The Nick Bare Podcast - Archive - Steve Weatherford | Transform Yourself Into The Person You Want To Be

Episode Date: June 27, 2022

Steve Weatherford is a former NFL Punter and motivational speaker. He was twice named the fittest man in the NFL, and has played for 5 different teams, and is a Super Bowl XLVI Champion. In this episode, Steve sits down with Nick to share his story and discuss the transformation he has experienced in his time after the NFL. Nick and Steve both identify ways that we can experience transformation in our own lives and become the person that we want to be. More Resources: BPN website: www.bpnsupps.com Nick’s website: www.nickbare.com Nick’s Instagram: www.instagram.com/nickbarefitness Nick’s Youtube: www.youtube.com/user/barelifenutrition Follow Us On Social Media! Instagram: @thebareperformancepodcast Facebook: The Bare Performance Podcast Twitter: @BarePerformPod

In this episode of the Bear Performance Podcast, I'm not going to let the amount of money that I make or how much I get done today. Predict if my day was good or not. I'm going to decide that. So if I can be a man of integrity, honor, and accountability, so everything that I do today, I make decisions and I speak words the way a man of integrity and honor would, and accountability would do. And that really kind of really simplified things to where I had parameters to operate inside of. because I had made money, I had achieved things, but because I was really insecure and undefined in who I was, I really didn't know what was successful and what wasn't.

And so five years ago, I trained myself in that, and I wrote on my mirror, I'm a man of integrity, honor, and accountability. And I would read that every single morning. There's also a poem, and I'll share with you at the end of this. It's called Choose Your Heart. And I printed this poem out, and I taped it, and I still have it on my mirror. I'll have it on every mirror for the rest of my life.

And it's my reminder that I've lived life a certain type of way for 35 years. It was freaking hard, man. But I'm making decision to choose my heart in the next 35 to 45 to 55 years that I have. I'm going to be in the driver's seat and I'm going to make the decision. I'm no longer going to let my feelings be the predictor of my future. I'm going to make decisions based upon my commitments. And when I got really clear on who I was and what I valued, I just made decisions based upon that. Welcome back to another powerful episode of the podcast.

I'm your host, Nick Baer, founder and CEO of Bear Performance Nutrition. Every week, we bring you insightful stories, knowledge, and inspiration to help you reach your full potential in life, fitness, and business. If you enjoy the message we're promoting in this podcast, we would greatly appreciate it if you would leave a rating and review on the platform you're listening to. Make sure to subscribe so you don't miss out on future episodes. episodes that embody the go one more mindset. All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. Today we have Steve Weatherford, Super Bowl champion, entrepreneur, transformational speaker, husband and father to six children. What's going on, brother?

I like that intro, man. I like how you create that transformational speaker. That's from our conversation last night. Really? Yeah. Yeah, man. Thanks for saying that. Man, I'm pumped to be here.

I feel like this has been a long. long time in the making. We were possibly going to sit down when I came out here to do your marathon a couple of months ago, but I felt like it was going to be rushed. And I was like, man, do you, you think we should reschedule it? And I'm glad that we did because we had a great dinner last night with Chad Wright. I'm excited for people. People have probably already heard that episode. But man, I mean, he's just such an incredible guy. And to be able to sit at dinner with you two guys and the conversations that we had, you can't put a price tag on that. You know, for me, for you, for Chad, because the air is thin, you know, when you get to the spaces that you're at and as

accomplished as you are. And I think the same thing for Chad. Chad at times feels, man, like he's fighting his fight alone, you know. There's times that I'm discouraged. And I think for all of us to come together last night and have some real meaningful conversations about what this life means, what's important in life, what really matters, really refreshing, you know. So I appreciate that and I had some rattlesnake meat last night. I had some wild boar. I had bison. Nick took your boy out on the town, man.

We ate well last night. The consistency of my morning constitution was a little looser than normal. Maybe it was the boar meat, but we'll never know. But it was awesome, man, and I'm pumped to be here. That's one of my favorite restaurants, man. It's lonesome dove downtown Austin. Wild boar, bison, elk sliders, rattlesnake, rabbit. It's one of my favorite spots.

but that's honestly to challenge the listener right off the bat with something like that, I think you can really judge, I don't know if judge is the right word, but assess someone's character or intent. If you go to a dinner with a group of people, you know, Chad, I met Chad yesterday for the first time ever. We were talking back on fourth online, but yesterday was the first time we ever met in person. And we all went to dinner last night.

And I think you can really assess someone's character or a relationship or the potential of a relationship. When you go to dinner or you spend time with someone for the first time, how deep does that conversation go? What are you guys talking about? Are you talking about things and people and who's doing what? Is it very surface level? Or within 30 minutes of having a conversation and sharing food together, are you reaching conversations that are just deep with depth and substance? and in value. And I assess now my life where it is,

if I can get a dinner with someone that I just met and have a conversation like that, that is someone that I want to surround myself with and I want in my life. I want to bring my life because it's not taking energy away from me. It's adding. It's filling my cup. You don't find that everywhere.

Yeah, it's called an energy producer. Yeah, thanks for feeling that way about us, man. I love Chad. I've really enjoyed following your job. journey and for everybody that's out there listening on the inner webs. Nick and I haven't been friends that long. I messaged him. I saw that he was hosting a marathon and I had been following him for a couple of months. I watched a few of his YouTube videos. I noticed that he was a man of faith. I saw the values of hard work. I saw him build culture and community. I saw a guy that

seem to care about other people, but you never really know, you know. So I was really kind of window shopping you. And then I DM you, I said, hey, you're hosting a marathon, man, I'm a, I'm a come down, man. I would love to support you. And one thing I noticed about Nick, because I do my best to pay attention to small things, kind of like, you know, one of the new filters that you're creating in your life is, man, if I can go to dinner, and I'm going to dinner with men who are willing to volunteer your information about themselves that they don't need to for conversation for the betterment of our lives. That's a guy I want to do life with. So I also, you know, I have some, some different filters and things that I watch for. And one thing that really impressed me about you is every single person

that finished that marathon, Nick was there to create a defining moment for them, to be the one. It wasn't your employees. And they were there celebrating everybody. But Nick was there for every single finisher and that just shows me that you're a man of honor you know and a man of honor does his best to give of what he has to bring out the best of what other people have and you created a moment for people by investing yourself in that finish line and being there in the entire time i'm a super bowl champion i was twice named the fittest man in the NFL i've done a lot of really cool things that was really nice that you were there waiting at the finish line to give me a hug and put a metal on my neck you know that was special um and i can guarantee you that

every single one of those people that came down here to pay their price, to run that race, to go into the pain cave to finish that, we'll remember that moment. And I believe the reason that you have the success that you have is you don't just do that for a race. That's who you are. And that's why you've built what you've built. That's why people revere you like they revere you. And people want to get behind you and see you in.

So I honor you, man. It was, I wanted you to know that I noticed that. And a lot of my friends were really pumped that they got a picture with Nick Bear. so you bless my team as well. I brought a couple of people down here to run with me, and it was really awesome. I appreciate that. I'm all about intentionality,

and it's something we really promote here. But you actually do it, though. A lot of people are about intentionality, but to actually execute on that vision for your intention, that's where the rubber meets the road. Yeah. Our whole team's about it here. We're super intentional people, very deliberate.

One of the things that Chad brought up yesterday in the interview, kind of his three pillars of being patient, present, and deliberate. And if you apply those three things, patience, presence, and being deliberate to a lot of the things in your life, you can see a transformation. You really can. You know, the past couple months through these interviews, through the podcast, through meeting people,

I've noticed that there's this common denominator in people who have reached levels of success. Now, success can be defined and determined however you want it to be. Maybe it's financial, maybe it's spiritual, maybe it's, you build a business, you become a better father, a better husband. Define it however you want. Levels of success. There's this common denominator that the people I've met have built their life off of the foundation of values. And when I meet people like you and I meet people like Chad, I think of people that,

when they make decisions, when they say yes or no, when they decide to do something or don't do something, it's always resorting back to, does this align with my values and my morals? If yes, then let's do it. If not, then it's an absolute no. What I'm curious to hear from you is, were these characteristics and these values instilled in you as a child and into adulthood? or were these values that you had to learn as you got older? Was it always this way or did you refine them? I mean, even now, you're almost 40, right?

It'll be 40 in a few months. Come up on 40. Is this something new for you or is it always been there? That's a good question. And what I feel like I'm hearing you say, Nick, is spending time with Chad and in our relationship, you see a Chad as being a man of constitution, a man that makes decisions based upon virtues, values, standards, and non-negotiables. Thanks for feeling that way about me.

I feel like it's been a process. You know, I feel like there were some of the values that you see me showcase now that like hard work, I've always been a hard worker. You know, I grew up in the Midwest, normal kind of childhood. kind of, I would say, middle class. You know, I always had shoes, amazing parents. And there was one defining moment that I actually shared with Nick last night. I would love to share with you all.

I feel like all of us are a culmination of our childhood experiences, good and bad. There were things that happened to me in childhood who formed the mindset that I had that really helped me to be a great athlete. And there's also some mindsets that I created because of some things that happened to me or some things that were spoken over me that also became a part of my identity that I actually had to work through and kind of break those chains in a way. One of those defining moments was I was on a basketball team at eight years old. And it was a really competitive travel team. And the coach was pretty hardcore. And I felt like he didn't like me. And it was about three weeks into practice.

we were about to go to our first tournament, he pretty much told me, he goes, you're probably not going to play this year. Like, we appreciate you, but you're probably not going to play this year. And he said the same thing to two other guys on our team. And those two other guys, their parents decided, well, if they're not going to play,

then we're not going to start the season with the team. And I told my dad that story. And I'll never forget my dad looking at me and saying to me, I don't care what anybody else does. You're a Weatherford, and Weatherford's don't quit. And I remember that, And I oftentimes draw back on that when I feel like I'm in a suffering season of life. Because that's the thing that I believe sets me apart.

And you're about to have a child. And I feel like it's a very exciting and a very overwhelming time because you're doing a great job leading yourself. You're doing a great job leading you and Stephanie. But now you're about to bring in another human into this world. and asking yourself the question, you know, what is my constitution? What are my virtues and what are my values and what are the standards and the non-negotiables that I've created for myself? Because if you and I don't decide what those are, I believe it's very difficult for us to

lead ourselves because we have feelings. And the biggest difference between an amateur and a professional is amateurs wake up in the morning and they make decisions based upon how they feel. You know, they'll wake up and take a body scan. Then they'll decide if they'll get out of bed and execute on what they should do. And a pro makes his decision before he goes to bed. A pro doesn't make decisions based upon his feelings. Pros make decisions based upon their commitments.

Now my next question for people asking this, like, oh, I like that. Pros make decisions based upon their feelings or amateurs make decisions based upon their feelings. And the next question you would ask if you want to go pro in life is, what are you committed to? And that's why I believe I've kind of reached a season of my life where I'm really dangerous. I'm really dangerous to other people because I know what's important to me. I know who I am. I know whose I am. And I know what I'm committed to. And I'm uncompromising in that. And I feel like in a way that gives me clarity to really be bold and really be on purpose for what I believe my mission is on this earth.

but without me getting really clear on my values, I'm just going around trying to be a good person. And that's not enough because it's a tough cruel world out there. And if you're just trying to be a good person, it's going to chew you up and spit you out. So you need to decide. And when I say you, I'm talking about everybody that's listening to this or hearing this. What's important to you? Like, what are the things that you want to build your life and design your life full of? And what I'm hearing Nick say right now is, is he wants to design his life with,

men of constitution, men that know who they are, men that know whose they are, and men that know what they value, because you know exactly where those men are at, and you know that they're uncompromising and where they're at. And so if you guys have a difference of opinion, that's okay, because you knew that when you started the relationship. And so if it's a man that's just going to receive you for who you are, your past, your mistakes, and everything that you are, that's a real friend. But I feel like those are very rare and hard to come by. Do you think there was a point in your life where you were surrounding yourself with the wrong people? Because I think it's really important for people to take inventory and stock of who's in their life,

who they're surrounding themselves with. And it's really dangerous when you're surrounding yourself with people who don't align with your principles and values. It's hard to stick to what's valuable to you when you're surrounding yourself by things that might be. be evil or distracting to what you should be focused on. Were you ever at a point in your life where you were able to consciously say, I'm surrounding myself with the wrong group of people and it's holding me back from reaching my full potential? Yes.

So what I'm hearing you say, Nick, is have you ever aligned yourself with people based upon an assignment, based upon a business, based upon a mission? and how did that work out? My mentor Keith Kraft says this, and it really has become my life philosophy is that your alignments determine your assignments. And that means the people that you choose to do life with ultimately will determine what you do in life.

And another way of saying it is the who's that you do life with determines the what you do in life. And so there was a really concise moment when I really started to kind of like clear out the refrigerator of my life. You know, it's like every once in a while, especially somewhere like BPM, HQ. Like if you guys don't clear your refrigerator out every so often, there's going to get stuff that just gets left in there because nobody's taking ownership of the fridge. And so people that are hearing this right now really need to take ownership of their life.

And what are the ingredients of my life? Because there might be some things that are existing inside of your refrigerator, some relationships, some mindsets, some coping mechanisms that are the reason that all the good stuff in your refrigerator, keeps going rotten because you have an ingredient in there that doesn't belong. And a lot of those ingredients, a lot of the times are relationships. But how do you decide what relationships remain and what relationships must go? Well, first you've got to get clear on what you value. And then you need to ask yourself, do these people also value that? Now, the five things that I value and makes it more simple for me to choose friends is, I value my relationship with God. I value my relationship with my wife. I value my relationship with my friends. I value my physical fitness and I also value

being a resource for other people and that could be making money with people or that could be me, you know, like sitting here right now with you. I'm supporting your mission. I'm sure that this will benefit me because there's a lot of amazing people that listen to your stuff that will also come and listen to my stuff. But the reason that I'm here and I shared this with you in the truck last night, I believe in you, man. I'm in your corner. I've like sampled enough of your Kool-Aid and seen enough for the culture that you create is, I want you to win more because you value what I value. We went to dinner last night. How much did we talk about supplements or money, like five minutes of the two and a half

hours that we spent together? Because yes, that's important. But the reason that we came together, I believe that you know and believe that it's a much bigger purpose than how do we get your supplement company to grow. I believe all of those things will happen, but they won't happen as quickly as what they're capable of happening and with as less resistance, if you continue to do what you've done. You know, walking around here. And I just met, what was the guy that has an office right next to you? Trey. Trey. I got to meet Trey. And we're sitting here talking about God five minutes into the

conversation. You know, you just, you have done an incredible job. And I believe that God has sent some of them here to you, but you still have to hire them, you know? And it's just really cool to see what you've planted your flag on. And I believe this. I believe that God will bring. you more clarity and what what is that thing that keeps bringing people here i believe in these next couple weeks before your daughter is born i believe that will become more clear to you to the point where you want to have that branded on a shield and put in your home because this is going to be the thing that guides and leads your family and i'll share with you i shared with you what we value the weatherford's value god my marriage my relationships being healthy and being a resource the core values that that

that lead our family. Like how do we make decisions? Well, the Weatherford, we created a mission statement about five months ago, a new one, because I got six kids now.

And the last time we did, it was like four years ago. And honestly, when we created our core values and our family mission statement, my wife was like, she wasn't really into it. She's just like,

okay, here's Steve doing another leadership thing. You know, she's kind of signed off on it. Yeah. But then she had seen, after we made that agreement, how I really took this as a,

like a boiler plate, a boilerplate or something that helped us to make decisions. And I'll share my core values of discipline, fearlessness, growth, honor, joyfulness, and excellence. And the way that that shows up in a mission statement is the Weatherford's are a fearless and disciplined family that honors and grows always in always with the joyful spirit of excellence. So anytime my kids leave my home and they go out to represent my last name, my daddy's last name, they know how they're going to operate.

Because according to Scripture, we should be fearless. Because if you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you can't die. So like letting my kids and welcoming them into Daddy, how are you so courageous and how are you so bold? And replying to them, I've received Jesus. He's defeated the grave and by his power, I'm not going to die. I'm going to live forever. And so when I come on a podcast like this, I have no nerves about speaking that truth because it's not my truth. That is the truth.

Everything is brought from that. And then discipline. I believe we chose discipline. My wife and I came together. She's actually the one that chose fearlessness and discipline because those are areas that she struggles. And she doesn't mind me saying that. She's in her process just like I am. There's areas I'm working on.

But I believe that God has put gifts inside of each and every person that's hearing my voice and people that aren't hearing my voice. Like a divine fingerprint was placed upon you. And same for Nick. but in order for those gifts, and that's what they are, they were given to us. In order for those gifts to become talents and those talents to become skills and those skills to become a career, what does it take? It takes discipline, dude. Like, that's why you are where you are because you're an executor and you learn that

maybe as a kid or maybe it was reinforced in the military, but you took that mindset and those values and you implemented them into your dreams. You were disciplined. And the reason we chose honor and growth is, I believe when we honor, everything works the way that it's supposed to. I believe that when I honor you as a friend and I honor you as a man, I believe our relationship will work the way that it's supposed to.

But one of us in the relationship has to decide that I'm going to be the giver. I'm going to be the guy that honors. I'm going to be the guy that shows up. And that's me. You know, I don't say that to be, I pursued you. I'm creating this relationship with us because I decided to. You have to say yes, but there's got to be one guy

that decides to be the giver. And I've also decided to be that. man in my marriage. If that is the case, I'm honoring my marriage. Guess what? It's going to work the way that God designed it to work. And the reason that we chose growth,

and I believe that's a value that bring you and I together, you can't sit still. And it's not because you have extreme ADHD like I do. Like you just value growing, man. Like you just love seeing more employees. You love seeing your employees have children. You love seeing your business grow. You're about to love seeing your family grow.

Growth, man. growth is exciting, but not everybody feels that way. And that's one of the reasons that I believe you and I will be friends for a really long time because we're brought together on alignments. If you and I were brought together because you're like, hey, Steve, man, you're really good marketer and you run long races too. Why don't you come on BPM's team and I'll give you X amount of dollars? If you and I started our relationship based upon dollars and it wasn't say,

hey, Steve, I want you to come on this team because I feel like you would really lead this department of our team really well and the wisdom that in spirits you have in this area, man, would really bless our team. That's growth, right? And then joyfulness and excellence. I've never had, I've never seen a great athlete. I played in the NFL for 10 years and played with a lot of extraordinary athletes. I never saw an extraordinary athlete have a great career that had a bad attitude.

So if I know joyfulness is going to be something that is going to allow not just me to be more successful and impactful, but every single person around me because that's infectious. And the joy, happiness can come and go, but joy comes from the Lord. And that's also one of the reasons that I don't drink. I stopped drinking about a year ago. And the reason is I genuinely do feel like I am the happiest person that I know, the most joyful person that I know, but I also know that my joy comes from the Lord. And so if that's the case, I don't ever want anybody to see me with a drink in my hand

because I don't want them to think that my joy or my confidence or my boldness comes from anywhere else. So I don't want it to be misconstrued. And then the last one, excellence. The reason we chose that one is, I believe how you do anything is how you do everything. And I believe you believe in that too. And that's probably another thing that brings us together.

I got Nick Bear's truck last night. I'm like, man, this truck is really nice, man. It's a new truck. He's like, man, I'm about to get rid of this. That's 100,000 miles. You take care of your car. You take care of your wife. Take care of your business.

Take care of your employees. How you do anything is how you do everything. So there's a lot of the things that my family makes decisions based upon that I also see you making decisions and guiding your family of choice. Because this is not family of origin, the people that are in this building, right? You're not their daddy. They're choosing to do life with you. And so for that reason, BPM, in a way, is a family of choice because people choose to be here. They choose to operate in the culture that you establish as a leader of this company.

It's really inspiring, man. I appreciate that. Thanks for sharing that. I think it's a really insightful thing to actually realize, too, is that we say it here all the time, growth is a choice. All your values and principles and all your things that form the foundation of either your business, your family, your values, those are all things that you still have to wake up and choose every single day. They don't just come naturally.

And I think that's something a lot of people misunderstand is they think. that these people who are dependable, they are strong, they have excellent values and morals. I think it just comes naturally sometimes. But I truly believe that good people, strong people, still struggle with temptation. And you have to choose the hard right over the easy wrong every single day. It might get easier, but it's still difficult. So if people are struggling with with anything in their life right now and it's, I don't have that type of character. I don't have those values.

I don't have those morals. I'm not building a business. I'm not leading my family. I'm not showing up for where I need to be. It's okay. But you can make that change right now. You can choose growth in all aspects of your life. I'd love to take it back a little bit.

Obviously, you've made some massive transformations in your life over the, you know, last. two decades, two, three decades. I love to talk about your journey to the NFL and kind of some experience in the NFL. Because I would assume that when you started playing football and you started playing football later on, then it wasn't like you were six, seven years old. Right. And you say you were 15 years old? Right. 15 years old when you started playing football.

When you started playing football was the dream to go to the Super Bowl. Is that what you wanted? My dreams, I wrote down four dreams in eighth grade. I was I think 13, maybe 14 years old, but Dr. Prude Home. It was the dentist's office. And I was waiting to get my teeth cleaned and he had a muscle and fitness magazine. And I stole it. And I went home and I dreamed dreams.

I cut out those pictures. I put them all over my wall. And I wanted to become a professional athlete. And I didn't care what sport because I played a lot of them at the time. I wanted to be a pro. but the first thing that I wrote down, and this is the truth, I wrote down that I wanted to be a dad. I just thought my dad was just a great dad.

And I thought having a family was like, that was better than having a Cadillac, dude, having four kids, you know. So I wanted to be a pro. I wanted to be a dad. I wanted to be an Olympic champion because I was a runner. And I wanted to be on the cover of that magazine that I stole because that started like my infatuation with like developing my body and growing my body. And so I'm sorry, circle back to the question.

I was setting the context there. Was it always the dream to go to the NFL? So it was to be a pro, you know? And so I achieved all of those dreams, but I didn't obviously become an Olympic champion. But when you're a Super Bowl champion, technically you're a world champ. So asterisk's there. But I checked that box off as well. And the last goal that I had was to be invited to be on the cover of muscle and fitness.

And that happened, I think, when I was about 32 years old. and they actually created an award for me because I was like just in way better shape than I needed to be. I was like 6% body fat and I was a kicker. I'm like, dude, you could be 26% body fat and still be a stud. But I just, it was important to me. I always wanted to be my best at whatever I did, you know? If you can do it, do it. And so they created award, the fittest man in the NFL and they gave it to me.

And so I got that award twice. And then after I retired, they never gave the award again. And so I guess I retired the champion. But yeah, I thought that for me to be able to choose those dreams and then got for God to make a way for those things to happen because being on the cover of that magazine, you know, like there's a lot of people. And there was actually a year before that I was supposed to be on the cover

and all the way up until a month before print. And I'd already done the magazine shoot. And because magazine sales were sinking because nobody really buys magazines anymore, they decided to put Arnold on the cover because every time they put Arnold on the cover, it always sells a ton. And so that was pretty disappointing, but those were four really big goals

that, you know, God made a way for me to achieve. But here's the deal, and I want everybody to hear this. And I will say God made a way. He absolutely made a way. But God will meet you at the end of what you're capable of. And I feel like it's really important for people to know that you have to control the control. God wants to make a way for you. He wants to use things that the enemy meant for evil and he wants

to use them for good, but you have to do what you're capable of doing and God will meet you at that place. And it was really about five years ago when that really clicked for me, you know, because at 11 years old is really when my eyes got open to what having a relationship with Jesus is like. I was at a power team concert and I was 11 years old. My parents grew up and they never had sex before they got married. They never drank and I had an older brother, younger sister, younger brother. And they were good kids. They listened and then there's me.

So I never really felt like I fit in in my family. I remember going to Sunday school and getting kicked out of Sunday school. Nick, church is supposed to be a place where everybody's welcome, dude. And I'm getting kicked out of Sunday school. And so I just remember what did you get kicked down for? Talking, pinching people, giggling, not being able to sit still. Just have an ants in my pants. It's never anything like lighting anybody on fire.

I wasn't trying to be bad. I just couldn't sit still. And then I remember going to kindergarten. And, you know, in Sunday school, I'm like, okay, I'm different. But then you go to kindergarten and there's 26 other kids and you're the only weirdo. You know, I remember getting sent to the principal's office the first five days in a row. And it was in Louisiana in Baton Rouge where they could whip you without calling your parents. I got whooped the first five days in row.

And it's kind of a little bit funny to giggle about now, but like I started hating myself because I didn't want to get in trouble. I wanted to be a good boy. And it was really hard. And so you fast forward a couple years to like eight years old. And that's when I really got into athletics. And it was the first time that I realized that God had gifted me athletically, but also this thing that caused so much issues and troubles for me, ADHD,

was like a superpower playing sports because I could make split second decisions way faster than everybody because my brain was just used to that. In addition to my body is just geared for hyperactivity and movement. And so that's rewarded by opportunities to score goals and make baskets if you're always in the mix. And so I remember walking to the car after some of these games and remember all their, my teammates' parents really celebrating me like, oh my gosh, Steve, you're amazing. Like you showed up and last year you weren't on this team and we got beat by five goals and we just beat them by three goals and you had a hat trick. You're amazing. I remember this happening two or three times and getting into the car with my dad and being like, and I'm never hearing those words from my dad and being like,

Dad, am I good? And because my dad wasn't equipped the way that I need him to be equipped to give me that love language of words of affirmation, I felt like rejected. Because my dad didn't have a dad that said, hey, you're a good boy. I'm really proud of you. Thank you for working hard and being a great teammate and being encouraging. Like it was just kind of like old school Indiana. I expect this of you, you know? And I honor my father.

My dad was a great dad, but he didn't know that that's my love language. and I'm like, he didn't know the internal struggle. Like, dude, I feel so worthless and I just need my dad to like love me and affirm me and bring me in, you know. And that made it really difficult. And then I would say the biggest defining moment of my life was at 11 years old. I got invited by one of my friends to go to a power team concert. And power team is a group of like, I would say strong men, for lack of a better word,

a lot of ex-pro athletes and ex-college athletes, and they would come to different cities and different arenas, and they would bend steel bars over their head, and they would break bricks, and they would do all these incredible feats of strength. And then towards the end of the show, they would give a testimony. And the guy that was given the testimony before he finished,

he asked the cop from the back of the room to come and put handcuffs on him. And he said, you know what, I need another pair. He put two pairs of legitimate baton roots, police department handcuffs and he had the crowd go down from 10 to 1 and then right before he broke him he said I'm going to break these by the power of Jesus and he broke him and I remember being 11 years old and sitting on the stage with my chin on it watching these chains break and fly over the room and I'm thinking to myself this is like Hulk Hogan macho man Randy Savage combined but the difference was after he broke those chains, he didn't say,

go to the back of the room and buy my vitamins and my videos and be just like me. Now he said, there's only one thing I'm here to offer you. And it's a relationship with Jesus Christ. If you want this power, if you want this authority, if you want full forgiveness, I want you to raise your hand right now. And I was like, oh, I want a double scoop of that kind of Jesus. I didn't want the kind of Jesus that my parents worship, but I wanted this guy's Jesus.

So I raised my hand. I gave my life to Jesus. and I was like, finally, I fit in and I can like be myself and like, God made me this way. And this is awesome. And so I had like six months of bliss where I felt like, this is going to be an amazing life. And I had a teacher at a Christian school do things to me that no man should ever do to a little boy. And he did it more than once. And I had a lot of guilt and a lot of shame about that because I didn't like tell on him at first because I was so freaked out.

I didn't know what to do. How old were you? I was 12. So it was literally six months later. And my whole world crumbled. My self-worth was just eradicated. I was stuck with questions that, man, dude, at that age, you really need answers to. You know, like, does God still love me? Does this make me gay now? Like, so many questions. And I was struggling. It was a really dark place. Then I found alcohol. Then I found women. than I found high school winning. And I found that the more that I win,

the more dunks that I get in the basketball game, the more records that I break on the track field, the more scholarships that I get, the more valuable that I am, the more attention that I got from people. And so I created an identity that I was valuable when I was winning. And so I made up that I was worthless,

that I was dirty, and that nobody would really want to be friends with me if they knew those things about me. But if I keep winning, And if I be a good friend to Nick, now the big difference is I was always a really good friend. And I feel like through that trauma as a kid, I learned how to be a great encourager because my dad had a gap there. And that's what I needed. And so as a man, I've become a really good encourager.

I've become a really good friend. I've become in the Bible, they call it a Barnabas, is a man who is a confidant, a man who was more firm than most in his relationship to you. and when I choose people like I've chose you or I've chose Chad to pursue those men to create relationships that's what I intend to be I won't be perfect but I intend to show up as a Barnabas and a guy that doesn't need anything but is there to serve you encourage you and speak strength to you and so I say those things to say a lot of people have have sustained childhood traumas and it might not be sexual abuse but we've sustained things that who have and it has shifted and formed, created ceilings in our life of what we're capable of. And the only way

that through achieving all the things in pro sports, that I was actually able to find a development or an area that gave me myself worth to where my worth wasn't what I could do or what I produced, it was who I was. It wasn't until I really dealt with that childhood trauma and really went through therapy and and I would say the thing that that really gave me the most clarity was a radical God moment that I had in the desert in 2017 and since that moment my life has never been the same. How old were you when you finally were able to address the trauma when you were younger? I started that at 34 when I really started to have conversations and go weekly and sit with somebody and really unpack why do I think the way that I think about everything,

not just myself, you know? And it really allowed me to get clarity on why I would do some of the things that I would do and really start to identify behavioral patterns and then figure out what's the genesis of that. And that's tough work, man. Like that's not something that you look forward to doing. but I knew. I mean, I had made millions of dollars. I had won all of these awards.

I was the, in addition to being the fittest man in the NFL, I'd also won an award for being the most philanthropic man in the NFL. And the reason that I chose to pursue that is, I felt like everything I achieved in the NFL, I was like waiting for my dad to be like, I'm proud of you. And so I would win these different awards that in my mind were like self-serving, fittest man in the NFL, you know, Super Bowl champion.

and what if I became the most giving person in the NFL? Maybe that would get my dad's attention because my dad's a Christian and he loves Jesus and I feel like this would be most like Jesus. And so I got obsessed and created so many different charitable events and gave so much of my time to that. But looking back on it, I was able to bless a lot of people, but I was doing that through an insecurity.

And to be able to get clarity and breakthrough for why you did some of the things you did as a younger man or really allows me to get the awareness to lead myself better because ultimately that's what this life is about. There's going to be a lot of variables and a lot of feelings that we feel, but until you and I get really clear on who we are and whose we are, and I know, you know, coming into this podcast, I know I'm a man of integrity, honor, and accountability. I'm not perfect at those, but those are the things that I'm training myself in every single day because I believe my assignment on this planet is to do two things, is to give God something to

work with and to give men something to respect. And I know that men can respect a man of integrity, honor and accountability. And I also believe that guy can use a man like that. Going back to kind of that trauma you experienced when you were younger, do you think that was the catalyst for obsessing on your fitness goals and wanting to win? And after that happened, was there this pursuit of being the best in fitness going to college doing college athletics going to the league. Like was that the catalyst for,

is that how you funneled trauma into becoming obsessive in terms of your physical fitness? I think I found solace in training. I wanted to, I had all the goals before I was abused. I had all of those goals. You know, I still,

I wanted to be a pro since I watched the movie Pistol Pete. Like I've seen that movie a thousand times. You know, every word of it, watching karate kid, watching Rocky 4. I knew I wanted to be a pro, but through that trauma, I believe that the training and the obsession to improve took my mind off of who I was. Because in my mind, winning wasn't fun when he was expected. And so when I would win, I would never take the credit, but when I would lose,

I would take all of the credit. I put everything on my shoulders. And I believe that that did create an obsession in me, but it also created a toxic kind of inner, you know, a toxic place that my energy was coming from. Let's fast forward a little bit with that. You know, you go through college. You get signed the New Orleans Saints, 2006.

You play for a few other teams. And in 2012, you win the Super Bowl when you're on the Giants against the Patriots. And I've read this story. I've heard this story from me before, but I'd love to hear it again to really reinforce how winning was almost empty. And from my understanding, you guys won the Super Bowl, the highest of highest, you made it. You did it.

Mission accomplished. And then after everything's over, you go back to your hotel room. Your family's not there with you, kids, your wife. You're in this hotel room alone and you feel emptiness. And it didn't feel like you thought it would after winning the Super Bowl. Right. Kind of paint that picture for me from the time you guys won the game, the highest of highest, to how it went so low, so fast.

Yeah, I think we all dream of that, Nick. You know, like whether we really like football or not, It's like the sport that most of our dads watched as a kid. And we would go and play catch in the backyard, either with our dad or with other people. And we would dream or fantasize about, oh, I'm catching the touchdown in the Super Bowl. I did that, just like all those other kids. Now, granted, I didn't catch any touchdowns, but I was punting in the freaking NFL in the Super Bowl. And it was 47 miles from my hometown, you know.

So it's literally the stage is set. and I had the greatest game of my entire life. I had four punts set a Super Bowl record for most punts inside the 10-yard line, which really affects how Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are going to call their plays. Because if you're on the two or the four-yard line, you're not calling a pass play. And after my first punt, we actually got a safety on Tom Brady. So the first two points of Super Bowl 46 against the Patriots was a safety after my punt. And so I say those things to say, not to like humble brag.

I'm setting the stage for you because I literally have. never performed that well in my entire life. At halftime, Chris Michaels, or Chris Collinsworth and Al Michaels said, I don't think we've ever said this, but if we're voting for the Super Bowl MVP at halftime, I'd give it to the punter Steve Weatherford. Usually, they have the TVs on in the locker room, but not during the Super Bowl. And I'm glad that they didn't, because if I would have heard that at halftime, Nick, I would have to change my pants because that just, that doesn't happen.

So I say those things to say the game gets over, the confetti's coming down. I'm pulling my son out of it. of the bleachers and the first thing he says to me he's five years old as dad we did it we won the super bowl you kidding me man like a moment like that with your son when he actually like understands what's going on and the next thing i know al roker is pulling on my jersey and he wants to interview me after the game so it was just unbelievable still to this day a surreal moment but i remember we go to the the post game party my mom's there my grandma's there my aunts my uncles my cousins my brothers, everybody's there. And then the party shuts down at about 2 o'clock. And I go back to my

hotel room. And in the NFL, they don't let any women on your floor. It doesn't matter if you're married or not. So I go back to my hotel room. I remember swiping my key card walking into the room and the maid had already come in and made up your bed because I've been gone since 6 o'clock in the morning. And I walk in and I hear a bunch of noise at the window. So I walk up to the mirror and we're downtown Indianapolis and I'm on the 17th floor and I look down and it is an ocean of people, Nick. and all kinds of different NFL jerseys just drinking, partying, high-five, and literally just having the moments of their life. And I remember taking a deep breath and watching them just being,

and before I could exhale, Nick, I just felt this like wave of depression come over me because I didn't feel any different. And I, like in that moment, the gravity of all the sacrifices and all that I made up in my mind would change when I became a champion. And so to be able to experience that and to be able to experience that nothing changed inside of me, I realized that I had a God-sized hole. It wasn't a trophy-sized hole. It wasn't a money-sized hole.

It was a God-sized hole that was inside of my chest. And I knew in that moment the night that I won the Super Bowl, I knew that my days in the NFL were numbered because I knew that there was nothing else inside of that arena. Because I just checked the last most final box. through winning another Super Bowl wasn't going to change. And I knew the chances or the requirement of what I would have to invest to be able to have that opportunity again. It felt like it would be enough to kill me because it didn't bring anything to me.

So I had nothing left. And that really kind of sent me into the vision quest that I'm still on to this day. But through that vision quest, God brought provision in the assignment. I played for three more years and I signed a multi a multi year deal after that Super Bowl and played the duration of my contract and then just retired out of nowhere. And I remember my mentor calling me and saying, what are you doing? You're making the biggest mistake ever. But I knew like I knew that there was something more for me out there.

And it wasn't in sports. It wasn't in running. It wasn't in fitness. And so I accepted a job at ESPN and I had a TV show on Spike TV. And I thought, like, maybe I'm supposed to be in media because I had done a lot of media while I was in New York and created a lot of good relationships and some skill sets did that for two years. And I realized that I was pretty much doing the same thing that I was doing playing football. I was just talking about what people were doing the night before and every once in a while I could give my opinion. But I had my producer telling me what I could and couldn't talk about.

So after two years of that, my wife and I decided to move out to San Diego. And when we got out to San Diego, I was invited to a church called Awaken Church. And it was the first time that God became more real to me. And what I mean when I say that is I had grown up in religion. I had grown up in the rules of don't do this. And if you do this, you're going to hell. And, you know, a long list of don'ts. And honestly, most of the Christians that I knew, like, they didn't live,

life. Like they drove busted cars, they tucked their shirts in, they were freaking geeks. I didn't want anything to do that. But then I went to this church awaken and this place wasn't about religion. This was about relationship with God. And so I was really introduced to what relationship with God looks like. And as people are listening to this right now, I guess the best way I could explain the difference between religion and relationship is when I was 16, my dad bought me in 1986, Cadillag Fleetwood Brohan. It was like the car all my buddies wanted to get into. And most people wrecked their first car.

And I wrecked my first car. And it was about six months into heaven. I love that car. And I remember one of my buddies was walking the opposite direction on the sidewalk. And I was driving. So I was going to bust a U-turn to pick him up. So this big old Cadillac, he kind of got to swing out to the right a little bit to be able to make the full U-turn. And so I swung out to the right.

And the person thought I was parking. And as soon as I turned left, I hear a crunch. And I thought to myself, I got to call my dad. He's going to freaking kill me. That's religion. Like every time we make a mistake, like, oh, God's going to punish me. God's going to be mad at me. God's going to strike me down.

That's religion. And that was like the fear of it. And I was scared of God. I didn't want to bring anything to him. I was trying to hide. But then I stepped into a relationship. And relationship is making the same exact mistake. And as soon as you hear the crunch of the metal, you think to yourself, oh, man, I got to call my dad.

He's going to know exactly what to. do. And that was a really powerful dynamic shift for me because that made me want to pursue God, pursue God for wisdom, pursue God for purpose, pursue God for what would you have me do? What is this whole life about? And so through that relationship building and learning more about who God really is, I was invited to go to a men's conference in the middle of the desert out in San Diego. and they had a a bunch of games, tug-of-war, a bunch of, like,

manly games. So I think that's probably why I was invited because they're like, oh, this guy's going to be our ringer, you know? And so I went, and it was, they did church under this big circus in the middle of the desert.

And they announced the first keynote speaker and he walks up, and I'm kind of paying attention, but not really. And then he takes the microphone. And he speaks into the microphone like this. And I felt like, I heard the voice of God and my like my skin started tingling.

I felt like I got hit by like a lightning boat. And I look over my buddy who invited me. I go, what's this guy's name? And he goes Keith Kraft. So I Google his name. And the first picture that popped up like blew my hair back. My eyes got big. It was a picture of a guy in a mullet,

busting bricks and bending bars over his head. And it was like the picture that I had in my mind. And I realized in that moment, moment, that's the guy that showed me possibility. That's the guy that showed me that a Christian could be strong, that a Christian could be successful, that a Christian could make money, that a Christian could be bold and courageous and also kind and gentle. He gave me a picture of possibility, and here he is, 25 years later, 25 years, literally exactly 25 years. And so I'm doing my best to listen to him. But Nick, as he's talking, there's all these things that are going on off of my

brand like I'm realizing who this guy is and the gravity because not only did he give me a picture but he also like gave me permission to build muscle and so here it is 25 years later and the impact that he had has had on my life is unlike any other person I didn't even know his name because it's not like you could follow him on Instagram and keep up with him after you got saved right and um so I'm ran up to him after he got done speaking and I probably scared him because I grabbed him he's he's bigger than me six foot six two hundred seventy pounds a freaking grown man and i go up to him i'm like pastor keith you're never going to believe this but i saw you when i was 12 years old and because of you got saved and because of you i started lifting weights because you did it to did it did it did and i just

rattled everything off he's like uh oh that's amazing send me a message on instagram i want to talk to you again and so i'm walking back to my seat nick and i feel like i'm walking on clouds like my whole body is just like it's I'm feeling God but I've never felt anything like this before so I get back to my seat and I'm telling my buddy Nick I'm like dude you are never going to freaking believe this and I start to recant who this guy is to him and then I pause halfway through and I remember that I got special permission to bring my 11 year old son to the event because this is first time I've been to one and I go Nick where's my son and he goes oh man look up there you're never going to believe it he just gave his life to Jesus

So I want everybody to think about that for a minute. I was 11 when I got saved. 25 years later, the very same man stood up there and gave a message that I don't remember, but for whatever reason, my 11-year-old son decided in that moment on that day, I'm going to make a decision for Jesus as well. So that really got my attention. And after I left there, I called Pastor Keith and I told him that story as well. And I said, hey, man, I don't know if you do this.

not, but I promise you, I'll do everything that you say, I'm an athlete. Would you, would you coach me and mentor me? And he was like, yeah, this is what it looks like. This is the investment. And this is what I expect of you. And so for nine months, we did coaching calls and everything that this guy told me about the philosophies, the standards, the rules, the virtues, all the conversations that you're having, those are the conversations he had with me. But I wasn't just a guy that said, hey, I want to learn some things. I wanted to transform my mother flipping life. But in order for us to do that, like a lot of people want to grab a lot of information out on the internet and then they want to go straight up to transformation. But in transformation, you have to get a, you have to get something more than

information. You have to get a revelation. And in order for something to be a revelation, you have to believe deeply that it's true. And I believe so deeply in my core and my soul that what he was telling me was going to work. And so I implemented it in my business, into my marriage, into my relationship philosophies. And if there was areas of my life that were good, they became great. If there was areas of my life that sucked, they became good. And I just noticed all these incompetencies start to become competencies. And things started to shift and grow.

And I looked at my wife. I'm like, babe, like, this is really changing my life. And I feel like it's really changing your life. We're really getting clarity on who we are and what we're supposed to do. What do you think about maybe moving to Texas? So we started to think about it and kind of look on the internet. Nothing was really popping up. And then I prayed a prayer that I've never prayed with my wife.

I knelt by her bed like a little kid, you know, put my hands on her belly. And I prayed out loud. I said, God, we've been praying for two months if we're supposed to be closer to Pastor Keith. And we've just been praying and believing for our next level. We don't know what it looks like, but we trust you. And we've been asking you to highlight something. You haven't highlighted something. but would you just slam a door, God?

Just slam a door and I'll know it's you and then I'll go. I promise I'll go. And we prayed that prayer and I just kind of forgot about it. And I'm just kind of going throughout my day and my phone calls. I don't recognize the number and I pick the phone up. And it's the Swedish voice. And I ain't ever talked to him. But it's the guy that owns the house.

He's like, hey, man, we really appreciate your family. You guys always paying on time and you take care of my stuff. We're a little nervous about this whole like COVID thing. And I think we're going to sell the house. So you need to be out in 60 days. And I'm like, oh, crap. In the moment, I'm not remembering that prayer. And I'm walking back to the house to tell my wife, we have to move.

And I realized, I prayed that prayer. And so it was almost an uncomfortable confirmation because I knew I had to take action. So I go in there and I tell my wife, I go, babe, I got some news for you. And my wife and I, during our NFL career, we would always play six months in the season that we played, you know, for the Jags, the Chief, the Jets, the Giants, the Giants, or the Saints. We play that six months, and we go back and live in San Diego. And San Diego is the only like normal that we have or that our kids have. And so we've lived in at that time, 27 homes and 15 years of marriage together. That's wild.

Unbelievable. Like just gypsies, dude. And I tell her, I say the owner just called us. And this is what he said. And I'll never forget my wife's sitting there like this. And she goes, sinks back in her chair. I'll get the boxes. and we packed our house up and we were gone in 30 days.

We didn't even wait the full 60 days because we heard God's voice and we win. And when people hear me say this, like I want you guys to understand, it was full faith. Like it wasn't like, I mean, I had three businesses in San Diego. It was, it was a, this last 13 months has been the 13 months that we've been in Texas.

It was a tough first eight months. So much adversity, so many different things that you got to uproot yourself and bring to Texas, but through that adversity, absolutely I'm seeing without a shadow of a doubt, my wife has never led herself better aside from me. My marriage has never been stronger. My kids are healthy and growing, and I believe, kind of like what you're saying, I believe the area that I live in, for the most part, the people value what I value.

And when you have six kids, and I don't know, man, we might have another one. when you have six or seven kids, you can't raise them all alone. And so doesn't it make sense, Nick, that I pursue relationships like you or chat or these other men that are men of Constitution and really the men that want to be great men, not just for themselves and to get all that they can, but so help other people can get what they can. Doesn't it make sense that I pursue men like that to help me raise my family? Because don't get a twisted, that daughter that you're going to have is going to be impacted by me. I already have plans for that, you know. but until until we have vision for something like that, what do you think?

Me and you were just going to luck into a relationship where we get to raise each other's kids together. That doesn't happen. You have to have somebody's got to have vision for it and then to pursue it. But how do you know which people to pursue? If you don't know what you value, you don't know what to pay attention to and other people.

So I hope that answered your question. No, it does. I'm curious, you know, you made this, this massive transformation in your life, what was it that you recognize you were doing wrong or incorrectly that made you, made this kind of light pop up in your head saying, there's a change it needs to be made.

I don't know exactly what that change is or how to navigate it, but what I'm doing isn't right. I knew I was a fraud and a phony. Simple as that. You know? I was like a good husband. It was a good dad. But what I would put on Instagram and what I really was,

not the same. No, I'm not saying I'm like I was complete fraud or phony, but I would say things or incur things and I wasn't really living that way. I had an idea in my mind of what a good man is and I wanted so desperately to be that. But at 35 years old, I had a real reckoning with myself. I knew that I wasn't a man of integrity because I was so insecure. I needed to inflate things about myself to be able to be accepted by other people. You know, and so five years, years ago, I decided to really lead myself very simply with three core value traits, three character traits. And I said, no matter what's on my calendar for the day, I'm not going to, I'm not going to let the amount of money that I make or how much I get done today,

predict if my day was good or not. I'm going to, I'm going to decide that. So if I can be a man of integrity, honor, and accountability, so everything that I do today, I make decisions and I speak words the way a man of integrity and honor would and accountability would do and that really kind of really simplified things to where I had parameters to operate inside of because I had made money I had achieved things but because I was really insecure and undefined in who I was I really didn't know what was successful and what wasn't and so five years ago I trained myself in that and I wrote on my mirror. I'm a man of integrity, honor, and accountability. And I would read that every single morning. There's also a poem, and I'll share with you at the end of this. It's called Choose Your Heart.

And I printed this poem out, and I taped it. I still have it on my mirror. And I'll have it on every mirror for the rest of my life. And it's my reminder that I've lived life a certain type of way for 35 years. It was freaking hard, man. But I'm making decision to choose my hard in the next 35 to 45 to 55 years that I have, I'm going to be in the driver's seat and I'm going to make the decision. I'm no longer going to let my feelings be the predictor of my future. I'm going to make decisions based upon my commitments. And when I got really clear on who I was and what I valued, I just made decisions based upon that. I've brought this concept up many times on this podcast before. And it's based off of the book by Tim Grover called Winning. And the concept is you need to in your life achieve this

first win. And with that first win brings confidence, but there's some sacrifice to get there. In order to go after that next win, there's going to be required more sacrifice, but it builds more confidence. And over the course of a lifetime, you know, you've gone from win to win to win. You've had some failures in between there. Each win has required more and more and more sacrifice, but you build more and more and more confidence. Here's a question I've never asked in regards to this. What is the cost of all that sacrifice? So as you're winning in life, you know, you've gone to the pros, you're making all this

money, you're getting these big contracts, you win the Super Bowl, you're getting all these opportunities from the outside. It looks like Steve Weatherford is winning, winning, winning. and you know you're winning and you're building this confidence up so your full potential is there's no cap. I'm going to do whatever I want to do.

However, what is this sacrifice that was happening along the way? It's either your family, your relationships, your personal values, everything. Yeah, it was a great cost. I mean, how do you quantify it? I don't think I can quantify it,

but there are scriptures in the Bible that said, God will use all things. things, not some things. God can use all things together for those that love him and those that are called according to his purpose. I love God. And I feel like the life that I'm living right now is called according to his purpose for me, according to Scripture. So with that being said, the trauma, like the sexual trauma and the abuse that was done to me, the coping mechanisms of pain pills or porn or women or alcohol, the different things that I would use. to cope, that's what really impacted my marriage. That's what impacted my relationships. It wasn't

really the pursuit of greatness in athletics. I actually really do believe that I would have pursued the same athletic endeavors and probably had the same level of commitment and obsession because now I don't struggle with those things at all. And I still am incredibly driven. I'm going to do a a hundred mile race in December. I'm going to do my first Iron Man in October, and I've already done two marathons this year. And I'm not a runner, you know, like I had never done anything more than 13 miles in December

previous to doing your marathon. And it's just a new level for me. So there was a great cost, but I also believe that through what I did in my marriage and, you know, I have an older son that's 14, he was around for the man that I used to be for nine years. and so I actually think it's going to be a benefit to him. I'm believing this because he saw the man that I was when I didn't have Jesus

as my Lord and my Savior. And then he saw a massive transformation literally overnight. And he got to see his dad change before his eyes, the way I talked to him, the way I love him, the way I make time for him, the way I have a routine to develop who he is and to develop our relationship together is drastically different. And when I say it happened overnight, I believe, so after I met Keith, and we'll go back to the desert really quickly because I think this will make sense for the listeners. After Keith came into my life, at the end of that event, one thing they gave us at the beginning is they gave every single person, 2,000 of us.

They gave each person a 2 by 4. And on that 2 by 4, they gave you a marker and they said, I want you to write down everything on this board that you carried it. into the desert that you don't want to carry out. And so I wrote down porn. I wrote down pills. I wrote down worthiness. I wrote down shame. Just literally, I wrote it all down on that.

And what they did was they gave you a string and that board had two holes in it. And so you wore that board and they called it a burden because it's essentially what it is. It's you carrying around things for three days in the desert that don't belong to you. So if you were awake, they expected every guy to be wearing their burden. And so if you're sitting in church, everybody has their burden on their back as they're sitting in the chair, uncomfortable as they can be. And then at the end of the two and a half days, they had a massive bonfire, biggest I've ever seen. And I had a team of about 40 people. And so I prayed with each man over their burden that God would take this away from them and allowed them to go back to their wife, to go back to their family, to go back to their business, redeemed, restored, remastered, renewed.

And I prayed that for 40 people. and I was about to toss my board in there and some guy grabbed me. And I've never seen the guy before. If he walked up to me right now, I wouldn't recognize him. And it wasn't some like really eloquent King James Version prayer. It was him and I standing in agreement that the power of God were going to take these addictions and these urges that I had away from me and all this pain and all this shame away from me.

And we prayed that prayer and then we threw it in. But there's scriptures in the Bible that talk about the power. power of two. When any two men come together and place their hand on anything, our father in heaven will do it. And I believe that there's a power. That's why before we started this podcast, I asked if we could pray because I believe there's, I've already prayed this morning, but I believe there's a power when we come together. And we all agree on something. There's power in that. And I believe the supernatural power of God took those things away from me. And I went home from that weekend and I went home to my wife. And I said, babe, probably don't know this, but I just want to

come clean and I want to tell you everything that I've been struggling with because I believe that God took it away from me, but I believe it's going to be a daily struggle for me to stay on this. So it's not like it's not going to be hard anymore and I won't have temptations, but I believe that God is with me now. And so this is what I struggle with and this is the ways that I think that you could support me. And since then, I've never taken another percassette. I've never used porn again. And I don't struggle with self-worthiness. I don't carry around the shame or the guilt of what was done with me, done to me. And I also don't carry around the shame or the guilt of all the lies that I've told and all the people that I've cheated and all the things, heinous things that I've

done that, you know, used to really torment me because I could never feel like a good person because I was carrying around that guilt and that shame and I'm free from that. Now I believe when I come on and I can create relationships with people like you or have a conversation recorded like this, I believe through me showing my scars, I believe it gives men permission to heal. I mean, that's the only reason that, you know, when I come on here, I'm not here to promote, you know, any of the other things that I do. Like, I'm on this podcast to support you and your vision and to share the gospel of Jesus Christ, because I know that's the only way to true and permanent change because I've tried everything else. I worked with all the specialists, hypnotists, you know, all these other drugs

to help you get off of this drug and, you know, behavioral pattern, reconditioned. I have tried it all. And I, I know that this, there is only one way to permanent change because you and I, God built us in a way that we can't do it on our own. But through partnership with him, all things are possible. That's why I have it tattooed on my arm. Through Jesus, all things are possible. And I'm going to live the rest of my life telling people about that

because I'm freaking sold out, man. If people can feel the joy and the peace that I have every single day, I know that this world would change. In addition to, I believe that when people receive Jesus, they'll live forever. So I in my mind, I'm standing before the gates of hell and I'm redirecting traffic because I've, I've tasted truth. And for the rest of my life, I'll make sure that if people, if people don't believe me, at least they'll respect me because I'm not going to change my tune and I'll be on this purpose for the rest of my life. I know that was a little bit intense, but that's why I'm here, man.

Now, this kind of brings it, it brings a full circle, you know, and you were talking about kind of, kind of, the way you set up the structure of your family in terms of a mission statement, values, organization, structure. And I know one of your things is to become the CEO of your life. And I heard you explain it in a way of it's about establishing structure and order to the areas of your life that matter most. And the reason I say it brings a full circle is because when you were explaining the way your family is set up in the values and there's this mission statement. and there's these duties and responsibilities and structure, I kept thinking it's like a business.

It's also like a military organization as well. Duties, responsibilities, mission statement, structure. And we all have the obligation and responsibility to treat our life almost like it is a business in a sense of we are the CEO of our life. Is that now your mission to help transform people to realize they are the CEO? of their life. They are in control, and they can control the controllables to steer the trajectory of the outcomes. Yeah, I mean, nobody's coming to save anybody, you know? I mean, when was there an area of your life that changed that you didn't decide it? It's always changing. Right, because you decide to change it. Your life is not going to go in a direction that you don't decide

it unless you have errors of your life that are in default. It's like, it's like, buying a MacBook computer. You know, when you buy a MacBook computer and you try to go edit videos for YouTube and upload them, it's going to take you a long time. You want to know why? Because you haven't downloaded the app YouTube. You haven't put all your passwords in.

You don't have your different templates and your intro and your outro loaded on your computer, all those things that make our life easier because we took time to put design to the weapon that we have, the computer. And I feel like a lot of people have areas and components of their life and their life computer that are just in default. It's just the way it is when they got the computer. What would our life be like if we got really specific about the different pillars of our life and we took extreme ownership of them? Like I don't want to be a guy that's soft-sided. I don't want to be a guy that financially provides for his family and spiritually as the leader in his home but

takes no ownership of his physical fitness. You know, I also don't want to be a guy that's in really good shape and makes a lot of money but is not the spiritual leader in his own at all. I believe in order for you and I to really make it to our next level, we have to put design to every area of our life. In order for us to have design, that means you have a philosophy for that area of life. You have philosophies for friends. An example with my friends, because we've talked a lot about relationships. They're very important to me. I have a philosophy for friendships as well. And I always used to think the army mantra was no man left behind. And that might be the thing. but I talked to Chad Wright,

Chad Wright, and my other friend, Garrett Uncleback shared the mantra for Navy Seals. And the Navy Seals mantra is, fall behind, left behind because the mission matters most. I'm on a mission. And so the men that I choose to do life with,

I'm inviting them on to this righteous path. You know, and I believe through our relationship, I'll continue to share some things with you of my life design that helps me to stay on this righteous path. Now, if I create an alignment with a friend, and I notice that he's off of this righteous path, path. It's my assignment to go shepherd him, disciple him, and go pray with him and be like,

and help him to get awareness. Like, hey, man, this is actually out of order. This is not God's design for our life. And once I speak my truth and they're like, yeah, that's cool. And they don't want to get back on the righteous path. Then at that point, I'm not going to spend my time over here trying to help them with their issues. If I've already told them, this is how it can be. And I want to love them back in the lane. And they say no, then they've fallen behind. But at the end of the day the mission matters most because I believe that when you and I die, we'll go to heaven and we'll have a meeting before we actually get to go in. And we'll step up and there will be an angel and it'll open up the Lamb's Book of Life. And if you've received Jesus Christ as your Lord and

Savior, your name will be in there. And then it'll say, hey, congratulations, you get to go to heaven. But before you do, you get to go have a meeting with God. And that meeting will be in the throne room. And this is not my opinion. This is in scripture. You'll have a meeting. with God and God will open up this book that's called the Book of Works. And everything that you've done in your life after you've received Jesus, he's going to review that. He's going to review what you did with your time, your talents, and your treasures. I call it the T3.

Those are three things that I want people to remember. Your time on this earth, the talents that God gave you, and the treasures and the resources that you had, what did you do with those? The ultimate goal is for God to say to me, well done, good. and faithful servant. He's not going to say, hey, way to go, really inspirational speaker leader. No, he wants to know, am I good? And I've already decided, Nick, like, I'm good. I'm not going to do evil. I'm going to do good. I've read the scriptures. I know what's right. I'm going to do good. And the next thing he's going to say is faithful. And faithful is, faithful is something that requires every single day.

You can't, you can't achieve faithfulness in one day, but faithfulness is achieved one day at a time. and the next thing he'll say is servant. And in order for me to really worship God with my life, I have to serve people, not just lead people. And so there's a term called servant leadership, that that's the way that Jesus led people through an example, but through an example of serving people and making their vision, his vision.

But you can't do that for everybody, right? You've only got so much time. So how do you choose whose vision to make your vision? Or if that person's value what you value, and through that mission, you're blessing people and bringing people to Jesus. Example, we're sitting here having full-on conversations about eternity, Jesus and God.

And this is like a sports podcast. This is you allowing me a platform to speak truth to people. And this will bring people to Jesus. I believe that in Jesus' name. So I honor you, man, I thank you. But this is also one of the reasons that I believe supporting your vision ultimately will be supporting God's vision

through all the work that you've done and all the videos that you've released, now I get to be a beneficiary of all of your hard work because you've built this platform and invited me to be on it. So I don't take that lightly, man. I honor that. But also, I want you to know that I'm here for no other reason,

but to tell people what God has done for me to support your vision and to grow in relationship with you. It's very important to me. I appreciate that. I know we kind of, we briefly touched on this before we started recording the episode. And I think it's really overwhelming. I mean, your life has, your life has transformed slowly over years.

It wasn't like overnight, like boom. Oh, yeah. And so you've gained this wisdom. And you shared this study with me earlier about people being their most wise and effective between 60 and 70 years old. Yeah. Something along the lines of that, which I'm sure you're probably pulling up right now. Yeah.

And this goes back to this whole question is, people are probably listening thinking this is overwhelming. How do I transform my life? Steve transformed his life. Like look at Steve. What are the small things people can do after listening to this episode to implement changes in transformation their life to be a better father, be a better, you know, wife, husband, mom, dad, everything.

Like how do you make this transom? transformational change in your life that you know has to go back to, you know, patience, presence, and being deliberate, those three things keeping in mind. What's the first step? Five years ago, it's a great question, Nick, because I believe this will really serve people listening. This is what I did. I thought of three men that I admired most.

And of those three men, what were the character actually? about those men that inspired me enough to want to be like them. And I always admired men that like they just were who they said that they were. Integrity. And so I knew that integrity was something that I wanted to build in myself. And like you said, it didn't happen overnight. But I had a goal one day because of my, because of how I am and who I am, when people think of me, they're not going to think of Super Bowl champion or fittest man in the NFL. They're going to be like, man, I can count on that guy. That guy is exactly who he says that he is. He's a man of honor. He wants me to win. He's always accountable. So through thinking of those three men, and I encourage the men and the

women out there like, for you, who are those three men or women in your life that you admire so much and then why or do you admire them? And it could be a dad. It could be a coach. It could be Hulk Hogan. Hulk Hogan was one of mine. Like I just was so inspired by how brave and courageous and bold that he was, and I wanted to be like that. And so I chose these different men and what were the attributes about them that inspired me, and it was integrity, honor, and accountability. And then I wrote that on my mirror, and I trained myself, and I still trained myself in this. So, like, when people ask me, you know, who are you and what are you about?

I don't say, like, hey, I played the NFL for 10 years and da-da-da-da. No, I say, my name's Steve Weatherford. and I'm a man of integrity, honor and accountability. That's who I am. But whose I am, I'm a son and a warrior of the one most high. So in that sentence, I tell you who I am and who's I am and what I'm about. I'm a man of integrity, honor, and accountability, and I'm a son and a warrior of the one most high.

So in that sentence, it re-reminds me. It's not for other people. It's for me to remind me what I'm about. So when I leave a place, I want to leave a residue of greatness because of what God has placed and formed in me. But in order for that to happen, Nick, you got to practice. It's just like running. I would love to be able to run a two-hour, 48-minute marathon.

I'm sure that you would, Steve. So would every single person listening to this. But the thing is, are they willing to pay the price? So you have to ask yourself, how much do you really want your life to change? Because what you put in is what you're going to put out. And I haven't found a better place to make an investment aside from my relationship with God than in myself. Because the more that you experience, the more value you have. And people are constantly evading the experiences of growth because it's painful.

They always want the pill. They want the powder. They want the one, the one, two, three steps. But what if the steps were every single time that you say a word or make a decision or make an investment or go a place, you ask yourself, what would a man of integrity, honor, and accountability do? And let that be the program that you download onto the computer of your life. And so every decision that your computer makes gets filtered through what would a man of integrity, honor, and accountability do.

And you know what? After about maybe a year, maybe it'll happen faster for you. It's about a year for me. Maybe it's six months for you. But after a year, I no longer had to think what would a man of integrity, honor, and accountability do because it started out as a plan to transform myself. if you do a plan long enough, it becomes a little bit more of your routine. And if you do a routine long enough, then it becomes mastery and it becomes rhythm. And that's when you wake up in the morning and you do things that you don't even think about because it's not what you do. It's who you are. And I believe that was a really powerful transformational piece for me because I've studied

Maslow's hierarchy of competence. I don't know if you've ever studied that before, but there's four different. rungs. The bottom rung is unconscious incompetence. Like, I don't even know that I suck at something. And then the next level up is conscious incompetence. Like, now I know that I suck at something. And then the next level up is conscious competence. I know what's right and I'm actually doing what's right. And the next level, and that's where, like, in a lot of our areas, that's where you and I are at. There's a couple areas where we've reached the next level. But the next level is unconscious competence. And that means because you've been in it so long, you've been so faithful to

this, you don't even have to think about it. You just wake up and it just comes out of you. An example for me and like, I'm so thankful that I've gotten to this place in my life and I want to stay vigilant. I pray that God continues to keep me here. But one of my areas of unconscious competence is my ability to encourage people. And I believe the reason I have that conscious competent or unconscious competence is because that is coming from a place of like a deep wound as a kid like now I have become what I needed as a child I needed a strong male figure to speak life into me and to to give me permission to go do it one of the things that you know I feel like in my later years I've really grown my confidence in is the fact that like I'm I'm a very

sensitive and emotional person. Like, I cry. Like, I don't know how often I would say I cry, but I cry way more than my friends. And it was something that I always used to like hide and keep down. But I believe that God has made me a very emotional, sensitive person. But I feel like through that, like, I feel like I can sometimes feel how my friends are feeling. And it allows me to be able to speak courage into a place that they didn't share with anybody that they're hurting, almost kind of like a supernatural discernment of what that person needs. But that was born out of childhood trauma. So it really goes to confirm the scripture that God will use all things, not some things,

all things together for those that love him and those are called according to his purpose. Like I said earlier, I know that I love God. I believe that I'm called according to his purpose. And I believe that he's using the fact that a man took advantage of me in the worst way. I was a little boy. I didn't really hit puberty yet. took advantage of me in that way, and I didn't have a choice. But because of what he stole from me, it also says in scripture that the enemy will return

to you seven times. So now I believe that God has placed an anointing on me that when I go speak on stages, buddy the room shakes. And I say that giving glory to God because the spirit of God is in the rooms that I speak in. And I believe that's part of the authority that God has placed on me because of this obedience. And here's the deal. I'm no different than anybody else. Like God has favor. He has blessings and he's placed gifts inside of each and every one of us. And one of the things that you mentioned earlier, as we're saying all this, was that study. So there's a study from the New England Journal of Medicine. And Nick and I were talking because he's about to have a kid. And he's like, I want to honor you, man, because the questions you were asking were

amazing. He's like, I feel like what I'm doing right now. It's not sustainable. And I need to make some some changes and some shifts before my daughter gets here because I know the father that I want to be. And so we're having these conversations about what is a sustainable lifestyle because you've got your podcast, you've got YouTube, you've got your business, you've got your family, you've got your friends. It's just, it's a lot, you know. It's really easy to think if you can just keep stacking things on top of. And you think you can keep stacking things on top of, something has to give. Yeah. Something will give. Yeah. And like, I want to do things in an excellent way. I want to do a lot of things.

I want to, what I choose to do, I want to do it in the most excellent way. So I'll share the study with you guys because I believe this will be food for thought for you all and kind of take a little bit of the overwhelm away of you guys trying to get whatever it is that you want to get done in five or 10 years, especially if you have a family.

So this study was from the New England Journal of Medicine in 2018 and it found that the most productive age in a person's life is from 60 to 70. The second most productive age is from 70 to 80. and the third most productive age is 50 to 60. Dude, we're not even close, Nick. The same study tells us that the average age of the Nobel Peace Prize winner is 62. Fortune 500 company CEOs average age is 63.

Pastors of the 100 largest churches in the U.S. are 71. And the Pope's average age is 76 years old. The legendary investor Warren Buffett is 90 years old and recognizes one of the most brilliant brains in business and finance, Charlie Mungers, his right-hand man at 96. And in Job 1212, the scripture says, wisdom belongs to the aged. So I feel like in the season that you're in and I'm in,

which should, according to that, which is factual, what should we be spending time doing in this season? Rowing, learning, mining wisdom. Because that's the thing that's, it's, I believe that you and I are past the grind phase. I believe the thing that's going to take you to your next level of like fulfillment and purpose is not going to be the thing that took you to where you're at right now. I agree with that 100%.

You know, and I feel like you're probably already know that in business because to go from nothing to seven figures is it's hard. But going from seven to eight is a whole different beast. And I believe the BPM is going to be a nine figure company. But what you did to get to seven figures is completely different than what you did from seven to eight and from eight to nine it's going to be drastically different. And so what should you and I really be focusing on at this age right now? It's creating relationships, gaining wisdom and aligning, not assigning with the right people, aligning with the right people. And I believe that you're

starting to feel that as God keeps sending. It was funny, he was telling me, Nick was telling me last night, he's like, dude, you wouldn't believe how many people that are like coming from leadership positions and churches all over the country. And it's like, it's unbelievable. because not only do they fit our culture, they're actually creating a richer culture here. And I don't know, I would love to hear you kind of speak about that a little bit. I was also interesting. I met with an advisor yesterday.

I took something away from that conversation that has kind of made me realize what got me to this point. My life is not necessarily going to get me to that next phase of life. And he said, in order to get here, you had to do a lot of doing. Doing, a lot of doing. Now in order to move yourself forward, you have to do a lot of thinking. You have to become wiser.

Take into consideration all the things you did in the last 10 years of building this brand and this business. You were in it. You were in the weeds, turning wrenches, making things work, building things. That got you to this point. But if you want to succeed, you want to be the leader you want to be, you want to build teams, you want to develop people in roles and leadership positions and see them grow. you have to think with perspective.

Perspective is wisdom. So I completely agree with everything you were saying in terms of, I think as well, when you get older, it's easier to prioritize what's actually important in your life. Because you have experience now. You have the experience. When you're younger, everything's important. You're trying to fit a million things into a box that holds 100.

Right. And I think when you get old, from when I'm, I know I'm 31, but even as I'm getting into my 30s and we're about to start this family, I'm realizing you no longer have a million things you want and need. Now I might have 500 things that I still want and need a lot smaller than before, but I'm still trying to fit it into a box that holds 100. And I know that as I get older, there's things that I want and need. It'll be less and less and less.

So I'll be able to prioritize what's actually important. what I actually want and what I actually need is, which is probably very little. And I'm going to have 20 things that fit in this box. It holds 100. And now I have more capacity. I have more space. That's wisdom to me. Yeah.

Yeah. Wisdom is, I think it was, it wasn't Socrates. I think it was, and I always say his name wrong, it was the stoic, the stoic, epicticus. he said, wise people learn from everything and everyone. Average people learn from their own mistakes and stupid people don't learn at all because they have all the answers. And so one of the things I've noticed about you, Nick, is you read like a ton of books. And I think that's like one of the number one places to get wisdom. But I believe I've accelerated faster when I read less books.

and really studied them, you know? Because I got up, I got in the rat race of listening to a ton of audiobooks and like, oh, I got to get two per week so I can get 100 this year. And I've really slowed things down to the last two years and chosen books for a really specific reason and really taking my time and reading them and marking them up really good and really studying them. And one of the things that I've also done is I've read less books from less people. because one of the things that was really difficult for me

is grabbing all these different mindsets and tools and tactics and then it was overwhelming to try to make it a part of my game, you know? And when I really simplified things down to like character traits and really just not perfecting, but really controlling the controllables and stop trying to learn so much and really get better at like executing. Because I believe almost every single person listening to this, and there might be some young guns listen to this.

But more than likely every single person listened to this right now knows what they need to do. You know? I mean, I feel like I've had the game plan for years, but because I wouldn't get out of my own way, I was stuck in some areas. And there was also some areas

that I just didn't want to get in the arena with that tiger. And kind of like, to your point, I believe what's going to take you and me to the next level and I made the analogy of the refrigerator earlier isn't going to be necessarily the things that we put into the refrigerator, you know, the new relationship or the new mindset or the new tactic, it's actually going to be removing some things from the refrigerator that don't belong. Absolutely.

To make space for things that are going to move you forward. And that can look a lot of different ways. Yeah. I think that's, I 100% agree with that. It's really easy to keep adding, adding on to, adding on to, adding on to. Because the more successful, you get the more opportunities that you have. And it's, it's, it's really easy to say, yeah. to all of them. Because they're exciting. They're the things that you always dreamed of, like going on this show and that show. But hey, no, I can't do the last man standing.

I know it's a dream or a goal, but I'm having a kid. Yeah. You know, like those are, those are commitments that you and I are just going to honor. But man, it would be fun to go run, wouldn't it? It's dangerous when you overcommit. I've been, I've been in. Because then you feel like a scumbag because you don't come through for anybody. Yeah, I've been in that situation in position many times where I've over committed to things.

and it's a really tough place to be, especially, you know, unfortunately, who and what ends up taking the blend of that sometimes is family, my wife. They get the crumbs. They do, and I feel very guilty in that sense of when I overcommit, I know, unfortunately, who's getting hit the hardest by that. Yeah.

And it's Steph right now. Yeah, one of the things that's really helped me for that, God is a God of order, right? So if God is a God of order and we want him to bless our lives, doesn't it make sense that we live in order? So the next question I would ask would be, and this is for everybody, what's your order? You know, and you and I kind of talked about it a little bit

in our weekly schedule last night in the truck, but if God is a God of order when you're making your schedule for the week, make your order and then make your calendar. Example, if God is number one to me, my marriage is number two. My relationships are number three. Being healthy is number four.

My business is number five. My calendar, my 168, the 168 hours that I have every single week, it needs to reflect that. You know, my question to everybody listening to this is if there was a jury watching you, jury of your peers watching you for a week, would they convict you of loving your wife? Would they convict you of being committed to God? And when I asked myself that question a few years ago, I was embarrassed of how I felt because my wife was getting a date maybe every two to three months.

I would go to church if it was convenient. And that's not a man of constitution. Like a man of constitution has already made his decision. He's just operating in the decisions and the blueprint that he's created for his life. and I just noticed that I was completely making decisions based upon goals and feelings. Like, oh, man, I got to grow this or hey, I got to do this or hey, I got to, you make up excuses. You make all the reasons why you need to do it. But if God is a God of order, every decision that you and I make actually should be filtered through,

is God getting my best, is my marriage getting my best? Am I really connected with my relationships and my alignments and am I physically fit? Okay, cool. Yeah, I think I've got space. to be able to execute on this and it definitely goes in line with the five year and the 10 year vision that my wife and I have for this

and that my BPN has for that. Does that make sense or am I talking crazy? That makes sense. I think a lot of people, I'm guilty of this sometimes, my calendar does not reflect accurately based off what I say my priorities are.

And that's a really easy mistake to make. This is what's important in my life. That sounds really great. then they go on paper it looks good but if you actually look at your calendar and it doesn't reflect that it's you got to be realistic with yourself you got to be honest with yourself like just because you say something you don't you don't follow through I don't that I mean that is integrity right like take both put them next to each other they should reflect they should be the same and I realized I didn't five years ago wasn't dating my wife but I talked about you know my Instagram bio

family first, God and all this stuff. What a freaking fraud. You didn't even go to church. Did you go to church like 50% of the time? And when you're there, you're checking your phone. Like, are you really in pursuit of God? Are you really trying to do life God's way and be righteous? Because that's what righteous is.

It's just doing life God's way, according to Scripture. I wasn't doing any of those things. I was like checking the box because that was what I felt like I was supposed to be doing. And so I feel like really getting clear on what you want. and then going after it. It doesn't, I feel like people, once you get clear and this is the one thing, maybe I want to mention, is that when you get clear on what you want, make sure it's what you want, not what you want according to other people. And that was also a very clear delineation for me is when I asked myself that question,

I actually really didn't care if I had a really fancy car. I like a nice house, but I would actually have a smaller house with a bigger yard. And so a lot of these different goals or size house or car that I had for myself was actually predicated off of the opinion of other people. You know, I'm fine with a pickup truck. What am I doing spending $157,000 on a range rover? Bro, you're a F-150 kind of guy, man. Go trade that sucker in, you know? So just some different changes that I made in my life and I actually stopped buying as much stuff.

I actually feel like the less things that I own, the happier that I am. Now, I don't want people to think like I'm sold all my things away. Minimalist. Yeah, but I've just noticed that the more, the less toys that I have, the more freedom that I feel like I have. And that's, to me, that that is freedom. It's not feeling tied down to things. Well, Steve, man, I appreciate you. Yeah.

I appreciate you as a friend, someone in my life. I'm going to lean on you very heavy with this baby. coming here soon and my life changing a lot. Yeah, man. But I appreciate you coming on and sharing your story and providing some insight, powerful stuff. Yeah, man. Thank you. You're doing awesome things in life.

Yeah, thank you, man. I'm blessed, man. God really did truly, Nick. He did a radical thing in me five years ago and it's so powerful. I'm sold out, man. You know, I've achieved a lot of great things. And now I have an opportunity to work with, you know, higher level CEOs and some peak performance athletes. athletes to really help them to get clear on like what is this whole life about and how can I

create a life by design and not default because if it's default you don't know what the result is going to be so what would it look like if we put design to every area of our life would you mind if I read this choose your hard poem no go ahead yeah it's one thing I wanted to share with you guys and this is and I'll be happy to text it to uh to anybody that wants this this poem's actually not on the internet. My mentor wrote this. And it's something that I read to myself every single morning because I believe every single person listening to this right now has experienced hard. And there's a scripture in the Bible that says, not only this, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that our suffering leads to endurance. Endurance is like going to the gym. You know, like

endurance doesn't make your muscles grow, but if you go back long enough, you'll be able to lift weights longer. And the scripture says not only this, but we rejoice in our suffering, knowing that our suffering leads to endurance, our endurance builds character. That's what we talked about today, values and character. And character is what gives hope to other men. And through my life of suffering and through the different areas and seasons of your life that you've suffered, when you've maintained a positive attitude and you've rejoiced for the opportunity that you have to be running on legs that are really sore or working on a business that might be struggling, but man, you love it. through that you built endurance and you kept coming back. And through that endurance, built character in who you are. And through the character that you've built in the person that you are,

not your YouTube, but through the character that you've built in yourself, you give hope that other men can do it as well. Because you're relatable in how you show your content. And so I share that scripture to really connect with everybody on whatever area of your life is hard. You still have a choice. And so I'm going to read this to you. Being your best is hard. being normal is hard making wise decisions is hard making bad decisions is hard being out of shape is hard

losing weight is hard being fat is hard working out is hard being weak is hard being disciplined is hard being lazy is hard getting outside of your comfort zone and making some changes after listening to a podcast like this it's going to be hard but staying in your comfort zone and staying the exact same way as hard making a lot of money is hard making a little bit of money is hard being rich is hard being poor is hard. Having great relationships, Nick, it's hard. Having bad relationships is hard. Having friends is hard. Having no friends is hard. Fighting for your marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Having a lot of things is hard. Having nothing is hard. Living on purpose is hard. Living off a purpose is hard. Doing life God's way is hard. Doing life your own way is hard. At the end of the day,

everything is hard and you have to choose your heart. So for people that are listening to this right now. And I talked about it earlier. You know, the best analogy that I could have is, I don't know if you've seen that movie The Matrix, where Morpheus stands before Neal, and it's like, it's the moment. Well, this is your moment if you're watching this right now is you can make a decision right now that will change all of your tomorrhys. Morphus is standing in front of you right now. And there's a blue pill. And you can take that blue pill and kind of go on to the next episode or go on about your day or go to Instagram. And you'll go back to how life always was. And maybe you'll remember a quote from this. Or you could take this red pill. If you take that red pill, all of your

tomorrows will change. You know, the same way that in, I believe it's 2017 in that desert, all of my tomorrow's changed. It was when one other man came into agreement with me that things can change. And when I'm talking about that red pill, and I said the only thing to permanent change is Jesus Christ. And so I'm allowing you an opportunity right now to really just repeat the same prayer that I would be saying to you right now. And it's as simple as you, not admitting, but agreeing that Jesus Christ was the son of God, that he lived a perfect life and that he sacrificed himself on the cross for our sins. And through that, we're going to pray a prayer here in a second that will allow you to receive forgiveness from your sins because of the sacrifice of Jesus. So if you don't mind, man, I'd love to close this thing out

in a prayer. Absolutely. Go ahead. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you. And if you're listening to this right now, I just want you to repeat these words if you're driving in the car or if you're working out, man, I just ask that you would pull over right now and allow this to be a defining moment in your life where you actually receive, not earn because there's nothing that you can earn to get God's love. And there's also nothing that you can do that would ever separate you from his love. So right now, we thank you, Lord, we come before you. And we just ask for forgiveness.

We ask that everything that we've done up into this point, all the times where we've missed the mark. we just ask for your unfailing love and your forgiveness to wash us white as snow for all the addictions for all the lies that we've told for all the times that we've missed the mark and been imperfect we ask for forgiveness and we receive Jesus right now as our lord and savior and we know that the rest of our life is going to be the best of our life in jesus name we pray all these things amen amen so i want you to know if you prayed that prayer for the first time that literally angels are rejoicing in heaven. And because of that, because of that sacrifice that Jesus made and you receive

that, people will lift it forever because of this podcast episode. So Nick, I honor you, man. And for everybody else that prayed that prayer for the first time, honor you. And if you've never prayed, if you prayed that prayer before and you rededicated yourself, I also honor you, man. That's what happened to me at 35. I got saved at 11. And that's when Jesus became my savior, right? like, oh, now I knew I wasn't going to go to hell. But at 35 is really when Jesus became my Lord and I searched out the areas of my life where my ego was running the show. And I asked Jesus to get into the driver's seat. So there was areas of my life where like I'd have a, I love Jesus bumper sticker on the back of my car.

Meanwhile, he's sitting in the trunk. And then five years ago I said, no, no, no. Jesus, I need you to get in the driver's seat. I'm going to sit shotgun because for the rest of my life, I'm going to let you lead the way. And so I'm just praying and believing that the accelerates. that God has put me on as me placing him as not just my savior, but my Lord is going to bring a lot of people to the point of, of breakthrough. And that's what I believe today can be is a defining moment for everybody that not only will they live forever, but now they get to enjoy

in the favor of God. And that's really exciting, man. So thank you for letting me do that, man. What a blessing. Steve Weatherford, brother, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. Yeah, man. Thanks for letting me beyond here. You guys have no idea the type of man that Nick Bear is, man. You're very fortunate to have found who you have found to really kind of help you level up in life, man. Thank you for letting me be a part of

your team. I'm in your corner, cuz. Thank you, man. I appreciate you. You got it, man. Thanks for tuning in to another episode of the Bear Performance podcast. Please leave a rating and review on the platform you are listening to if you enjoyed it. It helps us to grow and reach more people with the intent of changing lives through the Go One

More mindset. If you are ready to take your health and performance to the next level, head over to bPNsups.com to take the first step.