitting out there. I got no, we got no big mover. We got this one push mower where I'm still staking the course. I need someone mowing.

Our hero that they jumps in, John out of the warehouse who's been a BPN employee for what, six years, eight years, six years. Six years. He jumps in. Literally no questions asked. He's like, what do you need? What can I do? I was like, I need you to mow this thigh high grass right now. as best as you can, as many times as you can.

I mean, it's 98 degrees. We're in the blazing hot sun. John is bald. He is not wearing a hat and he is not complaining. He is mowing through this grass. I finished sticking the course. I was like, John, just keep doing what you're doing. I got to literally go brief the racers now because now at this point, by the time we

finished adding that extra bit, it was 605. I had enough time to get back to the start line, change into my like my staff shirt. and then go do that speech, like, you know, telling everybody about the race. You played it pretty cool. Yeah. I was not cool. You played it really cool. Brother, I was sweating.

When you took off, okay, so John finishes mowing the lawn. Shout out to John. Can't literally could not have done it without him. But when I rolled up, the first thing I saw was John mowing. And I was like, what's John doing to tell him? And they're like, he's mowing the grass. I didn't think anything else. I was like, oh, okay.

Yeah, dude. He's literally. We changed the course to a 50 mile ultra, literally an hour before the thing starts. Yeah. I was, my stress level was through the roof. I literally looked down at one point. My heart was like, 135. I was like, okay, I need to calm down.

I'm like really freaking out. We start the race. Still aerobic. Still zoned. Exactly. Right. So we start the race. You take off.

And now I'm like, I see you running. And I was like, just like literally looking up to the sky for answers. Like, please, please let it be closer to five miles than four. 4.86. Like, please. And when you cross and you hit your watch and you're like, oh, wow. Like, just casually like, oh, wow, it was exactly five miles. Exactly.

Dude, it was exactly five miles. I, like. You started tearing up. I started tearing up. I started screaming. I was like, a hand in the air. Like, I just won the masters or something. Like, dude, I mean, talk about like absolute jubilation.

Like me, Joe, Colin. We were just like, we didn't. I couldn't believe it. like so happy that it was exactly five miles because like it's a huge deal you know it's a big deal it when it adds up over 50 miles still seeing Mitch Mitch Estrava he finished it 49.99 miles you know like and like you can cut corners and like you can really lean in to the sides of the courses and like but most people finish just either right at 50 or just just over 50 and I was like so happy with that so happy with that I mean

dude talk about a high stress like you know and i don't think the racers notice any anything like that like the runners you know if they would have seen or have known like wow you guys are we're like we're like literally changing the course right now like what kind of you know organization is this but we hit we hit the mileage did what we had to do and got the job done but i was so stressed about that with any event you plan anything you plan we've learned at this point you can do all your due diligence. You can check things two, three, four times. Something is still going to go wrong.

Yeah. Maybe not as big as the course profile. I know. Yeah, bro. That is a pretty big thing to go wrong. It's a pretty big thing to go wrong. But we had it fixed prior to starting. And that's literally like I was thinking about this afterwards.

Like if this were to happen any other place, you would have had so many people. questioning and be like, well, or like complaining. Like, well, why is this happening now? Or what, like, why didn't you think about this before? Like, obviously I did. And obviously, like, I did the best that I could, having never planned a 50 before. But it just, it was what it was.

And we had to adapt very quickly. And everyone did. Like, literally, everyone involved just adapted quickly. I couldn't help hope. Like, there was a whole parking situation that Hope was dealing with. I was like, literally like, hope, I am locked. I have to 100%. focus right now. So it's like hopes on her own. Then Collins on his own. Like we're all adapting,

but we're all doing it with a cool head. No one's being like nasty with each other. Like we really kept it cool, calm and just had to adapt to the situation immediately and had to move fast. But like, that's who BPN is and that's what's so nice is like literally this whole company is full of people who can do that. You know what I mean? And just like adapt at a moment's notice. If something's going wrong, it sucks. Now it's not the time to talk about it. We just need it. What are we going to do now? And respond, don't react. That was our whole motto. It's like, we're going to respond.

We knew stuff was going to come up. Like, we were ready for it. We were not ready for the course issue. Or the bull or anything. But we were like, okay, like everybody's safe. Like runner safety was priority. Everybody's safe. Everybody's having a good time.

And so we just responded, not reacted. And yeah, we just handled every situation that arose to maintain like the runner experience and keep everything kind of shielded. It was a big learning lesson. for a lot of people around that. I think what oftentimes happens in the wrong environment that you plan something

and you go to execute on that plan and it doesn't matter if it was successful or it was a failure, but so many people get caught up in all the things that went wrong in the process regardless of the outcome and they either gain or lose confidence in the things that went wrong in the process

again regardless of the outcome. So it's really easy to get hung up on like, well, all these things went wrong and this didn't work out the way I wanted it to and this was off course. Yeah, but when we executed, was it successful? Yes.

Then who gives us shit about all that other stuff? We'll learn from that, obviously. I think we'll get better. But did we achieve the desired outcome in end state? Yes. Well, then stop talking about all the other bullshit. that went wrong. It's funny to reflect on it, but it's not get caught up on it.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It was we learned a ton and we'll definitely take those lessons moving forward. But that's part of it, right? It's like it was inevitable that we were going to learn a lot and we knew that going into it. Yeah.

Okay. So some things went wrong. A lot of things went right, obviously. What else went wrong? I mean, should we talk about the reflector debacle? Let's talk about the reflector debacle. my hands are still hurting about that. So yeah, let's talk about it. So three days before we mowed the course, well, Joe and Colin, all credit to them, mowed the course. We knew we had to mow pretty close to the race just because the grass would grow back extremely quick. So we made the plan that three days before we were going to mow and then two days before we were going to mark. So two days before we started marking and we had 100 reflectors. We were going to mark the course with reflectors and then everyone was required to have a headlamp. So their headlamp would catch off these reflectors. But we ended up using those hundred way fast. than we anticipated.

So Joe was like, hey, we have to get more reflectors. And then we'll just finish marking the course the day of before the 7 o'clock start. I was like, okay. So immediately I hop on my phone. I'm at the ranch at the time. Immediately I hop on my phone. I'm looking at tractor supply, Lowe's, Home Depot, Walmart. And I just, like, no one has reflectors in stock.

Everything's saying ship to store, ship to store, like pick up next week. I'm like, okay, we're going to have to go the Amazon route. And there was only one type of reflector that was same day delivery, which was absolutely crucial because anything later than that would have missed the race. So I just saw same day delivery. I ordered 150 and shipped them to Tony's house. And then I just texted him. I said, hey, reflector problem solved.

150 coming to your house. Get them after the film premiere. We'll finish marking tomorrow. I'm just thinking, again, respond, don't react, stay calm, find the reflectors, we're all good. So we mark as much as the course we can that day. The next day, he gets the reflectors. He comes back. he finishes helping Joe and Colin mark the course with the new reflectors.

And then he comes over to me so calmly. But he's like, I just need you to know that you bought collapsible reflectors. What do you mean by collapsible? So it was three pieces with like a string. So they're meant for like a driveway. So like if you're like marking your driveway and you want to easily like store them. Yeah. Exactly.

If you're like marking them in like nice soft plush lawn, probably fine. If you're trying to crack through the crust of central Texas dirt, a little more difficult. And so, yeah, I put up, I think we ended up using 350 reflectors total. Because I also stopped at Walmart literally cleared out Walmart from all the reflectors. I'm sorry, Round Rock, Walmart. You were completely out of stock. You got 30 more. So yeah, I bought, yeah, like 30 or 40 more. We ended up using 350 reflectors. So I, I like, I, like, I, I mean, dude, painstakingly put into these 350 reflectors on that course. Because I thought 100 was going to be enough.

We spaced them out and we were trying to do the math. I'm like, yeah, it'll be fine. Like, I don't want it to be too close. But then once you're out on the course and you're like really seeing it, you're like, people are going to get lost. That was our big concern too is people getting lost on her land because it's 400 acres. And it does get like dangerous. It's very thick.

There are certain turns on that course that we needed people to hit to actually hit the mileage. So it was like, okay, we got to use more. And at the time when I got the reflectors and I saw that they were collapsible, my heart sank a little bit because I knew it was going to be much, much more challenging to get them into the ground and take a lot more time. But I know Hope has a very similar work ethic to me. And like we work really well together. And so I know if these are the reflectors that she ordered, this is what was available. Yeah. So what good is complaining about it going to do?

Like literally no good can come of it. we're both doing the absolute best that we can. Let's just, you know, it is what it is and you're just going to have to get it done. And like, yeah, I had to like, you know, finagle with these, these reflectors a little bit. And my right arm was completely toast by the end of the week. But it was all good. We got it done. And at the end of the day, like the course got marked.

But like, I just, dude, when we started this whole thing, I really had no idea how much work it was actually going to be. And like just even thinking of, oh, yeah, you need reflectors along the route. And like, you need to stake them into the ground. You need to the right kind of mallet to do that. Like all these things that I just never even thought of. It really, it really like goes to show you like, you've got a plan and you got to have the right people on the team. And you just, yeah, you have to react to issues the right way because I've worked with so many teams and so many people that like if they were presented that option, they just, you know, complain and cry about it or like get mad and it's just like it's not worth it because

you know in such tight timelines it is what it is you just got to get it done was this is the horrors event you guys have had to put on so far what yeah dude yeah what of course it is it's crazy hard what was it what was the second like what does anything compare to it like anything we've done athlete weekend Weekend for me, maybe, because it was a lot. And then like, I don't know, you were, you were super busy during Athlete Weekend too. Yeah, Athlete Weekend was big. It wasn't as much of a lift as this, though. This, you felt like extreme responsibility for the, for so many things. You felt extreme responsibility for the safety of the runners. You felt extreme responsibility for the brand having a

good experience, for your team having a good experience for Joe's land to be respected. And, And it just felt like a lot of heavy pieces of the puzzle that all needed to come together. And like fortunately it did. But yeah, I'd say like everything else kind of had like one thing that you're responsible for. And this you had like a lot of things. And then we were also talking, I don't know, Tony and I run the athlete program as well. So when we did the 10 weeks, it wasn't like we were sitting in our office every day for 10 weeks planning this thing. We went Boston Marathon, Eugene Marathon.

Athlete week was before. But we had hybrid shoot. photoshoots. Some of our athletes, Caitlin Toey, came to town. So a lot of things going on in between. And it really, like, allowed us to level up on focus, responsibility. I think we both grew and, like, really, that timeline put, like, a nice pressure on it of, like, okay, like, you have to focus. Like, you have to make this work.

Like, you are on a timeline. Yeah. It's been a big season for the brand. Yeah. Oh, it's amazing. Like, I wouldn't ask for anything less. But it just shows, like, it also shows I'm just, like, so proud of this team. This is a small team here at BPN and like everyone comes together and makes these big events happen.

Like these are big productions. Yeah. And it wasn't just Sarah and I. You know, it's like like we said earlier like, like, you know, Ethan and K did all the design work. Sarah came in and helped us a ton. Yeah. All the people, the night of like we had some like rock stars like Nate and Jake and Gabe that like really stepped up and like helped us out a lot there. I think our entire team was out there.

The entire team. Yeah. Bringing the energy. I mean, it was just like, yeah. we were in charge and like we planned it, but like to execute it, you need every single hand available and everyone at VPN stepped up and showed up and like not just showed up, but like showed up with a great attitude, stayed rooted on our runners, was changing trash, was refilling water jugs, like it like everyone showed up. And it was just so such a rewarding experience to see

like just everyone kind of take ownership in that event, even though like, yes, Hope and I planet everyone owned a little bit of that event which was so nice we like the thing we've been saying this past year is you build a brand in drops but you lose it in buckets and one of the things i said because we had the speed project film premiere dead east Thursday night and then Friday night was our overnight ultra and this is how we planned it from the beginning you know kind of like you were saying earlier i was like it'd be so cool if we had the film premiere and the following night to follow that up was the overnight ultra. Very cool.

Very cool. Two really big endeavors. And the way not only my mind has evolved over these years, but I think the brand and everyone involved overall is we used to look at these big events we were doing and we would think, oh, wow, this thing is going to be game changing for the brand. This is going to put us on a trajectory that is completely on a different level. than we are right now. And we've learned through experience repetition.

It doesn't happen that way. But these things that we do, like the Speed Project film premiere, Dead East, the overnight ultra, the billboard that just went up in downtown Austin today for the brand, being the gel and hydration nutrition sponsor for the Austin Marathon this coming year, those are all just drops that we're depositing into the brand. And those drops build and build and build over years and years and years. With the wrong decision, you can lose that brand in buckets. It's literally how the saying works.

But all these drops, they're not guaranteed and they're not easy. Each one of these drops, as small as those drops are or as big as those drops are, all require intentionality, a lot of work, a lot of, a lot of work from a lot of people and it's not supposed to be easy so everyone who approaches building a brand or building a business, building a company,

leading people, creating a community, if you think that it is just hey, meet at this event, let's all hang out, samples and product, and we'll see you in a month.

And you run that playbook over and over again, that ain't it. But like the things we did this past weekend, that's it. and we might not feel the impact right away, but I can guarantee when we do enough of those in 10 years, we're going to see and feel that impact. Not just on the brand in terms of health,

organization, and growth and profitability and all these things, but the impact on people and the community and the mission overall. So all this hard work that we're doing, I think we all have the mindset of delayed gratification, where we might not see the direct conversion overnight,

but we'll see it down the road. And we're investing in that process. Yeah. Totally. And props to you and to Josh, I think the reason why that event was so successful and why we had such a good time planning it is because that was the, like,

you guys set that tone from the start. You were like, we are going to put on an event for our community, for them to experience. You didn't come to us and say, hey, put on this event to make money, make X amount of dollars. Hey, put on this event to have, like X amount of likes on Instagram.

It's never about that. It is purely for our community and to allow them to come and have a unique experience and challenge themselves and do something hard and really earn that medal and then go out and hit their next challenge. But it wasn't about any like numbers or data or any of that.

It was truly for the BPN tribe. Dix, we don't make any money on these events. No, we lost money. Josh, sorry. We lost so much money. Not so much, but yeah. We don't make any money on the money. No, no.

I mean, speaking in metals, though, talk about the metals. Dude, the medal was so sick. Obviously, the really cool things I've ever seen. It's so cool. And this is all because of Ethan and Cade. Yes. Like, they completely designed the metal themselves. And, like, I don't know, like, that medal was insane.

Like, there is literally no race that puts on an event with a metal like that. That metal was sick. And the coolest thing about it, which I really love. which I really leaned into, like, I'm a huge fan of the military and, like, the seals. And I see, like, you know, all these, like, documentaries about, you know, boot camp and stuff like that. And, like, you know, when a seal drops out of Hell Week, they have to leave their helmet and they have to ring the bell. And I was just like, man, it was like, these metals have this little chip inside that you have to click in to, like, finish the metal. And it's so cool.

And so we took these chips and we're like, hey, everyone got a chip. at the start of the race. They didn't know when they checked in. They didn't know what the chip was for. We're like, just have it with you at the finish line. You'll know what it's for then. And at the start of the race, during the announcement, we were like, everyone has, has their, their chips. You're going to need that chip at the finish line because you're either going to insert that chip into that metal because you're, you're proud and you finished, or you're going to quit and you're going to have to give that chip up and you're going to have to put it in the DNF bucket. And that's like a token of like,

Failure and like you know we set up to To meet a goal to run 50 miles and if you didn't do that you have to put that chip in that bucket and You know signify that that you're dropping out of the race It's tough and it's it's a little like damn. That's a little harsh But there's an element to that that I think everyone there really appreciated and people held that chip the whole like a lot of people carried that with them the whole time as a reminder of what they're working for you know they're working for that metal that metal was earned yeah, that was not a a hand-me-out medal. We gave no handouts for, for, you know, participating in it, you know. Like, if you want that medal, you're going to have to earn it or you're going to have to give that chip back. And I don't know. I really love that element to it.

DNF bucket only had five. Five freaking people, dude. That's it. Five people. Five people out of a hundred. And like, that's crazy. Yeah. And no shame to those five either.

Like, trust me, I'm not running that course. That course was hard. It was a hard course in the middle of the night, technical, heat, like, you know, props to people even coming and showing up because there's a few people who didn't even show up. Right. Yeah. You know, so, like, those five people that had a DNF, that's no shade at all. And, like, you know, you made it a hell of a lot farther than anyone that didn't show up, which there were a few that got in the race and just didn't come. So your guys' positions within BPN have a bowl.

over the years. Or since you've been here, Tony, especially years. Yeah. I'd like to hear, like, from your guys' perspective, how you've grown in your rules, what you've learned, what you've changed your mind about professionally and personally, and maybe what you value now compared to what you valued when you first got started. And then maybe share some background.

from where you're coming from before your time at BPN and what you're doing there. Yeah. You want to go first? Yeah. No, you go first. I feel like I've been going first. Okay. No worries.

I feel bad. Or do you want me to go first? Yeah. Go ahead. Now it's awkward. Go ahead. Dude, hope and I. Oh, my God.

Also, we should just share that how long have you been a BPN? It'll be two years, August 1st. Two years. I'm about a year and a half. my first year of working here, we probably spoke twice in passing. We were like so busy and like we were just in different teams and we just never really. Different teams, different offices. Like we just, we just never saw each other.

We were very friendly, like we, but we just never really formed any type of like friendship and didn't really ever talk one on one. And then last November paired us up to work on the athlete program and events. We had never really had a conversation. We were like both probably skeptical of like, how is this going to go? Yeah, for sure. Like, co-directing a program. Okay, don't say it like that.

But instantly, I think we had one conversation. It's like, oh, we are. We are locked in. We are locked in. Yeah. I could just absolutely tell, like, right from the jump, like, oh, we're in the same wavelength. Like, we operate very, very similarly. The most unlikely duo, to be honest, out of the whole company, probably.

Well, extremely hardworking. I like the word intentional, but truly, like intentional people who are dedicated to. their professional career, but also BPN. And you guys are two people that I can give you any project to work on and then just step away, check in once in a while, but I know that it's going to get done. And when the day comes for execution, not one part of me ever has to second guess, like, is this done the right way? And no, no, for a fact, it's going to be done the right way.

So I never have to worry about any of that. So I knew that you guys working together would be a success. Yeah, that's awesome to hear. Yeah. Okay, I'll go first. Okay, like obviously when I started here, I started as your media director, and then I moved to BPN's media director. And then, like Hope just said, I moved to co-directing the partnerships program with her. And like, for me, that was a huge scary jump because I literally have been,

in the creative field, either behind the camera, behind the computer directing, doing photographs, video for the last 16 years of my life. And so when you guys were like, hey, we want you to move to partnerships, I was like, no, that's crazy. I was thinking the same thing about you. How dare you. I'm just kidding. Because I'm like, I don't do partnerships. Like what, like, that's, I do video. I'm the video guy. That's what I do. And what I guess I've learned is that like, there's very limiting thinking. And I never thought like I would enjoy doing anything other than that.

And I was just like really, really hung up on it, you know? And I took a long, took a long trip last year. So I had a lot of time to like think about things. And so I'd found out up at this position before my trip and went on a trip. And then I like during that trip just like was thinking about my life. and like what kind of like legacy I want to leave behind. And like what really came away from that with is like the work that you do, like everyone has to work.

Right. And so like the work that you do, if you can work somewhere where you're really passionate about what you're doing, about the product that you're making, that the people that you're working with, if you can actually have passion and love where you're at and what you're doing and who you're doing it with, who cares what the job is.

Like if I've had a lot of different job. in my life. Literally, people laugh at the different types of jobs I've had. I've had so many different jobs. And so to be here at BPN and to actually care, I like, I genuinely give a shit about this company and about the people that watch our content, the people that take our products. I love the products. I was a user of the products beforehand. And like coming up from being an ambassador and an athlete for BPN, like I've seen both sides. And so like, for me limiting myself to just being like, oh, no, I'm the media guy. Who cares? I don't, I literally don't care anymore. Now I'm just like, I'm just excited. I get to help the brand grow.

So whatever, literally whatever position and whatever job title or whatever, like, it doesn't matter. I just, my job is to grow the brand. And whatever that means day to day, great. But that's what I'm passionate about. And so now I just feel like I've taken away that like limiting thing. And I've learned, I actually really love partnerships because it's literally being a people person, basically. And like, I love talking to people. Like, that's why I started in documentary filmmaking in the first place was I love finding out about people. I'm curious. And so that's what I've learned the most.

It's like I just, there's, there's a lot more to me than video and photo. And I'm honored and grateful to be a part of a company and a brand like this surrounded by people like hope and like you and, you know, all the people here. that I just get a, you know, call coworkers. It's just crazy to me. So, yeah, that's what I learned. A lot of people get tied up in a title. Yeah. Their vision, their north star of where they want to be in life at some point is this title.

And they don't even care what that title does. Like if I can just achieve this title in front of or beside my name, I will have become successful. but it's like for what company it doesn't matter just the title for what mission that doesn't matter just the title selling what product it doesn't matter just the title i think you're off there that's how i spent most of my life yeah in l.A that's like that's like is bred into you almost it's like all i wanted to do i didn't care what it took i wanted to be a creative director i did not care and then once i was a creative director making commercials and stuff for products that i did not use and did not believe in

guess what? Still unhappy. Still unfulfilled. So it's like what's good of the title? What good is a title if you don't believe in it? So. Yeah. All right.

All right. Now I will. Now I will go. You're out. I told when Nick sent a text to Tony and I asked you me on the podcast, I think I froze. I knew. I knew what I said. I wasn't going to send you guys a text first.

I was just going to send an invite. Oh, no way. Like podcast. I asked Nick Hope and Tony, but I knew as soon as I sent that text out, I was like, Hope's going to freak out. For no reason. No reason. It's chill. I think I just have massive respect for you and the platform and everything.

So I was nervous that I would do like a actually, I think this is actually something that I can like speak into is like confidence and belief in self and like being nervous to come on the pod. But my background actually is in, I got my degree in supply chain with a minor in economics. Like I was a numbers kind of girl. My first job out of college was a supply chain analyst at Reebok. So I was crunching numbers in Excel all day long for five years straight. And deep down, I knew, like, I just always had a passion for athletes, found your vlogs very early on, was a fan of BPN, loved what you guys were doing. And I had this, like, desire to just do more and to be more and to, I didn't know what it was going to look like, but I knew it was in me, but I just struggled with, like, massive lack of confidence and

massive insecurity in, like, man, this is what I want to do, but that can never be me. I don't have the skills. I don't have the degree. I grew up in a really small town. I don't have the connections. I don't have, you know, stuff you beat yourself down about. I don't look the right way. I don't fit the mold of, like, what that needs to look like. So for a long time, I was just, like, had this dream, but would just go to work, kind of crunch, numbers all day long because I was like, well, that's my dream, but that's not my reality. And COVID happened and ended up kind of, you know, getting out of that office feel, being able to work from different areas. And I was just like, okay, like, I just hit this wall where I was

like, I have to bet on myself because I could live the rest of my life this way with an unfulfilled dream. And I was very scared of that. So I ended up getting a sales job, more people facing, not what I wanted to do, but at least out of that supply chain area, more people. people facing. And it was for like Austin and local areas. So I moved here to do that. I had no intention of working for BPN. I knew you guys were down here. But again, lack of confidence, left lack of belief. I was like, that'll just never happen. Cool that I'll be close to them. Maybe I'll get to like see the team and run into them. But that's just not going to be me. Like I'm just not that person. And so started working this sales job down here. And Trevor,

who works for our media team, lived at the same apartment complex of, as me. And we knew like of each other, but we had never really spoken. We both worked in the crossfit space for a while. And he's walking his dog one day. I'm probably like a year into this previous job. He's walking his dog. And I see him. And I just ask if I can pet his dog because I love dogs and I didn't have one. So I was like, can I pay your dog? And he's like, yeah. And we started chatting. And I was telling him about my job. He's talking about BPN. And he's like, well, you know, like they're looking for someone right now for like a community manager. And I was like, well, my immediate instinct was just like, well, can you put my name in?

It was like, yeah, like, of course. And I, again, lack of confidence. I was like, all right, probably not going to go with me, but at least my name's in. Like, that's so exciting. And I think you called me like two or three days later and we locked it in. And that was like just, it was just crazy, like a life-changing moment. And I had definitely had imposter syndrome for a long time when I first started here. Like, it was definitely hiding behind some employees and just trying to like stay in the background.

like do my thing. But you trusting me working alongside Tony, trusting me getting different positions in this company, I've just like grown in this confidence and grown in like just belief in myself and being like, you're not going to be perfect. The event wasn't perfect. We dealt with things. The athlete program isn't perfect. We deal with things. But anybody listening, if you don't think that this can be you, like it can be you. And the only thing holding you back is you will, willing to believe in yourself. That's the only thing that changed. The only thing that changed about 22-year-old me versus 29-year-old me is I started to believe in myself. And you just do that every day, just show up and be like, I got this, I got this, I got this, and be willing to ask

for help when you need help and lean on your teammates. But you guys allow me to be confident. This team allows me to be confident. And I think that's the biggest, I've just like grown so much since being here. And I'm willing to put ideas out there. I like couldn't even speak to you when I first started here, let alone pitch an idea. Dude, when we first started on partnership, she would be like, hey, will you text Nick this? I'm like, why don't you text him? And she's like, no, you text him.

I'm like, you can text him. I promise you. You're good. This is a good idea. You text him. I remember we had that conversation one time where you were like, I don't know what to bring to you or if I can or I should. I was like, just bring me anything.

Yeah. So in your mind bring me anything. Yeah. And that's the thing is just like, again, I'll say it over and over. but confidence has been the game changer in my life. It has changed everything for me. And before, I would be scared to even bring up an idea. And then if I did, even if you're like, yeah, that's a good idea.

In my head, I'd be like, he hated that. He absolutely hated that. But now it's grown to a point where I know how much I care about this brand. I know that I can do a good job here that when I come to you, even if you're like, hey, maybe not right now. I still am like, okay, yeah, it's good. Not right now. Let's move on.

And we're just like, I feel like I'm really part of this. and we're really building something. And I just, yeah, I deeply care about it. There's no other brand like this. We are bringing good people together and we are having a positive impact and we're allowing people to achieve big goals. And I think we're also giving people that confidence

that I so desperately needed. So I'm just so excited to continue growing and I'm just like, I'm very grateful. Still sometimes you wake up and you're like, wow, I can't not believe this is my job. It's just incredible. For me, personally, I get a lot of fulfillment out of that, knowing that, because I once didn't have the belief of myself.

And it took me putting myself out there and failing multiple times, then succeeding and failing and succeeding. You finally, like, at least I did, I realized that one belief comes before ability. I've said that a lot recently. but also you're in control of your destiny. No one else is in control of the life that you end up achieving. And if you put your life in someone else's hands, you're never going to get it.

Or if it's just up in the clouds, it's just up in the clouds forever. But until you actually grasp it and make it happen, then it can happen. But I get a lot of fulfillment in seeing people build confidence because I was once not confident, and I want everyone to experience what confidence feels like because everyone should have that level of confidence

because we're never going to be perfect. We're never going to do it the right way. We're going to mess up. We're going to lose money. We're going to fail. But that's just part of it. There's just part of it. What are some of the – can you pinpoint some of the moments

in your time here that were like confidence boosters? like clearly like a breakthrough of oh crap I got this I can actually do this yeah I would say Austin Marathon this past year was a massive one because that was really one where I was like in control meaning like responsible like taking lead on things when I first came in here I was like a manager and I was underneath a director and kind of like being able to play like kind of second role there so someone else was kind of in charge. But once I started taking lead on things, that's when, like, the confidence grew because I was like, it's on you now. And I think in the past, I'm not even kidding, I was so scared of things that if you put me in that role, I'd either, like, quit or be like, you need to hire someone above me.

Like, I can't do this. But I was like, no, like, this is your chance. Like, you can do this. An Austin Marathon, I felt like just went so well. And that was something that I was, like, fully responsible for. Like, Kate and Ethan crushed the booth. that was all them. But like making sure everything was set up in the right way, flowed the right way, making sure people had bibs, our runners were in the right spot, we had some athletes in town.

It was just a lot of moving pieces. And then like you speaking, making sure you knew where to go and that all went off without a hitch. It was very seamless with like a lot going on. And that was something where I was like, okay, not only can you do this, but like you're a part of this. Like if you step up and you like show up every day and work hard and reach your full potential, you will be part. I hope I'm not overstepping by saying this. You will be part of the reason why BPN is successful. And that was like a game changing moment for me. Because even when I first got brought on, I was like I work here, but I'm not like, that's like Nick's, like Nick is part of this.

I'm just kind of like working here. But now over this past year and a half, I feel like I don't just work here like I'm part of this. And that's been like life changing for me, truly, because it's just, again, if you are listening to this, the only thing in your way is yourself. And I always looked at other people on, like, social media and just like, they're just on it. I would always be like they're just on a different level. They're on a different level. And once I hit that level, then I can start to do big things.

But that's just not the truth. That level is confidence. That level is confidence. Everybody's doing the same thing. It's just like they're just trying and failing more so that way they hit success faster. And that's all it is. There's nobody on a different level and just go out there and go after it. When you have a team, I think, I don't think I know our whole team is in the situation right now.

When you have a team that believes in a mission, believes in the organization, but also believes in themselves, and has confidence and isn't afraid to fail. because they know if they do fail, it's because they push the boundaries and limits. It's not because they neglected their obligations and responsibilities. I've had to learn a lot in terms of building a team and leadership and curating culture. That's one of the things I've learned over time is if you create an environment that facilitates those individuals and that type of team, you're so strong.

You're so strong. And when there's insecurity and ego involved, and when you're afraid to fail because of the repercussions that come out of that, that team is so weak and so brittle. It can't grow. It can't pivot. It can't adapt. For me, in this leadership role in the business right now, I view that as my main responsibility. It's injecting belief into individuals, confidence. an ability to set people up to succeed,

but also encourage failure along the way. I feel like we're in a really good rhythm and spot right now. When you're really good at doing that too, like I, like, for me, my confidence was kind of built up at the advertising agency that I was at, um, in like most of my 20s. And so when I came here, like I had a lot of confidence in my work. But like that confidence got shook once.

But you were right there to like allow me to fail. And, you know, it was a go pack launch. It was a freaking go pack launch. I made a video for the go pack launch that, you know, I thought it was what we wanted. And I thought was like good and like was like pretty confident in it. And then like, you know, you watched it. And you were just like, it's not it, man. Sorry.

We're not going to, we're not going to launch it. And like, I remember feeling like, oh, I haven't felt. I haven't had my confidence rock like that. Ever. Like I had to close my door to the eye office. I had a I had a little private moment with myself where I was like I don't even know if I'm even good. I don't even know if I'm talented at all like literally my entire world like I'm I'm almost you know I'm 36 like I'm confident I like know what I'm doing here like I got all this experience but blah blah blah and you're like this isn't it like I'm sorry to tell you like you handled it so well but it really rocked me for like a day. I just was like. you know, crying. And just like, I was mortified that I had spent company time. I'd spent your time. I'd spent our team's time on a project that wasn't going to go.

And there was never going to see the light of day. And that, like, ate at me. But I remember you texting me that night because I like, dude, I was in it. I was like in the trenches of like, I don't know what I'm going to do now because, like, I have failed on a very big scale here. And like, that sucks. And remember you texting me that night, you were like, this has nothing to do with my faith in you, my belief in you, or your talent level. It just wasn't what the brand needs

right now. And that's okay. We're going to try again tomorrow. And it's okay to fail. And dude, that literally like was a weight lifted off my shoulders because I literally thought, Nick hates me now. This is over. I might as well pack my bags because my time at BPN's done. And that wasn't the case at all. Like if anything, you've given me so much more responsibility since that, since then, and have allowed me to fail. And so, like, for me, having my confidence checked and, like, you just, you did a great job with that of, you know, instilling that confidence back in me, even though it was, like, at rock bottom at one moment while I was here.

Yeah. I remember that. Dude. I think about it often. But those are all really pivotal moments in the trajectory of the brand and the growth of individuals. Yeah. I heard this saying, if you might have.

months ago, so it's no podcast. And it said 90% of a leader's job is spent teaching and guiding. And if a leader is spending more time doing and in the weeds, they're not actually leading. So I try to spend a lot of my time guiding and teaching and sharing resources and allowing the team to execute. And I've just seen positive benefit from that. seen not only you guys, but a lot of other team members grow, but it's not just because of like my leadership, but it's because of the curation of people that we brought into this business. And everyone is bought in and helping one another. And we set the standard. I mean, we say set the standard, hold the standard. If the standard isn't met, the five mile loop is not

five miles. We're going to make it five miles. The video isn't to standard. We're going to go redo it. If a product isn't tasting the way we wanted to taste, we're going to redo the taste. We are going to make sure that when we, we don't just say this. When we set the standard, we're going to hold it no matter what.

No matter what we can do, no matter how long it takes, no matter how much money we've got to spend, we're going to hold that standard. And when everyone has that mindset and philosophy, that's how you move the needle in an organization. That's how you move the needle in a mission. That's how you impact people.

That's how you create true. That's what we're doing. The 50-mileer was just one part of that legacy. Oh, yeah. So guys, excellent job this past weekend. You crushed it. I'm super proud. That was an event that I will remember forever in history of BPN.

I think we'll look back at this in the years to come, being like this was one of those moments. The Austin Marathon was one of those moments. I will always remember that. Austin Marathon, 2004. That was where like this, this line just like

ticked over. Turning point for the turning point and the trajectory just shift a little bit. Same thing with the 50 mile. Like the 50 miler for me was a refinement of mission. These last couple weeks and months, we've been talking about the refinement of this mission,

who we're serving, how we're serving them. And then for it to come to life during this event was like, okay, all these things we're talking about. This is what it looks like. This is what it feels like, not just on paper, but in real life, in interactions. Talking to people, touching people, like, all that. It's like, this is real.

Those aren't just words. It's not just up in the clouds. So great job. Proud of you guys. And thanks for being on the podcast. Thanks for having us.