The Nick Bare Podcast - 087: Building the Brand: Part 2 "Solitude"

Episode Date: October 3, 2024

In this chapter of Building the Brand, I cover my time from landing in Fort Benning, Georgia in October 2013, to arriving at Fort Hood, Texas in October 2014. I share how my severe eating disorder led me to fall in love with fitness and start Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN). I recount my Army ROTC experiences, graduating college, and the challenges faced during Ranger School. This chapter reflects on the importance of solitude, resilience, and the life lessons learned, paving the way for BPN's growth and my leadership approach. Chapters 00:00 Overcoming Personal Struggles 00:10 The Spark of Fitness and Nutrition 00:25 Military Journey Begins 00:50 Starting BPN: The Early Challenges 02:05 Reflecting on Chapter One 05:00 Arriving at Fort Benning 07:56 Lessons from Military Training 18:33 The Importance of Solitude 24:56 Preparing for Ranger School 32:55 Mastering Time Management 34:47 The Ranger School Challenge 39:48 Facing Setbacks and Resilience 50:45 Lessons in Leadership and Character 53:50 New Beginnings at Fort Hood 59:46 Going All In on BPN Strength, endurance, and wellness supplements to fuel your performance. SAVE 10% at BPN Supps: https://bit.ly/nickbare10audio FOLLOW: IG: https://www.instagram.com/thenickbarepodcast YT: youtube.com/@nickbarefitness

Previously on building the brand, I had a severe eating disorder. I was starving myself. I was killing myself. I was so malnourished. I was so depleted. I couldn't get out of bed. I turned that control, that obsession of food and eating into a healthy one as opposed to an unhealthy one. And I fell in love with fitness.

I fell in love with bodybuilding. And that's what actually sparked me to go to college and study nutrition. I went to college on an Army ROTC scholarship. We had to go to what was called LDAQ, the leadership, development, and assessment course. And at the end of these 30 days, you're giving a rating. I got an E. Exceeds the standard.

When I got that card and I saw the E, it completely shifted my perception of myself and my ability moving forward. I really started thinking about this more. Like, hey, I want to, I really want to start the supplement company. But I was missing one thing, money. I couldn't afford to. to start a supplement company. And USAA was offering up to a $25,000 loan.

And from there, I had everything I needed. I had the business registered. I had the manufacturer in place. I had the funding. And when that $20,000 hit my bank account, I felt like I hit the lottery. I thought it was going to be easier than it actually was. And I truly believe that if I would have known how hard it was going to be,

if someone would have told me if I wouldn't have been as ignorant or naive to the process, I don't know if I ever would have gotten started. I slowly started to lose a little bit of that confidence. I slowly started to think maybe I am just average. Belief comes before ability. The only reason, the only way I was ever able to build BPN into what it is today is because I had the belief that I could.

I had the belief that I would. And if you don't believe in yourself, you will never have the ability to do. What is going on, guys, and welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today, I'm diving into chapter two of the building the brand series, the series that we've created the multi-part series of the journey, the stories, the lessons learned of starting and building bare performance nutrition into what it is today. What are we talking about in chapter number two?

what happened in my life that I want to share with you? So where this chapter starts and where it ends, it starts with me landing in Fort Benning, Georgia in October of 2013, and it ends with me arriving to my first duty station with the United States Army, Fort Hood, Texas, October 2014. So this chapter is almost exactly one year in duration. And not much happened with BPN during this chapter, in all honesty, because I was in and out

of training. The military, the army was my primary focus. I wanted to put all of my attention and effort towards that military experience and setting me up for success for the years to come. And also, I was just in and out of the field a lot. I mean, I wasn't at my apartment. I wasn't on my computer. I didn't have access to technology.

We were in the field training. So BPN was still a thing at this point, but it was on autopilot. So my dad and my brother were shipping out orders back home in Pennsylvania for me as orders slowly trickled in. Very few orders trickled in. But the reason I need to share. this chapter my life is because it is such a significant part of not only my personal journey and the lessons that I learned, but for BPN as well. And this chapter, this year was very transformative. And I truly believe I didn't have that year between October 2013 and October

2014, I would not be where I am today sitting in the seat. hosting a podcast, being the founder and CEO of Bear Performance Nutrition, I truly don't think BPN would even be a thing if I didn't have this year. That's how powerful life experiences can be. It's how powerful opportunities can be. It's how powerful a year can be. But those opportunities, those experiences, those days, those weeks, those months, those years, they're only powerful if you can identify lessons learned.

If you can take hardship and turn it into a positive. If you can realize, recognize and respect what you're going through in the moment and turning that weakness potentially into a strength. And that's what I did in this year. And that's why I want to and need to share it because it is such an important part of the DNA of BPN and me, my family, and the way that I lead, in the way that I work, the way that I live.

So the lessons that I learned in this chapter, first off, I quickly realized that deciding to join the military was going to prove to be one of the best decisions I could have ever made, which would have and has set me up for success throughout my life up until this point. making that choice to join the military was one of, if not the best decisions I've ever made. Another lesson is that we must choose to do hard things. And with hard things, when you're in the moment and it's challenging and you think I can't get to the other side, I can't keep doing this.

The reminder that this two shall pass. My grandma told me that before I went to Rangers school. in this chapter. This two shall pass, and I recited that many, many times at very low points in this chapter. We must choose to do hard things.

Lesson three is that resiliency is a universal life skill. Being able to be adaptable, being able to pivot, being resilient is the Swiss Army pocket knife of life. I truly believe that. The people that you see that achieve greatness, that achieve success in whatever way you define it, people who accomplish their goals and reach milestones and do things in life that they once thought was unbelievably achievable,

they have done those things through resiliency. It is the Swiss Army pocket knife of life. The fourth lesson I learn is that true character is evaluated in moments of unplanned discomfort, not comfortable convenience. A lot of us choose to do hard things, which is great. We should choose to do hard things. But when you choose to do hard things and you're challenged and there's resistance and there's obstacles, that's expected.

You chose that path. You chose that journey. You chose that challenge. Of course there's going to be difficulties that arise in those moments. But you can plan for that. But when we are faced with adversity that we didn't plan for, that pops up in a moment's notice and flips our world upside down, the way that we not necessarily react,

but we respond to those situations, that is true character. That is where we can evaluate ourselves or other people. You know, sometimes in life, things will pop up out of nowhere. Flips our world, like I said, upside down. And some people turn into a different person. Or maybe it's just that true individual comes out. You see their true colors.

Like, ah, didn't know that guy or girl was like that. I don't want to be around someone who, reacts or response in that way to the unknowns. And you're the other people where chaos strikes. It is madness. It is just very dark and dirty. And that person is responsive, not reactive, and professional, and calm. Takes one step back, looks at the playing field,

establishes a plan, moves forward. There's different ways to approach a situation. there's a reaction, their response. I would rather respond than to react. So those are some of the lessons that I learned in this, in this short year of my life that was packed with so much that we're about to dive into. But it all starts with a drive,

a literal drive, not like a metaphoric motivation or ambition, but like a vehicle driving. When I graduated college in May of 2013, I had a few months prior to having to report to Fort Benning, Georgia. And during those months, I worked for the Army RRTC department at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania, IEP. And I was considered what they call a gold bar recruiter. So I just, I graduated college, commissioned the Army. I worked for the military, for the college, until I was, you know, made my way to my first duty station,

which was Fort Benning, Georgia. So I packed up my truck. At the time I had a Nissan Titan truck. Love that truck. Loved that truck. Packed up my truck with everything that I owned, which all fit in that truck. There wasn't much to it. And I drove from Pennsylvania to Georgia.

and that drive from you is very powerful. That drive was filled with a lot of moments of just thinking and solitude, which I'm about to talk about here shortly, and planning for the future, thinking what was to come, and reflecting on my life up until that point, just thinking about how I got to where I was, thinking about my eating disorder when I was younger, thinking about my parents, my parents' parents and the life they lived

and thinking about pursuing a passion and interest in the fitness industry and the supplement market and starting BPN and where I wanted to take that and what kind of leader I wanted to be in the military, all these things I was thinking about on this drive to Fort Bedding, Georgia. and Fort Benning, Georgia is in or right around Columbus, Georgia. So I make the drive. I pull into my apartment complex that I signed a lease for, which if anyone has spent time at Fort Benning, Georgia,

especially infantry officers, which if you are or were an infantry officer, you definitely spent time at Fort Benning, Georgia. I stayed at Independence Place, which was a popular apartment complex for young lieutenants. And it was on exit six. So you typically describe everything along Fort Benning or Columbus by which exit it's on. Fort Benning was exit one.

I lived on exit six. A lot of my friends lived at exit 10, which had all like the amenities. They had a Buffalo Wild Wings, B-dubs. It had some shopping center or some mall. But like exit 10 was... It was more expensive. It was a further drive, but I was like envious of the people that lived at exit 10. I was at exit six.

Independence Place apartments. And I remember this like it was yesterday. I pull up to the apartment complex. I park in a spot. I turn off my truck and I just sat there thinking and realizing. I am in control of the rest of my life from this point moving forward. You know, up until that point, I was on this path that kind of guided me to where I wanted or needed to be. Graduated high school, applied for college, got into college, went through college, graduated, joined the army, the army moved me to Georgia.

They had made these decisions, but the decisions that I made, these bigger decisions, they guided me to where I was in this moment. But now, being in a new state, being out of college, my first full-time job, working for the government, being in the military, I felt all of it right there in that moment, that parking lot, that every decision I made moving forward was going to shift the trajectory of where I ended up in life. It was like, it come to Jesus moment. It got really real, real fast. and I recognize that there's no guide, there's no person who's taking control my life anymore and putting me in these situations, environments, and positions that sets me up for success. That's on me now. I am in control of that.

I am responsible for what I do or fail to do. What do I achieve or don't achieve? Where I end up, the life that I build, that's on me. I realized that sitting in that parking lot, which one was heavy, but I would say it was more exciting than heavy. I wasn't sitting in this parking lot thinking, oh my gosh,

like I'm paralyzed. What do I do next? No, I'm sitting in this parking lot realizing that I'm responsible for the decisions and the outcomes. It's all in my hands. I'm in control. That got me jacked up. That got me excited.

It's up to me to decide what I do or I don't do. I can't blame anyone else. Can't point fingers. I can't make excuses. It's on me. I'm in a new state by myself with no one that I know. In a brand new apartment, everything that I own to my name is in the back of my truck, 10 feet from where I'm sitting.

Let's go. Let's build. let's live, let's create. I saw that as such a massive opportunity that I could feel like coursing throughout the veins in my blood, in my body. It got me so jacked up. And I think the reason I was feeling that way

when I got to Independence Place apartments in Columbus, Georgia on exit six, is because I had so much solitude leading up to that moment. That entire drive, that drive set me up to experience the life that I was about to live. And right now I'm reading a book by Cal Newport, which I highly recommend. I recommend anything by Cal Newport. The first book I ever read by him was Deep Work, which is one of my favorite books ever.

And I'm currently reading Digital Minimalism. And in digital minimalism, Cald-Newport talks about solitude. And I'll pull this excerpt here, but what solitude is, is the freedom from input from others' minds. Many people mistakenly associate solitude with physical separation, requiring perhaps that you hike to a remote cabin miles from another human being. But this flaw definition introduces a standard of isolation that can be impractical for most to satisfy on any sort of regular basis. Solitude is about what's happening in your brain,

not the environment around you. Accordingly, they define it to be a subjective state in which your mind is free from the input from other minds. Solitude is not necessarily being, it can be, but not necessarily being alone in quiet. Solitude is being one within your own thoughts, being alone in your thoughts, and reducing or eliminating the inputs from others, their thoughts, their ideas, their perspectives. and the reason it's so applicable to digital minimalism is because this is kind of a side tangent, but in the world that we live in today where we're so connected, we're too connected

with phones and laptops and TVs and screens and iPads and computers and all these things were so connected that we're constantly being fed this IV drip line of other people's thoughts, ideas, and perspectives that infiltrate our minds where we can't actually be alone in our own minds. That's what solitude is. That's why I run every day. I run, yes, for the physical benefits, but mainly for the mental clarity, the solitude. I can still get solitude while I'm listening to an audiobook or listen to a podcast. But man, it is powerful. to be able to be in your mind, in your thoughts, without anyone else's influencing the waves that go on in your brain.

And I didn't recognize this in the moment, but that's what that drive from Pennsylvania to Georgia was for me. It was solitude. It was hours of just thinking, thinking about the past, thinking about the present, thinking about the future. So by the time I got to Fort Benning Georgia and pulled into my apartment complex,

I was doing so much thinking. I had so many moments of solitude leading up to parking in that parking space. It all hit me that I know I want to build something. I know that once or that needs to be, I wanted to be BPN. But right now my focus has to be my training in the military. I know for the next year I have to be hyper-focused on, learning the skills from the military, from officers, from non-commissioned officers,

that's going to set me up for success for when I go be a platoon leader in the infantry in this next chapter. But that drive provided me the solitude to forward-thinking backwards plan. So by the time I landed in Georgia, I was ready for this next phase. I was ready for this next chapter. I was ready for the opportunities. So key takeaway here is, one, we need solitude. We need solitude in our life because if we don't create or find ways to just be one within our own thoughts that removes the ideas, perspectives, and opinions of others, sometimes just for a small amount of time each day, it's going to be a really busy mind. It's going to be a really busy brain. This is what creates so much anxiety for so many people. The cases of anxiety are

growing rapidly from younger people to middle age to older. And it's because our minds, our brains are so infiltrated with others' inputs and not navigating our own. So find moments of solitude, especially as you enter a new chapter, a new phase of life, you're going through a transition. Set yourself up for success. And I didn't do all of this intentionally. It just happened this way. The drive created the solitude. The solitude created the clarity. The clarity provided me the energy and the focus to dive into this next chapter and really own it. So the first thing I had to do when I got the Fort Benning, Georgia was called Ibolic. It stands for the Infantry Officer Basic Leader Course.

This is a 17-week course that prepares infantry officers to be platoon leaders. So the plan for every infantry officer is that you go do all of your training, you arrive to your unit, and then you become a platoon leader. you lead a platoon, which is around 40 non-commissioned officers in soldiers. And there's platoons, which are part of companies, companies which are a part of battalions, battalions, which are part of brigades. So I was a platoon leader in the infantry for two years. I led 40 soldiers and non-commissioned officers.

and that's what this course prepares you for. It prepares you for the tactical part of the job, the strategic part of the job, the operational part of the job, and the leadership part of leading a platoon. 17-week course, and we are probably in the field for eight or nine of those weeks. So you're not sleeping at your apartment at night.

You show up to work on, say, a Monday. with your rucksack, and you take the trucks, the vehicles out into the field, and you're in the field training for a week, two weeks, and you're working on, like I said, tactics, strategics, leadership. And while as much of the infantry officer basic leader course is preparing you to be a platoon leader, it's also preparing you for ranger school. Because it is expected that every infantry officer. officer goes to ranger school prior to going to their unit.

And if you arrive to your unit as an infantry officer and you don't have a ranger tab on your shoulder, the reality is you don't receive the same level of respect as you would if you did have a ranger tab on your shoulder. It is expected of you that you commission into the army, you complete the infantry, you complete the infantry officer basic leader course, you go to ranger school, you pass ranger school, which has a 50% pass rate, you get your ranger tab, and you show up to your unit. Because as soon as you show up to your unit as an infantry officer, they're going to check your shoulder as soon as you walk in to see if you have a ranger tab.

And if you don't have that ranger tab, it's not a good or easy way to start off that working relationship. You then have to go earn that respect in other ways. So so much of Ibolic is prepping you for platoon leader life, but also Ranger School, because we all knew we were going to Ranger School as soon as we finished Ibollick. So the entire time I was in this course, I was, I had the mindset of I'm here to learn to be a student, but also to train and prepare myself for Ranger School because I knew that's what was next. That intimidated me.

It intimidated me because I knew it was going to be a very challenging experience. I was also intimidated by the fact that I did not want to show up to Fort Benning, or sorry, Fort Hood, Texas, to my platoon and not have a Ranger tab on my shoulder. That's the last thing I wanted. So I trained hard that entire 17 weeks in preparation for that school. Running, lifting, learning as much as possible, reading the Ranger Handbook, reading leadership books, being a student, truly being a student.

And while a lot of my peers and friends were traveling on the weekends, a lot of other infantry officers would go into Auburn on the weekends. and they go to sporting events, they go party, they travel around the local Georgia area and visits in different cities. Savannah was only about a three-hour drive-away. Atlanta was about an hour drive-away. I was pretty antisocial at this point in my life. I wasn't being drawn towards

traveling and partying and exploring all these different cities. I saw this as like my opportunity, my responsibility to focus on my job. Because I didn't want there to be any variable that I was able to control. It held me back from unlocking certain things that would set me up for success. That first unlock was graduating Ibook. That second unlock was getting my Ranger tab. That third unlock was getting to Fort Hood, Texas and getting a platoon and leading that platoon. I was spending some time at this phase of my life working on BPN in the background,

but I didn't dedicate a whole lot of time because the focus had to be elsewhere. I mean, like I said, we were in the field more than half the time while in this school, and there was no opportunity to work on BPN or even communicate with the outside world during this time. I would leave my phone in my truck and come back to my phone and we got back from the field. I mean, I vividly remember coming back to my phone one time after being in the field for about 10 days, turning on my phone, and all of these messages popped up, one after the other, miscalls, voicemails, message, message, message, message. I instantly thought, okay, somebody died.

Something happened. And it was about my brother, Preston. So Preston, he was in college at the time, his appendix ruptured. And he had to be hospitalized. And he lost like 30 pounds in a matter of two weeks while in the hospital because his appendix ruptured. And it was such a severe case that he was hospitalized for a significant amount of times.

So all these people were texting me and messaging me, how's your brother? What's going with Preston? Is he okay? Just checking in. So I'm freaking out when I get back to my phone in my truck, but I wanted to be able to while we were training, focus on the training. I don't want to be distracted by a phone or what was going on on social media

or the media in general. So building BPN at that point in my life wasn't really even an option. I mean, at that point, like I've already previously stated, it was a few orders that were trickling in every once in a while. It was not consistent. It was not sustainable. It was just there. It was just existing.

But I also knew that that time of my life was not the time to go all in. Because I had to be hyper-focused on one thing. And that was preparing myself to be a platoon leader, but really preparing myself to get to Ranger's school. And I believe this was also a really significant part of my life. life where I began to learn how to maximize my time. Time management became a really strong skill of mine that I put to use. And I would meal prep in all my waking moments. We get back from the field and we get back from the field late. And I had a 24-7 gym membership to this gym called

Max Fitness in Columbus. Georgia, I'd go straight to the gym. So every waking moment that we weren't in the field, I was prepping my food. I was training in the gym. I was running. I was being a student. I was learning. I was listening.

I just wanted to use this time to make sure that when I was about to be tested and that test for me was Ranger School, I was prepared. We're able to achieve and reach our full potential in life through preparation. If there's things you want to do, if there's things you want to accomplish, there's things I want to accomplish. It's one thing to wish for it. Like, man, I want to do this one day. I want to achieve this goal. I want to reach this milestone.

And every day I'm going to wake up and I'm going to pray that I do it. I'm going to keep hoping for it. And one day when I'm tested, I'm going to do it. I'm going to make it happen. Well, if you don't prepare, if you don't put in the work that's required, that wish will always be a wish. You can't wish yourself to success. You have to work yourself towards success.

And that work is through the preparation that allows us to reach our full potential. So 17 weeks after starting I Bullock, I graduated, and I put my name in for the first Ranger school slot, which was February 23rd, 2014. I'll never forget this because that was the best ranger

competition date and I'll explain that so every year at Fort Benning, Georgia they host this competition called Best Ranger Competition, BRC and in active duty military personnel I believe National Guard and Reserve

can also compete but anyone who is ranger qualified has a ranger tab or is in a ranger unit can compete in best ranger competition. And it's a series of events where every year there's the best ranger who wins. And during that time, pretty much all of Fort Benning shuts down and supports best ranger competition. So we knew going into the February 23rd, 2014 reporting date that if we were recycled any phase, there would be a six-week holdover during that phase while best

Ranger competition is going on. And then once that competition is over, Ranger School would resume. So if I didn't go straight through, which it's very rare that people go straight through, straight through at 61-day course. So I started February 23rd, 2014. That was my report date, if I would have went straight through, I would have graduated April 25th, 2014. And I remember someone telling me, hey, just so you know, if you go to Ranger School, February 23rd, that's BRC, if you don't go straight through, you're going to be at one of these phases being held for six weeks until you can resume. Six weeks. Pretty much six weeks. Pretty much six weeks. in jail. I said, I'm going straight through. I'm prepared. Well, I ended up graduating July 11th,

2014. Sixty one day course, which I spent about 145 days total. I recycled two phases, and one of those phases was during the best Ranger competition. So I entered the school, and that first week is rap week, Ranger assessment phase, where you do land navigation, obstacle courses, PT test, Ruck March, there's water confidence survival test and course. That first week is pretty much set to break you down mentally, physically, emotionally, and weed out people who aren't prepared for the remainder of the school. So I went into rap week, I passed rap week, kicked my butt, and I entered the first phase. And each phase, there's three phases, there's Fort Benning, and there's the mountain phase,

and then there's the Florida phase. Each phase of Ranger School spends about a week where they teach you techniques on how to run the patrols that you're expected to run, and then you go in the field and you execute those patrols. So the way that Ranger School works is they put you into different leadership positions and you have to run these patrols or these operations. For example, you start the morning, you're given the mission. The mission in MITB conduct an ambush on this grid coordinate that is 10 kilometers away, for example. If you are in that leadership position, it is your responsibility to maneuver that element, those people,

to that objective, execute the mission, and if it was successful and you completed all the techniques that you were taught prior to that, to standard, you will get a go. But if you failed the mission, if you failed the techniques, if you failed any part of that patrol, you are a no-go. And it might not be what you did as a leader, but it could be something that someone in your squad or your platoon did, that failed the mission that then holds the leader responsible, which ultimately makes you a no-go as well. So in order to pass each phase, you have to get a go during your leadership evaluation. There's other ways to actually fail each phase as well,

but that's kind of in the details. So I failed that first phase. I failed the Fort Benning, Georgia phase. I failed my patrols. So I was a six-week holdover. And for six weeks, we were supporting Fort Benning, Georgia, and the Best Ranger competition. It was literally like jail. I mean, I was scared most of these six weeks. We all were.

I mean, you're getting hazed and not physically beat up, but like mentally, emotionally beat up. You're just not getting treated really well, which we weren't expecting. You know, it's just part of it. but I needed that. I needed that at this phase in chapter of my life. It was humbling.

It was very, very humbling. I'll never forget one of the days they dropped me off in the woods during this holdover. And they wanted us to clean the woods for the best ranger competition to make it look good. So they dropped us off of the wood line. They said any stick that's bigger than one foot you need to collect and bring back to this pile. I mean the entire woodline Acres and acres and acres was filled with broken branches

that were over one foot So all day we're picking up sticks and bringing them back to a pile Another day they put me in a boat On Victory Pond And taking a rake And I'm raking out seaweed

Out of this pond It was stuff like that Every day for six weeks We were just trying to beautify Fort Benning In preparation for the best ranger competition And after that six-week holdover, which like I said, was very humbling. It was challenging.

It was hard. But it forced growth. It forged so much adaptability and resiliency in those moments. And I thought that was just the beginning. So I went back into that phase and I passed. Fort Benning phase, check. Move one. mountain phase.

Get to the mountain phase, I failed mountain phase. I recycled mountains. After I recycled mountains, I mean, that was one of the lowest moments of my life. I recycled mountains again because of patrols. I'll never forget this day where as an infantry officer, you don't automatically get a slot into Ranger School, but there's more allocated spots for infantry officers. and there's less allocated spots for enlisted soldiers or non-commissioned officers. It's kind of just the way it works.

And we did our mountain phase, and I ran my patrol, and it was successful. And the next morning, we got our evaluation, me and the other guys that were being evaluated in the leadership rules from the previous day. and the Ranger instructor pulled me aside and he goes, hey man, he goes, hey Ranger. You know, that was a good, well-executed patrol, but I'll be honest with you. It took me six years to get into Ranger school. I put in an application and I tried hard for six years and I finally got in. When I got in, I passed. I went straight through.

and I see so many officers coming through here and just being given spots because there's so many more allocated positions for infantry officers for anger school. And for that reason and that reason alone, I'm going to fail you and recycle you. And I never will forget hearing those words after being so broken from recycling the Fort Benning phase, being a holder over six weeks, working. working so hard to get to the next phase, running my patrol to the best of my ability, and then being told I'm being failed,

not necessarily for any other reason, except for the fact that this ranger instructor wanted to fail me. And I cried, not in front of them, but I went back to my patrol base. I put my head down, and I cried. That was a low, low moment. Now I'll never forget,

once that phase was over, everyone was given the opportunity to make a phone call. So there were two phone booths at the base camp in Delanooga, Georgia. And we all stood in lines. We could make one phone call on that pay phone. Most people called either their wife, their girlfriend, their parents, let them know I either passed or I didn't pass. This is when I think I'm going to graduate. You know, I'm not going to graduate until this point based off of what just happened.

I called my dad. I'm in line, waiting in line forever. Call my dad. He picked up and I couldn't get anything out. There was this huge lump in my throat. And I finally was able to just like muster up the courage. You get the words out and saying, I failed. I have to go back into this phase. I'm not graduate when I thought I was going to be graduating. I will update you in a few weeks when I get my next call. Now is a tough phone call to make. Now, with this phase of Ranger School, of Mountain Phase, there was no holdover. So the phase ended in the morning, the next phase restarted in the afternoon. We jumped right back into it. And there was something that my grandma told me before I went into the military. And she said, Nick, you're probably going to go through some challenging moments, some hard times, and just remember that this two shall pass. Grandma Bear told me that.

This two shall pass. And when she told me that, I didn't think too much of it. It's kind of one in ear, not in the other. But as it sat with me for longer, especially when I got into the school, and I was challenged with a lot of adversity and moments and failure that kept popping up. This two shall pass.

We have to choose to do hard things. choosing to do hard things will facilitate growth. It will. And sometimes when you choose to do hard things, like I said in the beginning of this episode, there's an expectation that you're going to run into obstacles and resistance and hardship and challenge. Those are the expected moments. I knew that going to this school, I was going to be tired. I was going to be hungry at times. I knew it was going to be hard, but I didn't expect to be in this school for this amount of time

when I was expecting to be in and out in 61 days. 61 days is still a long time, but 145 days, it's a whole lot longer. And there were a lot of moments during that second phase of Ranger School, or not Ranger School, but mountain phase, where I kept thinking, Grandma Bair told me,

this two shall have. So when things are hard, when things are challenging, and I've used this saying a lot in the years of building this business, building this brand, when it feels like the world is against you and it's so heavy that you can't go another day, that you're about to lose it all, the stress is accumulating, the pressure is accumulating, it just feels like you're carrying this weight on your shoulders, just remember that this two shall pass.

If you look back of your life, you've probably had a lot of these moments of extreme challenge, extreme adversity, discomfort, hurt, pain, suffering, all of those things. But they didn't last forever. Eventually that pressure gave off.

It gave up. Everything has to end at some point. The pain, the discomfort, the hurt, this two shall pass. I use that in workout sometimes. You know, at some point, your body will give up. You will collapse. The pain will go away.

But how far can you push with that pain? Eventually it's got to end. It's going to stop. Just go one more day. Just keep driving through. When I enter that second phase of mountain phase of ranger school, I mean, that was mentally hard to accept the fact that I'm re-entering this phase. And being in the mountains, you're climbing up those mountains every day, up and down for miles and miles and miles.

It beats you down. I lost so much weight. In the entire school, I lost roughly 30 pounds. All of my muscle. All of my muscle was gone. If you ever look back at any photos of me post-ranger school, I mean, you wouldn't even recognize me. me. I lost everything. I remember coming back to the gym that first time after graduating, throwing 135 pounds on the bench press and not being able to do it. But this two shall pass.

You know, I went into that second phase of mountains. I passed. I got the Florida phase, the last phase, went straight through there, the only phase I didn't recycle. And I graduated. I graduated July 11th, 2014. That day of graduation unlocked a few things. One had unlocked so much resiliency. I knew looking back at the previous 145 days, I became so much stronger. Maybe not physically in that moment,

but mentally and emotionally. I built so much confidence through that. So many lessons learned. such a valuable time of my life that I still reflect and lean on today and many of the challenges that I experience. I learned a lot about myself in that school, but I also learned a lot about other people. I mentioned this early on.

One of the lessons I realized and learned is that true character is exposed. Let me go back to a true character is evaluated in moments of unplanned discomfort, not comfortable convenience. true character is exposed when people are tired, hungry, and uncomfortable. When the BPN team goes to events now, and a lot of times when we go to these events, they're races, their competitions, they start early, they end late, sometimes they're over 24 hours, and the team becomes tired and hungry. And I've seen this time and time again, when people are tired, hungry and uncomfortable,

their true character is exposed. You see who is selfish, who is weak, who is mean, who will do things that are rude and just ruthless. A true character is exposed in the moments of discomfort. And we experience this many times in this school. where when people were tired, they would become lazy. They wouldn't support the other students to get their go. They would cheat.

They would steal. We had issues where when we go into each testing phase in the field, we'd have to carry all of our food for a week or two being MREs. and people would steal other people's MREs because they were tired and hungry and they would get caught and they would get down to school. True character is not just evaluated and tested when we can plan for the discomfort, but it's the unplanned, inconvenient discomfort.

And that made me think a lot through that experience of making sure that when I'm put into positions in situations where I didn't plan for things to go wrong, I didn't want things to go wrong, but they do go wrong, how do I show up, how do I lead, how do I support? What do my actions say? What does my response say about my character? Because I want my character to be strong. I want it to be respected.

I want it to be supported. And that's a great way to test yourself. It's a great way to evaluate yourself. How strong is your character in moments of unplanned discomfort? So after graduating a ranger school, came back to Fort Benning, Georgia, completed the Airborne School, Bradley Leader course. And then at that point, all of my training in Fort Benning, Georgia was done. And it was time for me to move on to the next phase, which was Fort Hood, Texas.

So before we left Fort Benning, we had the opportunity as now Ranger tabbed infantry officers to sit down with some of the officers of the 75th Ranger Regiment. So you can either be Ranger qualified where you get a tab. That's what I did. or you can be an Army Ranger where you're in Ranger Regiment. You're in the 75th Ranger Regiment. I didn't spend any time in the 75th Ranger Regiment. I was just Ranger qualified. But we had some time to sit down with some officers from the 75th.

And I asked, and I've told this story before, but I asked one of the captains, said, sir, I'm about to go to Fort Hood, Texas, going to take over a platoon. what's one piece of advice you can give me how I can show up to be the best leader possible for those guys, for those soldiers, non-commissioned officers? And he points across the room and he said, you see that guy over there?

When shit hits the fan, when chaos strikes, when it's just pure madness, that guy is as cool as the other side of the pillow. That's how you want to be. That's how you should be. Respond. Don't react. That was a very valuable lesson for me that I have since always instilled into what I deal and how I respond.

To respond, not to react. When things happen, take a step back, assess the situation, make a plan, then implement and execute. And I've tried to do that in all situations and experiences my life. I'm not always perfect. I have failed many times. I have jumped right in and reacted as opposed to responding. But that conversation was very meaningful for me and did set me up for success in this next chapter.

So his next chapter came another drive, physical drive. And that drive was from now Georgia to Texas. And that drive brought another round of solitude. that I was in my truck driving by myself, no distractions, no inputs from others, ideas, perspectives, opinions, all eliminated. I was in my mind, in my own thoughts, thinking about what I was going to do when I got to Texas. And again, I pulled into the parking lot of my apartment complex.

There was this apartment complex in Belton, Texas, off of Main Street. This brand new apartment complex that wasn't even done yet. I was on the first floor. I pulled in, I parked. And there were these beautiful oak trees everywhere. There were deer all over the place. I thought I was in heaven. It was beautiful.

Beautiful. Beltin, Texas. I love Belton, Texas. And I pulled in, I stopped. And again, I realized, recognized, I'm in control of, of these next couple years. Yes, I'm in the military. I'm active duty.

My training is done. It's time for me to be evaluated and tested, to be a platoon leader, to be an infantry platoon leader. I'm finally getting the opportunity to do the job that I signed up for. Those hours of solitude leading up to that moment put me in position again to realize

I'm in control of the trajectory of my life. What's next for me? What's next for BPN? I now can start thinking about BPN again because I'm not in the field as much as I was. I have more control over parts of my schedule outside of my military requirements. What am I going to do professionally and personally? How am I going to set my life up for success in these next couple years

to live out and achieve the future that I want? I was doing that kind of forward thinking backwards planning, like truly visualizing what do I want life to look like in the future. And how do I make that happen while I'm here in Texas, in the military, setting myself up to live out that life a few years from now? And I remember thinking back to when I first started BPN, someone told me it takes three years to get a business off the ground and started. And I realized in that moment, that was bullshit.

I'm going to stop believing that. I'm going to make a change. I'm going to make a plan. And I'm going to do. I'm going to execute. And it was time to go all in. And I didn't have much money to my name at that point. Not much money at all because I was reinvesting any amount of money that I was making at

the moment to keep BPN just alive, just living. I had about $500 left to my name. And I decided to spend all that $500 on a camera. I bought a Canon T3i DSLR camera. And the reason I went all out and bought the best camera that I could afford at the time is because I knew that if I went all in, literally all in, spent everything, all my liquid cash on this camera, I'd be forced to make BPN work.

I had to go all in. I had to burn the boats, have no backup plan, and start creating the content that was going to drive awareness, it was going to drive demand for the company that I started a few years prior that wasn't growing, that wasn't succeeding. And it was no one's fault but my own. I was responsible for the lack of growth. I was now responsible for the ability to inject growth. to force growth. So that's what I did. Got to my apartment,

Fort Hood, Texas, bought a camera, and started documenting everything. And that's where this chapter ends. Another lonely drive of solitude that was driven by vision and then execution. So we'll see you guys

in that next episode of building the brand, which will be chapter number three.