The Nick Bare Podcast - 173: Inside My Mind: Building The Future

Episode Date: May 11, 2026

In this April 2026 “Inside My Mind” episode, I share what I’m building, learning, loving, and honestly trying to loosen my grip on. I break down the future of BPN, including our carbonated energy drink, creatine chews, consumer research, retail strategy, and how we’re thinking long game. I also reflect on lessons from Lonesome Dove, The Culture Code, the GBRS team, and pacing my dad at the Pittsburgh Marathon. This episode is about building with patience, leading with service, watching others win, and remembering that routines should serve the mission and not become the master.CHAPTERS:00:00 Intro03:20 Energy Drink R&D11:47 Retail Launch Plan15:08 Creatine Chews Update18:41 Brand Strategy Shift26:32 Books and Culture Lessons31:48 GBRS Visit and Service Mindset42:35 Pittsburgh Marathon Homecoming48:31 Week With Dad54:35 Finish Line Scare01:03:05 Garmin Flashlight Return01:09:37 Routine Versus Freedom01:13:31 Closing ThoughtsORDER MY BOOK HERE: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/Go-One-More-Intentional-Life-Changing/dp/1637746210FOLLOW:Become a BPN member FOR FREE - Unlock 25% off FOR LIFE ⁠https://www.bareperformancenutrition.com/collections/performance-nutritionIG: ⁠instagram.com/nickbarefitness/⁠YT: ⁠youtube.com/@nickbarefitnessThis podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be considered legal [health or profession] advice. Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN) is not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. This podcast is not intended to replace professional medical advice.This podcast may not be republished without the written consent of Bare Performance Nutrition (BPN)

Welcome back to another episode. Ladies and gentlemen, this is another episode of the Inside My Mind series. I did one in March and the feedback was great. So we decided to continue it. And this will be April of 2006. What has been on my mind. This is a compilation of what I'm working on or what I've been working on the last month, what I'm learning. what I'm loving, what I'm not loving, and just a wrap above what has been on my mind in the last month. There was a lot this past month. I mean, we just entered May, 2006. This year is literally flying by. We put a lot on the calendar on the schedule. But like previous years, you plan out your year.

And I'm talking mostly from, a business perspective. You plan out the year, you put these new product launches and campaigns and initiatives and events on the calendar. And then you pivot, you adapt, things get added, things get deleted. But we created a pretty full schedule for at least the first half at 2006. And we've been cooking on a lot of different stuff. So let's dive in. What are I'm currently working on. I've had to learn the hard way. At this point,

I've been operating BPN for 14 years. Started it in 2012, and 14 years later, here we are. And if you would have asked me five, six, seven years ago, Nick, what are you currently working on? I would list out probably a hundred different things.

And I would argue that I was at one point in my earlier entrepreneurial journey unfocused. I've talked about this a lot of different times in many different ways, but I used to view every opportunity as an ability to progress forward. And I've had to learn the hard way that many of these, we can call them, opportunities are actually distractions and these distractions have an opportunity cost and that opportunity cost is time that we can dedicate and allocate to things that actually move the needle in your life or in this case my business. So there's a few things that I'm working on right now very intensely. I'll talk about brand and I'll talk about product. We'll talk about product first. I've been

teasing this the last couple of weeks on my social media and the response has been very nice to see. I'm really excited. We're working on an energy drink and I've shared this in the March of 2006 episode of Inside My Mind, but we're progressing that project forward. We probably won't launch this energy drink until 2020. maybe the end of Q1, early Q2, because we want to do this one right. Like really do it right. So when I shared the Energy Drink project last month,

we were just getting started. We were looking for an R&D team to help us with flavor development and formulation. And there's a lot to consider. You know, it's what do you want your carbonation to look and feel and that experience to be like? You can have different levels of carbonation within an energy drink. If you decide to add carbonation, you can do still, but I've had non-carbonated energy drinks, and it's just not, for me at least, a great experience.

I like the carbonation, a cold, fizzy energy drink. And there's different levels of carbonation. You can have lightly carbonated. You can have very heavy carbonation. So part of this exploration was identifying what level and intensity of carbonation we want added to the energy drink. And then it's formulation. We've locked in our formula.

We're doing a 12-ounce, slender, thin can. It's very popular in the market right now. and we've landed on 150 milligrams of caffeine with theanine and some notropics. Notropics are mental alertness, mental energy focus ingredients. They're not stimulants like caffeine that affect the central nervous system,

but they help heighten the experience and the head feel from an energy. drink. We have notropics added to our pre-workout powder. We have no tropics added to G1M Sport Plus, which is our powder that is a pre-workout for endurance athletes. But we've locked in the formula and it feels really good. I personally, in our team, we don't enjoy energy drinks that feel like a pre-workout, where it's too much caffeine, it's too many stimulants, it's too many or you feel like you're you want to go into a workout you have to go into a workout this energy drink for us is more of a lifestyle branded and promoted product so we've done

a bunch of different surveys and research and questionnaires on what level of intensity of stimulants or caffeine that you guys want to see and majority of the population that we surveyed, including ourselves, 150 milligrams was the sweet spot. So we've locked in carbonation. We've locked in formula. Again, I love the way that it feels. It's very clean. It's very smooth. It's a perfect amount of energy and focus and stimulation. And now we're on the fun part, or one of the fun parts of this research and development process, flavor. we've been now sampling different flavors of our own energy drink the last seven days. We started getting samples in about seven days ago.

And what's different about sampling an energy drink versus, you know, we've been in this industry, in this business for 14 years now. powders, capsules, soft gels, gels. We've done liquid with G1M Sport, G1M Sport Plus RTDs, or those were not carbonated. This is a different experience.

Where when we get the samples, you know, when we get a sample of, say, protein powder, for example, it will be in this small tub, five to ten serving. There's a scooper in there. We have to add it to either water, milk, or a milk substitute,

and then sample it. The energy drink, though, it comes in a can. A can that looks like you would buy in a convenience or grocery store. There's no branding on it. Very subtle, you know, BPN energy drink,

and then the date it was produced and the flavor. But it's bottled. It's carbonated. with the appropriate amount of carbonation. We let it sit in the fridge and it is just a different experience of testing and sampling

and R&D. It's a lot of fun. It's been a lot of fun. I have sampled three flavors so far and the team that we are working on has absolutely crushed it. And we knew they would. They've been in this space,

in this industry for a long time now, and they work on some of the major brands in the market. But I was actually surprised, I'll be honest, how accurate they nailed the flavors first time go. So far, we have sampled a cherry limeade, a peach mango, and a lemonade energy drink. There are 10 flavors that we have put in R&D, and chances are we will launch with four to five out of the gates.

So that's where we're at right now. We're in the flavor sampling stage. And like I said, it is so much fun. You know, yesterday I took some home. I let Steph try some. I let Steph's mom, Kim, my mother-in-law, try some. And, you know, watching people's reaction, I think people expect because this is our first round

that we're allowing to try some of these samples we're receiving that they're going to have to provide all this feedback. This is a little too sweet. This is a little too flavor intense. It's a little syrupy maybe. But you hand over a can to some of these people

that we've been letting in, which has been very few. And you watch the reaction on their face of how surprised they are of how good it tastes with it being the first round. So we're taking every step by step. We're not getting ahead of ourselves. We're being very intentional and very deliberate

with our go-to-market strategy. This has the potential to be really big for BPN and our brand and the trajectory of our future if we get it right. And getting it right requires a lot of research, a lot of preparation, a lot of due diligence, and then the right go-to-market strategy.

Now, I'm kind of bringing you into the process as they say the sausage is being made because none of this is confirmed, flushed out, and confirmed yet at this point. We are still in the process. of building our go-to-market strategy. But I'm bringing you into the way that we're thinking about it and my mind's working.

I use the word intentionality, focus, and being deliberate. Not lately, but to be very clear with my communication, we want to identify a few key retail partners and we've already identified some of these retail partners and we've shared the energy drink concept and what we're working on with them and we've gotten a lot of buy-in from a few so far.

But we want to launch strategically in Texas. And there's a reason. We're based in Texas. We can move swiftly and strategically to those retail locations, whether that's convenience,

gas stations, grocery, specialty in Texas so we can activate those retail partners and that launch in a very meaningful way. Retail is high risk, high reward. The opposite of having a really focused geographic go-to-market strategy would be you on board with a huge distributor or multiple distributors, You launch nationwide. You're in stores in Texas, in New York, in California, everywhere, everywhere, all at once. That is very hard to manage.

That is very hard to execute successfully. And that is very hard to scale. So our approach, our go-to-market strategy is launch in Texas with a few key retail partners. convenience, specialty, grocery, succeed with them, learn, because this is new for us, learn how to execute, learn the beverage business, have very strong velocity, velocity being sell through. So it's one thing for a retail partner to bring you on and sell your product in their stores. It's a whole other thing to succeed and move, velocity is how fast you are moving product that is in stores.

And each different store has different expectations of velocity, your sell-through. So we want to make sure that these retail partners that we get in with here in Texas, we have a strong case study, we have strong velocities, we're succeeding before we scale outside of the Texas geographic location. So there's a lot still that we have to do from now until then. But right now, early stages, we are locking in the five-ish flavors, four to five flavors that we want to launch with come 2007. Another product, that's the big product we're working on right now in the background.

because I see that as the future of how BPN is going to scale to get to this next level. I'll come back to this in a second. Another product that I want to share that we're working on right now is creatine shoes. We have locked in our creatine shoes, our manufacturing partner, our formula and our flavors. we're launching with three flavors. That is a juicy watermelon, a peach, and a pink lemonade. Three creatine chews we are launching in fall of 2006.

Now, creatine has become more and more popular over the years. I'm sure that is by no surprise to many of you. You see creatine everywhere now. and our creatine sales have gone absolutely wild the last couple years. We have always sold Creepure. Creepure is a very safe, effective, and pure source of creatine monohydrate. It is made in Germany through a proprietary manufacturing process, which creates a very clean and pure product.

we've had a trademark license agreement with Creepure for as long as I can remember. And I believe that's one of the reasons that our creatine sales have just skyrocketed over the years is because we exclusively use Creepure. Now, we've also seen through the reports, through data that creatine gummies and creatine shoes had become very popular. We buy a lot of data from our retail partners, and you can see what skews, what product, what flavors,

what delivery system is succeeding in retail. And we're seeing gummies as a whole exploding in the market. But through our research, what we found is that creatine is not very stable in a gummy format. Meaning, you know, you create the gummy,

you put creatine in a gummy in less than a year, a lot of that creatine is no longer there. It just is not stable in that format. But we have found that creatine is highly stable in a chew. When I say a chew, imagine like a starburst type texture and consistency. So we've locked in our flavors. They're so good.

Like some of these things, some of these products that we're working on right now, the sampling days, those are my favorite days. You're telling me I get to come into this room and try different samples of a creatine chew, which tastes like I'm eating candy all day. And then you let me sip on carbonated energy drinks to lock in flavors. It's like a dream come true. It's so much fun. I love these sampling days of these new product and delivery. systems that we're working on. But we will be launching a creatine Chew in

2006, fall of 2016, that I'm really excited for. This will be on our Amazon store. It'll be on our website, the three flavors, as well as with some of our key retail partners. So that's where we're working

product-wise right now, where I'm spending a lot of my time. To speak into brand what I'm working on. And what I'm about the share has been part of the energy drink exploration process. Beverage, RTD, retail, it's a different approach to building a business. 85% of our revenue comes from online platforms.

Amazon and our website. About 15% of our revenue comes from, from retail or wholesale accounts. You know, we sell into retailers like H.E.B., Wegmans, Academy, Shields, Fresh Time. And then we have wholesale accounts like mom and pop, specialty stores, gyms. There's college sports teams and professional sports teams that are buying our product.

Because we are NSF certified for sport, all of our products are our NSF certified for sport. And that opens us up to the ability to sell to these college NCAA and professional sports teams because they know that our products are tested heavily and certified by NSF. So as we've started to explore retail being a more meaningful part of our business, it's just a different way to to build a brand. And you have to approach it a little bit differently than you would building an online brand and selling direct consumer from your website or Amazon.

It's a different way you communicate with the consumer. It's a different interaction. It might be a different persona or audience that you were selling to completely. And as I shared, we want to be very intentional and deliberate with the way that we launch this energy drink. So we've reached out to, we've vetted, I've vetted a few different agencies.

And these agencies specialize in consumer insights, consumer research, and ultimately what we're looking to do, what I'm looking to do is work with an agency, work with a team that can help us identify our target audience, market and opportunity for the energy drink to increase our chances of success. when we launch. I used to approach business differently when we were much smaller. It's like, hey, this is a product that I want to use

and this is how I'm going to use it. I'm going to make the ignorant and naive assumption that there are millions of other people who think, behave, act, and want to live this lifestyle that I want to live. And that worked for a period of time. but like I say, what got you here

won't get you there. In this next chapter of BPN's growth, we need to serve a larger audience for scale opportunity. And with the energy drink, I want to make sure that we know exactly what persona, what audience we are serving, meet them exactly where they're at

and their lifestyle, They resonate with the flavors, the packaging, the brand, the message, the look, the feel, where it's located, what stores, what geographic locations, everything. And you can do this on your own. Like, we could have done this research. But the data that we're going to get by working and partnering with an agency and another outsource team is going to be on another level. they're going to be able to go in survey consumers,

interview consumers, and at the end of this process, we will have this report and all this data that guides how we design the energy drink label, how we market it, where we sell it, the message, the mission,

everything behind it. So it's a little bit of what we want. It's a little bit of, of what the consumer we're going after once. So we have, like I said, increased chances of success. And as we've explored that opportunity and then made me think about, well, maybe we should apply that same practice and exercise to the core business we have right now, being supplements, powders, capsules, soft gels, gels, bars.

because if we're trying to scale the core business and then incrementally build and scale an energy ring business, we want them to be complementary, not two separate and distinct businesses. So when I say I'm working on brand, that's what I'm doing right now is I've vetted a bunch of different agencies and teams. We've identified one.

We're starting to work with them. We're going to do all of this consumer analysis in research and surveys and interviews to help us scale a mission-driven brand. And this will guide our packaging, our website, our content, both paid and organic, our marketing, our storytelling. It will diversify our audiences and our content, and it sets us up for this next chapter. a BPN. So a lot of the work that I'm doing right now, whether that's brand or product, I will not see and you will not see for months. And that's what I love about the entrepreneurial

journey and being the CEO and being the founder is that I like to think three, six, nine, 12 plus months out. And the projects that I'm working on are out in front. to set the team up for success so they can then execute on the work that's being done for the future. You know, there's this book that I've referenced many times before, Traction and then Rocket Fuel by Gina Wickman. It's built off this system called EOS, Entrepreneurial Operating System. And it talks about the two key members of a team, being a visionary and an integrator. I, by definition, am a visionary. I am not the integrator.

I am the person who is thinking very big picture long term. The mechanics that work in my brain are not here and now. They are, like I said, 3, 6, 9, 12 plus months out of what we need to be thinking about and on for the future of this business and organization. And if you can get that right, which is really hard, you can scale a mission-driven brand. So that's what I'm working on right now. What I'm learning. So there's a few books that I'm reading right now, some for business, some for pleasure.

I was gifted a book recently. It's called Lonesome Dove. and there's a movie created off of this book. I just got started. It's a thick one. It is, from what I've read so far and what I've researched, an amazing novel. Someone gifted me this book.

It's something like 850 pages. It's going to take me a hot minute to get through. But the way that it's written is so engaging, and captivating and sophisticated. And I haven't read a fiction novel in forever. I've been saying for years that I've wanted to, and I just haven't. Probably because I haven't found the right book to dive into.

But someone gifted me, Lonesome Dove, and I'm enjoying it a lot right now. It's funny because one of my favorite restaurants, When we first got to the Alston area, was called Lonesome Dove, is called Lonesome Dove. It's downtown and I've eaten this restaurant many, many times and it's incredible. A lot of wild game, one of the best beef tender loins I've ever had in my life. I've taken many people to this restaurant. Incredible place to eat. But the novel, the book, has been, it's been fun.

so far. It's been fun to read something that is not self-help or nonfiction or a resource and a tool to learn a new skill or apply to business and family. It's just a fun read right now. So that's one book that I'm reading. Another book that I'm reading, nonfiction, self-help, business-focused book. It's called Culture, by Daniel Coyle and it's a good read. I have Sarah Gillesca, who is our VP of people and chief of staff here at BPN.

We're both reading it simultaneously because we're always looking for ways to improve and invest into the culture here at BPN. people make a really big difference. And the big idea around culture code, I recommend picking it up. I'm about halfway through right now, and it is a really good read.

It uses examples of different examples from highly successful athletes, coaches, business owners, world leaders, entrepreneurs. But the big idea around the book, there's three big ideas. One, start with safety. and I'm pulling this from Daniel Coyle's website

just to cite what he says about the big ideas from the book. Start with safety. Great group chemistry isn't luck. It's about sending super clear, continuous signals. We share a future. You have a voice. Make people feel safe in the workplace, on the team, within the culture.

Number two, get vulnerable and stay vulnerable. Strong cultures don't hide their weaknesses. They make a habit of sharing them so they can improve together. I think this is really important. Get vulnerable and stay vulnerable. And the third big idea, roadmap your story. It's not about nice sounding value statements. It's about flooding the zone with vivid narratives that work like GPS signals, guiding

your group towards its goal. And I share that I've been reading culture code because there's a few things that have happened this past month that have reinforced these big ideas that I'm reading through culture code. I've learned a lot in April of 2006. And it's not from watching a video or reading a book necessarily. They've been reinforced by maybe watching videos or reading books. Or maybe the seed has been planted by these books or videos. But I've learned what I'm about to share from in-person real experiences. And I'll talk about two here.

The first, we had the opportunity a few weeks ago to spend a few days with the GBRS team. So DJ Shipley and his team came in from Virginia Beach to Austin, Texas to spend a few days. We recorded a podcast. They put me through their standards performance fitness test, which was a lot of fun. I scored pro. I maxed it out.

We did a dinner with our team and their team. DJ brought their, head trainer and his coach, Vernon Griffith, who put our team through a few different workouts, opened my eyes to a different style of training that is more athletic, that is more core, that is more functional, definitely put me through a warm up that I haven't experienced in a long time. Overall, it was an amazing time spent with some amazing people. And I unfortunately, I unfortunately can't say that happens at this level very frequently. There was something different about this group and this crew that left a big,

meaningful impact on me and our team. And I don't say that to discredit other groups or other people that we've spent time with in the past by any means. But I think our entire staff, our entire team that spent any amount of time with DJ and the GBRS crew can say that this one just felt different.

And some of the things that I left those couple days thinking of even after, I mean, GBRS, DJ, many of them, most of them, all of them spent time in the military, some in tier one units. Navy SEALs, Dev grew, the elite of the elite, the tip of the spear.

They are service-minded, service-driven, service-guided people. Their mission in life is to serve others. Serve their country. Serve their families. serve the teams that they are working on and working with. And the realization is that in America, service-minded people, especially men, are a dying breed. It's very unfortunate.

It's very unfortunate. You have a lot of people today whose mission in life is to excel and propel themselves forward. make more money for themselves, get a better job, a bigger promotion for themselves, buy a bigger house for themselves, get ahead of everyone else

at the expense of other people at all costs. And that's sad. It is, service-minded people, especially men, are a dying breed. And there needs to be a revival, of service-driven individuals. And after spending a few days with GBRS and sitting down with DJ during the podcast,

maybe thinking about my work, my mission, my children, what I want my children or I hope my children pursue with their professional and personal lives after I lead and teach them and show them the way. You know, when I think about service-driven individuals, I instantly think of the military, and probably because I come from a military background and experience. After college, I served in the Army for four years. I was an active duty infantry officer, and when I think of service, selfless service, I think of military, just naturally.

That's where my mind is drawn towards. But we have military. we have law enforcement, we have first responders, firefighters, nurses, EMS. This nation cannot operate

without those individuals. We need service-minded, service-driven people. And what makes these people so awesome and amazing is that they've chosen a profession that puts people, people's lives above and before their own. And one of the things that DJ was telling me, this might have been on the podcast or off the podcast,

because GBRS, they train and work with military, law enforcement, first responders, elite units, the tip of the spear. Helping the tip of the spear get a little bit better, a little bit stronger, a little bit faster. You know, when we think about service

driven individuals, you have people who join the military and go overseas and fight wars and serve our country. But we have people on our own soil within our own nation who are fighting daily battles,

but they have to go home at night. You know, one of the things he brought up was how some of these SWAT teams, they will go in and do some dangerous, dirty missions within their own cities. They will see horrific things. And they will put the lives and the welfare of the people in their community above the round. And once that stays over and the mission's complete, they go back home. I mean, they could be doing some really amazing,

yet at the same time, horrific things that is just part of the job at 3 p.m. And by 4.30 p.m., they're back home, giving their kids baths and getting dinner ready to sit down and eat as a family unit. And that's got to be really tough to be able to separate the two and do the job you have to do within your community,

but then go home at night to your family and not carry the weight and heaviness from the daily job into the household. There's a lot of people here in this country who are fighting wars on our own soil for us that I don't think we see or recognize or show enough support of on a daily basis because without them we'd be pretty lost.

So sitting down with DJ and the GBRS team, I just had that realization that, man, we got to be doing more for our service members. They need more love. They need more support. They need more. They need more of us. I'm asking myself lately how, what, where? What does that look like? And it's had my mind and my gears turn in a lot because we need those people.

I don't want to see what this nation or this. world would look like without those people, truthfully. Another key takeaway from the GBRS team is, you know, for me being someone who's in the fitness industry and I've been in the fitness industry for 14 years now, at different parts of my life, so much of what fitness was for me was to be impressive. And I'll be honest, it was either to be impressive to myself or to put myself in a to be impressive to other people. Pursuing a certain race or a time or a PR to be considered impressive.

And I valued a lot of my self-worth in being impressive. But sitting down with DJ here in the podcast and talking to the GBRS crew, they don't pursue fitness to be impressive. They don't pursue fitness to get a certain time at a certain race or competition to post it online. Fitness for them is to be an asset to the people around them as opposed to a liability. How do they become stronger for their team? How do they become stronger for their family? How do they become stronger for their business and their community?

how do they make themselves with fitness, health and fitness, an asset to the people around them to support, not to be impressive. And I respected that tremendously. Now that was a few weeks ago. A few days ago, we just wrapped up the Pittsburgh Marathon. This was our first year being we as BPN, being a partner to the Pittsburgh Marathon,

we are the on-course nutrition partner. So our go-gels and electrolytes were on course for the race. And this race for us was much more than just being a sponsor of another race. This was our homecoming, if you will. I grew up in Pennsylvania. I was born in Pennsylvania, central Pennsylvania, the Hershey area. I went to school at IUP, the Indiana University of Pennsylvania,

which is right down the road from Pittsburgh. So going back home and being a partner to the Pittsburgh marathon, it felt really good. It felt right. It's back where all the roots began. That's where everything started. Like literally everything. That's where I fell in love with fitness.

It's where I launched BPN out of a small college apartment. It all started in PA. So going back to be a partner of the Pittsburgh Marathon meant a lot to me. And to the team and to the community, I believe. And I will tell you, the couple days we were in Pittsburgh did not disappoint. So Wednesday morning, I landed in Pittsburgh. Wednesday evening, we went to the Pittsburgh Pirates game. And the event's organization called P3R that runs a Pittsburgh Marathon, they've been great to work with.

They facilitated a lot of what I'm going to share and talk about. So I have to give them credit. But they invited us to the Pittsburgh Pirates game Wednesday evening. I got to throw out the first pitch of that game. They played the Cardinals. I was so nervous. I haven't been that nervous or something in a long, long time, mainly because I played baseball growing up.

I mean, it was my dream at one point to play college baseball, but I wasn't good enough. My brother, however, Preston, he played college baseball. He played D1 at Longwood University for a few years, and then he transferred to Bloomsburg University to be closer to home. Longwood universities in Virginia. And when I played baseball in high school, I had a case of what's called the yips. It's when you overthink the throw.

Baseball is such a mental game. I would overthink the throw to the point where I couldn't throw the ball from me to the camera that I'm recording into right now, which is five feet away. I would just overthink it. So I stopped playing baseball because I got a case of the yips.

Then a few years later, when I was in the army, we were doing our EIB training, expert infantryman badge training. I passed all of the stations and then I got to the hand grenade throw. And when I was testing on the hand grenade throw, I was thinking back to playing baseball and having the yips and it got my head again. And I could not throw the hand grenade in the small circle what it had to go into. because overthinking it in that case of the yips came back. So then fast forward a few days ago,

I'm standing on the mound to throw out the first pitch at a Pittsburgh Pirates game in front of all these people and all these players. I blacked out up there. And before I went out in the mound, my dad told me,

hey, just remember you're going to throw this pitch to the catcher. After you throw the pitch, walk up to the catcher, take the ball, shake his hand. My dad is the biggest Pittsburgh sports fan ever. He loves the Steelers.

He loves the penguins. He loves the pirates. So my dad was in the field with me. Absolutely jacked. And I think he was more nervous than I was nervous. So I get on the mound and all I'm thinking of my head is get this pitch a cross home plate.

After you throw it, walk up to the catcher, shake his hand, take the ball, walk off, you're good. The whole BPN team was watching this game from a suite above. I get on the mound, there's no catcher. But all I see is the Pittsburgh Pirates parrot mascot, dressed up holding a glove at home plate and for some reason I just cannot connect all these dots I'm like where's the catcher why is there a parrot here what's going on long story short I throw the ball it lands right in his mitt successful throw throw came to all good me and my dad and the team, went and joined the rest of the BPN staff in the suite, and all my nerves went away.

But it was such an amazing experience. And one of the reasons it was such an amazing experience was to be able to share that with my dad. To share the whole week with my dad was extremely rewarding. And as I get older and I realize that I don't spend much time with mine, my dad anymore. I mean, he lives in Pennsylvania. I live in Texas and we see each other frequently, but now when we see each other, you know, he's playing with my kids, his grandkids, and life's busy and chaotic. And there's not many moments that we get to just spend together and experience together. And I was in Pittsburgh with him from Wednesday to Sunday. And we got to spend a lot of time together. And that was very meaningful and valuable to both of us. The kids didn't

come with. Steph didn't come with. They stayed back in Texas. Me and my dad shared an Airbnb and it was just really good. It was really fun to be able to do that. To be able to share that that first pitch experience Wednesday night. And then Friday, we had. Friday, we have. I had the shakeout run in the evening and me, him, the BPN team logged three miles downtown Pittsburgh together. And my dad was going for a big PR at the half marathon on Sunday. So I cooked all of his meals and prepared all of his nutrition Thursday and Friday for his carbop bleeding up into the race and he ate everything I put in front of him.

It was just like something we haven't been able to do together before. Saturday we had the Expo and it was a huge turnout and big success. And people were asking for my dad's photo and shaking his hand and talking to him. And Sunday was race day. So Sunday, the plan was, I had my dad on a, a training program the last couple weeks, and he was going for a half marathon PR. His current PR in the half marathon

is around one hour, 49 minutes, and he did that at the Austin International Half Marathon two years ago. And that course is really fast. It's, I believe, net downhill. It's a big PR course, and that's where he set his PR, but he wants to break that PR at some point.

So in preparation for the Pittsburgh half, it's a half marathon and a full marathon. I put him on a training program. Like I said, I controlled his diet, the days leading up too. I carbbed him up. And the plan was that I was going to pace him to achieve that PR. Sunday comes, it's a perfect race day. It was 35 degrees in the morning, blue sky, no wind, cool temperature. Just ideal race conditions.

Energy was high in the city. And it ended up being me, my dad, BPN athletes, Joey, French, and then BPN employees, Jake and Simon, and me and my dad. And we all ran together this half marathon. and we were all pacing in and we were sharing them on and we pushed them really hard. We pushed them really, really hard. And I got to say, it was one of the most beautiful scenic race courses I've ever been on in my life.

It was stunning. You go through all these different small towns and pockets of Pittsburgh. You run over multiple bridges by the river. It was beautiful. I mean, it wasn't an easy course. There's some nice little climbs. You have some good downhills, but you have some nice gradual climbs as well. Nothing crazy, but some gradual climbs.

And my dad was on pace up until mile 11, 10 and a half and 11. But I can tell you he was pushing. I mean, he was working for it. And we were pushing him hard. And we got to mile 11. and there was about a half mile gradual incline over this bridge. And he put in a big effort on that bridge, and that definitely taxed him a little extra.

And when we got over the bridge, we had about a mile and a half left, and we continued to push him. We knew we were going to be close to that PR. So we were pushing, we were pushing, we were yelling at him. And he was in it. He was in it. And I could see his body,

start to fade where he started stumbling a little bit his form was breaking down he was the only way to describe it he was digging and he was in a deep

dark place and we got to a mile out and I could see his body started to sway and I knew that as soon as we crossed the finish line he was probably going to collapse because he was putting in

such a big effort it wasn't going to be one of these races where you finish you walk it off No, he was going to collapse. We keep pushing him. We get to maybe two, three hundred meters out, and he had nothing left.

He spent it all. We're like, he couldn't even walk anymore. So we threw him over our shoulders. He's still running, but we're holding his arms up. And we carried him across the finish line. And as soon as he got across the finish line, EMS came up. We put him in a wheelchair. They put him on a stretcher. His face was completely white. I mean, there was no life in my dad's body. And I was concerned. And they took him to the medical

tent and he was in there for maybe 15 minutes. And I was expecting to be there for literally days in the hospital with my dad based off the way he looked when he went into the medical tent. I'm filming with Landry and I'm talking about what happened and what I think we're going to have to do next. And I look over and next day I see is my dad walking out of the medical tent. I don't know how this man bounced back so fast. I can't explain it because when he went in there on the stretcher, there was no life in this man's body. And he rose from the dead walking out of that tent. And he said they just gave him a Gatorade and let him get off his feet a little bit.

bounce back pretty quickly. I mean, he didn't feel great the rest of the day, but he walked down to the tent. And we gathered the team together. We went and grabbed some burgers, fries, and beers afterwards. And then me and my dad went back to the Airbnb, and I headed to the airport to fly back home to go back to the family. And my dad's doing great now. He fully recovered. He's already texting me this morning, asking what race he should and can do next. But as I thought about it, sitting in the airport, and on the plane it was a two hour, 45 minute plane ride home.

I was thinking about how proud I was and am of my dad's effort. I don't care about time. I don't care about PR. I don't care about place. It was the effort that he put in.

I haven't seen many people empty the tank like my dad empty the tank on that race. He gave it everything that he had. Not for himself. Truthfully, not for himself. He wanted to represent BPN and me in the most meaningful way.

That's why he pushed so hard. Growing up, my dad never talked about hard work, but he showed us in everything that he did. He grew up on a dairy farm. Hard work is not foreign to him. Growing up on a dairy farm, you wake up every morning you go and milk the cows before you go to school before you go to work. And every night when you get back from school or work, whatever you're doing, you're milking the cows again.

My grandfather, Hershey Bear, very hardworking man. My dad and uncle who grew up on that farm, very hardworking men. My dad never had to talk to me about what hard work meant or looked like, but he showed me. I remember every morning eating breakfast in the kitchen with my brother sitting at the table and my dad just knocking out push-ups on the kitchen floor. When we never said anything, we didn't acknowledge it, he just every morning was knocking out push-ups while we're eating breakfast on the kitchen floor. This was another example of, now my dad will be 64 years old at the end of this month.

Hard work wins Effort is rewarded Doesn't matter about the time The PR the place It is the effort You put in My dad Emptied it

At that race He gave it everything He had everything To the point where his body collapsed Because he wanted to make His son proud He wanted to represent

BPN in the community in the most meaningful way. And it wasn't about himself. I respect my dad a lot. I love him. And he showed up for that race and for the community and the mission and everything that we represent. I learned a lot this past weekend from watching my dad.

And I know that a lot of other people did too. Okay, so what I'm loving A few quick hitters that I want to share. I'm loving, watching other people succeed and win much greater than succeeding and winning myself. And I say that very authentically and honestly and genuine. I've talked about this before, but whenever I would see someone winning in the past, I would become angry and somewhat resentingly.

resentful because I thought that their wins took away from my wins. And I've learned over the years that it doesn't work that way. There is opportunity and there is room for everyone to win. And I now enjoy watching other people win much greater than my own personal wins. Like being able to experience that half marathon with my dad, even though he didn't PR, that was a big win. I got so much more joy and satisfaction watching and experiencing and being a part of that, being able to coach that, then me going and training for and running a half marathon and setting a PR. In early April, we hosted the second annual G1M Ultra at Bear Ranch. And it was epic performances here.

It made its way to two runners battling it out for the win. and those two runners were Mark Doudal and Kendall Paccato Fallas. Kendall also was one of the last two in the 2025 G1M Ultra. This year, Mark Daudill ended up winning 306 miles, 73 laps, 73 hours total, and those guys ran through crazy rainstorms. The trail once again got absolutely flooded and wrecked and destroyed and being able to watch and witness that

was awesome. Like seeing Mark's attitude and positivity and just energy even after pushing 306 miles, 73 hours was really inspiring. Yeah, the physical feat was inspiring, but the positivity and the attitude that he carried the entire race was extremely inspiring. Being able to watch and experience other people win,

putting myself in a position to be a guide, truly a guide, and not the hero, to be the one who facilitates the opportunity and experience for other people to come in and achieve and succeed. and win. I enjoy that now much more than being the person in the spotlight. Truthfully, I do. And I'm sure that realization will guide some of these future projects and events and initiatives that we work on and I invest time and money and energy and resources into. some tools that I'm loving in the moment. So I don't know if you can tell, but I'm wearing my Garmin watch again.

And for about a month, I stopped wearing my Garmin watch and I was wearing the G-shock watch. And I switched the G-shock because I just don't want to be reliant on data any longer. And the G-shock couldn't track my running, sleep,

heart rate, HRV, none of that stuff. The G-shock couldn't. My Garmin does. And I had this hypothesis that by switching back to a G-shock away from a Garmin, that it was going to unlock all this

mental bandwidth and energy and reduced stress and all of these things. And I'll be honest, through that hypothesis and the experiment of the last 30 days, it really didn't change much. I didn't feel any different. I came to the obvious realization that I actually don't rely on that data very much

and I don't look at it very often. I never open up my Garmin app. I never opened up my Strava app. So I started wearing the Garmin watch again this past weekend because I had to pace my dad and I wanted to see my pace so we could help them PR. And I just haven't taken it off since. For one main reason, the flashlight on the garment watch is so useful. For me, it's the most useful part of the watch.

Shortly after I stopped wearing my garment and I was wearing a G-shock, I wake up typically in the middle of the night one time between 2 and 3 a.m. to go to the bathroom. And before we go to sleep, we have all these pillows in our bed, decorative pillows. So before we go to sleep every night, we throw all these decorative pillows on the floor and the dogs sleep next to my side of the bed. So when I wake up in the middle of night to go to the bathroom,

I have to maneuver around all these pillows and the dogs. And what I've been doing for years is I just turn the light on my garment watch to make sure I'm not stepping on a dog or tripping over a pillow. The first couple days after transitioning from the garment to the G-shock, I woke up the middle night to get the bathroom. Navigating through the pillows and the dogs to get to the toilet was tough. But one night I'm walking back, I tripped over a dog.

I fell face first into the frame of the bed, busted up my whole face. In that moment, I was like, you know what? I missed the flashlight. Even this morning, Charlie woke up extra early. and I decided to take her on a walk outside. It was still dark. It was about 5.15 a.m. And we went for a 45-minute walk outside.

I turned that light on my garment watch the entire time. And it was super useful. It was a great safety feature. So I just haven't taken my garment off yet since getting back. I'm not sure if I'm going to go back to my G-shock. I might just keep wearing my garment again. because like I said, it didn't make that much

of a difference in my life and I really missed the light. I really missed the light and the light is such a game changer. So I'm going to keep wearing it mainly because of the light on the Garmin watch. It's probably the best feature they've ever created of all the features

they've ever launched within their technology. Some other things I'm loving right now. Belt squats. We got a few new pieces of equipment and delivered from play at the gym here. A belt squat is one of those. I don't know why it's taken me so many years to realize how awesome a belt squat is. So I've been belt squating every week. It is very little taxing on the lower back. I've hurt my back many times in the past, barbell squatting, leg pressing, and the belt squatting. The belt squat is.

is a great lower body strength training movement that has minimal impact on the lower back. So I love belt squads right now. Running shoes wise, you know, I've been a huge Sokney fan for many years. I've actually been running in Puma running shoes lately. I think Puma has done a great job at bringing their running shoe game back.

And I've loved all of their running shoes. So between the garment light, the belt squat, Puma Running Shoes, there's some of the tools that I love right now. And I got to give a shout out to a food that I'm loving right now from a local bakery. So I get this at the farmer's market. It's Boone Family Bakery. I think one of the most slept-on underrated and best types of bread. Rosemary sourdough.

Go to your local farmer's market. or local bakery, sourdough bakery. If they have a rosemary or a rosemary garlic loaf, get it. At night, before going to bed, I get a slice of rosemary sourdough. I put some carry gold butter on that with some flaky sea salt. It is delightful. And Boone Family Bakery here in Georgetown, Texas, there's his spot on. It sells out so fast at the farmer's market.

I have to get there fast. but that's my go-to my go-to sourdough right now in addition to what Steph makes you know, Steph makes great, amazing homemade sourdough, but we don't do the rosemary at the house. So I got to go get my rosemary sourdough from Boone family bakery and then Steph at home makes her amazing, just traditional regular sourdough. A couple weeks ago, she made a cinnamon and raisin loaf, which was next level. But if you can find some rosemary or rosemary garlic sourdough, get it. And last but not least, what I'm not loving and what's been on my mind,

they're kind of the same thing in this case today. What I'm not loving is an overly disciplined and structured routine. And I'm going to be very careful with the way I explain this. I'm a huge proponent and it's gotten to me this point in my life of discipline and structure and routine I will

always be disciplined, structured, and routine but at what expense and I heard this quote that I've shared on the podcast a few weeks ago but I'm going to bring it back in today routines make for

great servants, but poor masters. And maybe this has happened to you. It's definitely happened to me before, many times, unfortunately, where my routine and my discipline and my structure becomes a master to my life. I become a slave to the routine, to the discipline, into the structure.

And it actually holds me back from experiencing other parts of life because I don't allow myself to break the discipline, break the routine, break the structure. So the way that I've heard it explained is routine or habit is an excellent servant for structuring life, fostering productivity, and achieving goals. but a poor master when it leads to rigidity, mindless repetition, and a lack of conscious choice.

To make routines work for you rather than against you, they must be intentionally designed, regularly reviewed for improvement, and flexible enough to allow for adaptability. I have struggled with this for a long time, where I have a hard time breaking my discipline, my structure, my routine because it is a master to my life to the extent

where I can't break it. I can't be flexible. I can't adapt because I'm so married to the routine and structure. I don't love that about myself. And it's something I'm trying to improve and work on. it is having discipline, having routine, having rigidity and structure, but also being able to be adaptable and flexible to where it is a great servant to what I'm trying to achieve. But it doesn't hold me back from experiencing the greater parts of life. Because we can be robots, we can be robotic, we can go through the motions of motions and repetitions of life every day, day, day, and day out, but at what expense? I don't love that about myself. I'm trying to break some of that rigidity and grow through it, but it's also partly what has gotten me to where I am today.

So it's finding that balance. Having the discipline, having the structure, having the rigidity, the routine, but being able to be adaptable and flexible simultaneously. So that is inside of my mind, April, 2006. Hope you guys enjoyed it. We'll see you in the next one.