The School of Greatness - 562 Reach Your Full Potential with John Brenkus

Episode Date: November 13, 2017

"People who are great at anything they do don't do it for the money. The money is just a byproduct in achieving greatness. - John Brenkus As I'm sure many of you know, I'm pretty big on sports. I love everything about it. The challenge of the games, the sense of being part of a team, and even the science behind how it works. It's always fascinated me. Why is it some people can excel at sports, while others fall short no matter how hard they try? It's not just a matter of genes and physical strength. In fact, someone's natural mind set under pressure also has a lot to do with it. When you talk to Super Bowl Champions, no matter how much pressure is on them, it's just a game. If they win or lose, they go home to their families and they know life will go on. To most of us that kind of pressure would cause us to live in the moment, we'd be stuck in our heads, and end up costing us the big game.

This is episode number 562 with sports science creator, John Brinkus. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Welcome to this podcast episode. We've got John Brkus in the house. He has spent the last decade studying and popularizing and executive producer of ESPN's Emmy award-winning show, Sports Science, appearing in and producing over 1,500 segments that have been featured on ABC and ESPN's enormous sports platforms. He has been featured in coverage of the Super Bowl, Monday Night Football, the NBA Finals, Sunday Night Baseball, the Masters, just to name a few. And through sport science, Brinkus has appeared before 80 million people annually for the last decade. He's won six MAs and he's written a New York Times bestseller, The Perfection Point. And in this episode, we talk about why you need to know the source of what you're hearing to determine if that source is actually valuable. Also, why people who are great at what they do, that they don't do it for money.

That's a big one. Also, what everyone should be asking themselves every single morning. And why compromising in love is a myth and the best way to get an edge in your sport and in your life. myth and the best way to get an edge in your sport and in your life. We go deep on a few other topics and kind of go around some different angles that I wasn't actually expecting. So I hope you actually enjoy this one because it was really powerful for both of us. All right, guys, let's get into this one. I'm super pumped and I hope you are as well. Make sure to share it out with your friends. The show notes are lewishouse.com slash 562. Take a screenshot, post it on Instagram, Twitter.

Let me know that you're listening right now. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one, the only, John Brinkus. Welcome back, everyone, to the School of Greatness podcast. Very excited about our guest, the man, John Brinkus in the house. How are you? Doing great, man. We met a few months back, early of the year at the Super Bowl.

Yep. I remember seeing you. I can't remember where. I think it was at the ESPN party, I think. I think. It was either there or Media Row. Somewhere. And I was like, oh, it's sports science, yes.

Now, as a big athlete myself, I've always been fascinated with sports and how to get bigger faster and stronger so your work has always inspired me because you break down the biomechanics the science just everything about how athletes can do what they do

so I want to thank you for sharing with so many people first off how it all works well first of all I did it just for you. You did it just for me, yes. And the other 80 million people a year that watch, yes. That's right. What made you curious in the first place to kind of get into that aspect? What's interesting is that unlike you, I'm not a great athlete. And that's part of the thing that really fueled my desire to know why are people better athletes

than other people? Because there are plenty of professional athletes who are my size. And when I was younger, I was the fastest thing that Vienna Elementary had ever seen. I had every school record to do with speed and running, and I was the smallest little kid. to do with speed and running. And I was the smallest little kid. But as I grew, everyone passed me and just kept passing me. And it really started my, why can I not get any faster? Why am I not getting any stronger? Now, obviously I went through my growth spurt and did the best with what I had, but it wasn't at the elite level. Now, I grew up in the DC area in Vienna, Virginia, right outside of Washington, DC. So I was such a rabid sports fan. I had three Super Bowls with the Redskins. We had the Baltimore Orioles, Cal Ripken's rookie season. We had Washington Bullets winning a world

championship. So DC was a huge sports town, still is, but it had tons of championships and banners when I was growing up. That fueled my interest in sport. My fascination for why are people better than other people was planted early on. And then I started a production company. How old were you at this time? So I was out of the University of Virginia at that time. So I was 21. You started a production company at 21?

At 21. At 21. That's a whole long story, but I'm fast-forwarding to... So we started a production company. My two genuine passions, sport was one, and science was the other one. I just was a science nerd growing up. I didn't major in science, but I specialized in it in my off hours. That's what I did.

You were curious about it. You'd devour books or you would do whatever, right? Totally. Testings and experiment. 100%. And I especially read books that were always sort of counter to each other. So I'd want to read one point of view on one thing

and then another point of view on another. And I'm like, how can two really smart people have completely opposite sides and write big, long, thick books about it with tons of data to back it up. So how do I try to make sense of that? So I do look at the world with a degree of, you have to consider the source of what you're hearing in order to understand what you're being told. So when I had these interests in sport and with science, we ended up putting it together early on in our production

company days in a show called XMA, Extreme Martial Arts for the Discovery Channel. When you were in your early 20s. Yeah. I was still in my 20s when we were doing that. And then I had developed a specialty in sport TV and science TV, put it all together. XMA went, then Fight Science followed that up. That was on National Geographic. And then we created this thing called Sports Science. And the premise of Sports Science was if you build the world's greatest laboratory, I believe the greatest athletes will come for free.

And everyone thought I was insane. They're like, you're not going to get these guys to roll out of bed for 50 grand, dude. They're not going to show up. Right. You're like, it's Field of Dreams though, baby. It is. Build it and they will come. And it literally, not only was it built, they will come

of believing that, but we financially had to do it. Fox, we did a license deal with it. So they were just licensing the show from us. So we were paying a giant percentage of the production cost. And I just believed that if you build the greatest facility, people are going to come because people who are great at anything that they do, and you know this, don't do it for the money. The money is just a byproduct of achieving greatness in something.

You're truly great, and money can be a byproduct, but it doesn't have to be. Athletes specifically, they're not, think if they only played the game for the money. They wouldn't be that good. They just wouldn't. They have to be playing it because they love doing that. Otherwise, they're not going to get up at five o'clock in the morning. They're not going to train that extra bit

that you need. They're not going to study. They're not going to do it. So I believe that the best of the best aren't doing it for money. And and have been proven correct over the last 10 years plus that the greatest athletes in the world come through the lab, we put them to the test, they get to learn something, they get to confirm something. It's more than just interviewing someone. It's very interactive and something that people who are great at athletics get something out of it. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Man, your facility is only like an hour away, right? Yeah, it's a down low. I got to come by sometime.

Yeah, it's fun. You're probably already over it though, huh? You've been doing it for like a decade. We've been doing it. You're like, okay. We've been doing it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who knows? The thing with sports science is that

when we started in 2007, we actually sold it in 2006, sports science wasn't really a term. And that's true. And it's hard to think about that. The iPhone hadn't been released yet. There was nothing off the shelf that you could buy that really gave you any true biometric data. We were fashioning sensors ourselves. Crazy.

Trying to figure this out, right? So there's been this explosion in the field of sports science. And I'd like to think that we certainly played a part in being a part of that. Certainly, you can't say you created it, but you were a part of it. Yeah, making it more mainstream and accessible and interesting, right? People want to know why more. And now it's sort of exploded and it's all over the place. But I think that certainly for the time that it's had its run, it's like, look, we made a dent in the sport universe. Yeah. It's amazing, man. Did you always imagine you'd be doing something like that? So the true answer. So hosting sports science was never in the plan. Like that was not my goal. That was not even my vision. The, it was a, Hey, I want to make this amazing program. I only ended

up hosting it because the gentleman running Fox sports at the time liked the way that I was presenting the material and said, why don't you host it? I'm like, sure. If we don't like me, then we'll fire me because- Find a host. Yeah. We'll find a host. I don't care. And it turned out that it worked out really well. So I was very fortunate in that way that I've had a great platform to be a part of. And it's just positive energy. And that's what I like to be part of. What's been the most enjoyable, I guess, childhood dream of yours that you've been able to make come true from the last decade of doing this, whether it be an athlete you always admired or

something you got to test someone on or an experiment that you always were curious about. And you're like, yes, that was right. My answer, it's going to be funny. As a child, so remember I was born in 71. So the athlete of athletes was Bo Jackson. God, he's such a machine. He was a machine. He was unbelievable. He's amazing. So we did a series for sports science.

It was called The Greatest Athlete of All Time. We did an analysis, took every athlete in every sport and created this very complicated, it's called an aggregate ranking metric, where we compared each athlete to the other athletes in other sports based on 30 different categories. Then we compared the athletes to every athlete who had come before them and every athlete who'd come after them. And we put it in a category that was called durability. And essentially when we were devising this,

we're like, well, that's the Bo Jackson killer right there because he's going to be the lowest ranked. And there's no way that Bo Jackson- Broke his hip and it's in the air. Yeah, he didn't have that long of a career. But when we, we literally took about six months to do this analysis. Turns out the greatest athlete of all time is Bo Jackson.

Even though he was ranked low in the durability category, people don't realize he did play Major League Baseball for eight seasons. Really? Jim Brown only played football for 10. Wow. So it's not that short of a career. I mean... How many years in football did he play?

Three. Three years of football. He played three years of football, eight years of baseball. So one of the biggest thrills was when we determined it was Bo Jackson. We had Bo Jackson in the lab. And being able to sit down with Bo, it's funny because we've done so many crazy experiments, but being able to sit down with Bo and really pick his brain

on how he was able to do the things that he did, that's like a childhood dream. You're sitting back and you're watching. Bo knows everything. That's amazing. He's got a little bit of a belly now back and you're watching. Bo knows everything. That's amazing. He's got a little bit of a belly now. I don't know, man. He's still in shape. He's doing the bicycling thing. He does Bo Bikes Bama.

He does everything. He's still a cyclist. He's still an athlete. Gosh, he was such a machine. That's cool. Tell me about the most challenging moment you've ever faced emotionally. Emotionally. I honestly have always been the kind of person who swings one way or another. My wife calls me one speed. So Lizzie met me and right off the bat, she was like, you're just one speed. So my highs happen a lot. So I just like go bang, bang. Oh my God. Oh my God.

Oh my God. And then when something goes wrong, I'm like, ah, you know, you try to like, try to tear your hair out because of that. It's hard to pick one because I keep pegging. It's kind of like, what's the loudest you've ever played your guitar. It's like I hit 11 a lot and then I'll just be like, oh my God, I can't believe that happened. Hard to just pick one true moment because I really am, I'm a volatile, emotional guy. But what I would say is one of my greatest accomplishments as a human being is trying to even that out and trying to have the highs not be too highs and lows not be too lows. But it's much easier said than done because the even keel, that middle band is where productivity really happens. But when you get an idea to do something, you want to do it and you

want to go all out. And then if something from nowhere happens, you can't help but have that pendulum swing. It's really hard to prevent that having this sort of ultra A-type personality. But you see it with quarterbacks who keep this even keel. Eli Manning. Eli. I mean, Tom Brady, I guess, does a pretty good job of that too. And then you see this right now in the US Open. It's happening like the tennis players who freak out in between stuff. They usually mess up more when the ones who are just like, okay, between a miss or a make, they're just kind of like, I got it. The thing of Tiger Woods with golf, even in his heyday, he was all over the place, right?

He was. I mean, he brought personality to golf. I mean, he had just over the top reactions in both directions. He was that very aggressive kind of personality. The truth is, is that the world's greatest athletes stay in that middle band. And I imagine that in many fields, I studied a lot of guys, you know, have gone through the special forces and been seals or Rangers or somebody that, that is the elite of the elite. They're just unflappable, right? Time slows down for them because they're able to make sense when everything is chaotic. I don't think that-

How do we do that? This is my honest opinion. I'm not sure that you can train for it. I think you are or are not. I know I would never have been able to make it because I think that I would freak out too much. I think I would go a little too far in one direction or the other. Those guys are just, they're steady no matter what happens. Gun is pointed in their face and they know, well, here's what I need to do, right? Like most people would freak out. Also on the flip side, something amazing happens, calm. They're like, it's all good. Yeah, cool, all good. So what do you think it is in their makeup?

Is it the way they view the world? Is it what they believe about themselves or believe about God or not God? Or what is it you think? I think that what it is, the talent of staying calm under pressure is the singular thing that separates good from great. That being calm under pressure comes from a variety of reasons. It comes mentally, spiritually, emotionally.

It just comes from being, when I say being that way, Eli Manning, I think is just such a great example. I saw an interview with him on David Letterman that I'll never forget where Letterman was kind of jabbing him like, you know, why are you so soft-spoken? And you just won. And this was when he won his second Super Bowl. And he literally said, it's just football. He did. And he was like, it's just football. football. He did. And he was like, it's just, it's just football. And we won. But if we hadn't won, would I be different? He's like, it's just a game. It's just a, and I was like, that's such an amazing perspective and explains a lot when the lights are brightest and you know, the heat is the highest. How do you behave? He's like, well, it's hot right now. It's kind of bright, but you know, I got a game, but it's got to mean something to him, too,

to want to put in that much effort and time and sacrifice into trying to be the greatest. Totally. So you can't just say, well, it's just a game and whatever. I'm just going to play good and see how it does. It obviously has to mean. I'm assuming that's how he sounds like. You're doing a good imitation.

I'm sure it has to mean something to order for it uh to progress but that's true of anything i think he's somebody to really point out if you if you remember prior to his first super bowl win i mean everyone's like why is this guy starting like no passion there's no there's no leadership and he's not vocal and what is tom coughlin doing well he just won two super bowls pretty close together together, and he played a big part of it. Yeah, that's true. Now, how often would you say that you are still studying science today? Are you obsessed with it?

Do you constantly like curious about science and testing things just outside of sports? All the time. Really? I mean, I would say especially outside of sports. So I watched the whole Bill Nye series on Netflix. Did you watch that by any chance? I have seen quite, yes. Most of them or a few of them. And I think there was one, I can't remember.

I think there was one about an energy and you were talking about before we got on here about God energy as a scientist. What is this place? What is this world universe? Are we even here? Is there an energy force bigger than us that has created us? Or was it a explosion of particles that came together and light and molecules? I love the theory of probability of life existing, right? If you were to just say, okay, the universe exploded and then somehow it magically all came together and therefore life existed. When you do the odds on hydrogen and oxygen and creating water and all those things having to come together, the margin of error of it actually happening is so far off the meter that it couldn't,

in my opinion, there's no way it could just happen by chance. There's some sort of order to the chaos. And this is what I think a lot of people can't wrap their brains around. And I'm a very spiritual guy, born and raised Catholic and accepting of all religions, all lenses. I believe that we're all looking at the universe through a different lens, but essentially we want to live the same way and get to the same place. We want to be good people. all lenses. I believe that we're all looking at the universe through a different lens, but essentially we want to live the same way and get to the same place. We want to be good people. That's what I believe. But when you think about this and people say, well, at the beginning of time, there's a great philosopher named Paul Davies that wrote a book called Time. And he poses the question- Is there a beginning of time?

Is there? Do we have to have a beginning of time? I mean, that's the- Is time infinite? Right. If it's infinite, if we say something is infinite, it has to be infinite in every direction. Exactly. Right? There was no beginning then. There was no beginning and there's no end.

It's just infinite. So it always was. And that idea blows our mind. It's crazy. You just can't even comprehend it, right? That's crazy. Like you were never born, you always were, right? The universe always, it's just a crazy idea. So the idea that the universe has always existed and there's always been something to it, and it clearly has evolved, but the time idea is one that I think we can point to and say, there is order in this chaos. And we,

through scientific terms, have put labels on what we believe we understand. But think of the number of things that we have had to change and revise because our understanding is now different. Every week. Right. Every day, every year, right? Every. And if you think about- What we prove to be true is always not true. You do this all the time with the body or the four-minute mile to all these other things of people breaking PRs every day in every

category of sport, right? Yeah. And science, I think, best reflects that the only way that we can move forward is by agreeing on a set of signs and symbols that we refer to as language so that we can communicate and evolve from there, right? It's just like saying the earth is flat. We then say it is flat, period, it's flat. Then we say, oh, it's round, but it's the center in the earth. Oh, wait, but now that it's a globe, maybe it's not the center. Maybe it's going around something else. We keep evolving. And that's why it's almost like the argument of global warming as an example, from a purely scientific standpoint. I feel like we're arguing something that you can't win. You can't win this argument one way or the other because you don't have your planet that has no people, no cars, no nothing

that has existed for the exact same way that earth has. You don't have this constant other planet that would be something you could compare it to. So you can't prove it one way or the other. But what we can prove is that, well, the air is worse. The water is dirtier. We can prove that. And to me, it's like an anti-pollution argument is something far easier for everyone to get on that train than to say well the whole world is changing because i just don't think we have enough of a snapshot i'm not one of these oh global warming is not real i'm just saying it's really hard to definitively prove it, and I'm not sure that that's even the point. The point is I don't want my kids breathing crappy air.

I don't want to drink dirty water. That's an easy thing for us all to agree on. I mean, what is out there in the universe to the farthest? I do this in meditation where I try to take my body outside of Earth and literally go as far as I can away from it and see earth from the farthest point to where I can't see it anymore. And then I try to go light years further and I've never been able to find the end. It just keeps going. How big is this universe? It is so big. I love the stat that there are more stars in the sky than grains of sand on

the earth. When you start saying something like that, you're like, oh my God, so how big is it? How much bigger is it than what we can even- Is that stars in the sky that we can see or beyond what we can see? That stars in the sky that we know of, that we can calculate. That we know of. Right sky that we know of, that we can calculate. That we know of. Right. That we know of, that we can calculate, but what is the edge of what we know of, right? Yeah, exactly. It's impossible to even wrap your brain around it. When you say, I hope everyone takes this in the right fashion. When you try to say, well, what exists 100 million light years away. Uh-huh. Right? Like, well, what exists there? I love to say the narrative of UFOs seems a little Buck Rogers-y to me of like, wow, something from a very far distance flew in a traditionally looking earth metal vehicle

to a point, not sure that that would be the way that someone from 100 million light years away would actually travel. It seems far more probable to me that there are things as wormholes. There are things as, wow, you can get from one end here to another

through something that we cannot understand at all. That would be a more, to me, more probable, is that it's so far beyond our comprehension. I'm certainly not saying that does exist. I'm saying I don't know it exists. I don't think there's any way for us to know because we know so little. It feels like we're an infant

living in a very grown-up universe. What do you think should be the questions every human should be asking themselves more often? I think everybody should be asking themselves in the morning, they should be asking themselves, how can I be my best? What would I consider to be my best today? And I think at the end of the day, every human should be asking themselves, did I do my best? What would I consider to be my best today? And I think at the end of the day, every human should be asking themselves, did I do my best? Did I genuinely do my best? I feel like the idea of evaluating your own greatness, and I use greatness very specifically. Everyone has the ability to be great, but I don't think they spend enough time harvesting their greatness

and trying to figure out what am I great at? What can I be great at? And that greatness is one that everybody needs to explore deeper, and especially with everything that you're doing, this is helping. Every little thing helps, but I think that's the one thing

that everybody should be asking themselves. What do you think is your greatest gift? I feel like my greatest gift, and that's a great question, by the way. I think my greatest gift, I'm going to say there are two. I think that I possess an energy that is contagious. When I'm excited, I can get people really excited about what I'm excited about. I think that that energy is so honest, authentic, true. It's just real. I'm the worst liar ever because my energy just gives it away. But I also think I'm really good at collaborating. but I also think I'm really good at collaborating. I am an ultra A-type personality, and I have very, very strong opinions. And I say, this is what I think. And a lot of people will be like, whoa, all right, I guess he's not going to change his mind, but it's the exact opposite. It's like, is this going to stick to the wall? Does this stick? And I want to know,

is it going to stick? So I would say that my ability to collaborate is one of my strong qualities. What's your greatest collaboration? My greatest collaboration is certainly with my wife, certainly with Lizzie. You guys met a unique way, right? We did meet in a unique way. We sat next to each other on a plane,

fell instantly in love. Turns out that we live two blocks away from each other on the same street in LA. And we met in Denver. When you just run the odds, this is where I'm talking about there is an energy in the universe that conspires for us to succeed. There just is. Sometimes life throws you a softball, and the answer is obvious. And sometimes you have to go searching for it. The greatest collaboration is the energy that Lizzie and I have together is just an unstoppable force. It's just so real.

She balances me out perfectly and I balance her out perfectly. We do. We met in a really interesting way. We've had an amazing marriage. We have two beautiful children. Found out 10 years into marriage that we both love music

and we can make music together. And we started our own little band and wrote a song, a Christmas song that ended up charting. And we've now started our own podcast. It's doing great. And we're just constantly collaborating in life. And when you sort of talked about what's your highest point or your lowest point, the reason why I say, you know what? I can't pick just that one really is that Lizzie evens everything out. Lizzie has helped smooth those edges. And so that I think is without a doubt.

She's your Eli Manning. I'm just kidding. She's the greatest thing to happen in my life. And I almost feel like saying I wasn't really alive until I met Lizzie. You weren't really alive to you? I wasn't really alive. You hear all kinds of cliches about what love really is and relationships, how relationships work. And people love to say a great relationship is one where you can compromise. And I'm like, you know what? That's a difficult word for me to associate with love.

you know what, that's a difficult word for me to associate with love. Because when you love someone, you're willing to do what they want to do. That's not compromising. That's loving. That is what loving is, is I put you before me. I'm not compromising. I'm just putting you before me because I love you. And when you get two people who are willing to do that, it's amazing how decisions become very clear. Life becomes very clear. What you want to do next becomes very clear. Yeah, that's powerful. It is. Congrats, man.

That's amazing. Let's talk about health really quick and sports for a moment. So many injuries. We were talking about this before. So many injuries happening. And obviously, so many people are taking steroids talking about this before. So many injuries happening. Obviously, so many people are taking steroids and enhancing drugs in sports, whether

legally or illegally or behind the scenes or whatever. It's just a lot of health issues lately, I feel like, with athletes. Concussions in football more and more in sports. What are your thoughts about all this stuff in terms of just people's bodies? Are we able to take on what an audience wants as entertainment to be bigger,

faster, stronger, more hits, everything else? Are we going to be able to take on this level of desire from an audience? Super complex question. Let's break it down. First, let's address concussions. And when we say, what are we going to do about the concussion? Let's call it an epidemic going on in football. I say two things. One, I'll give you that answer of what we should do about it when someone convinces me that we,

as a society, actually care. Because I don't know why 110 million people are watching the Super Bowl if they're just appalled at the idea that someone could get a concussion. Why did the Mayweather-McGregor fight get so much money? It's the highest grossing combat sport event of all time. And it was basically two guys fighting in a backyard. There was no belt on the line. It was an exhibition fight. Was anybody raising their hand saying, someone might get concussed?

No, I don't think we as a society actually care about it so then saying okay if you then convince me we do care why is football being singled out i mean they're skiing x games rugby hockey just the list goes on and you say boarding whatever skate just whatever anything without a helmet you know like anything look, people suffer concussions in all kinds of sports. I don't know why we're only really focused on football in terms of the, what are we going to do about the human form exceeding its frame or becoming bigger, faster, and stronger? I think this is my opinion. So I wrote a book called the perfection point. And one of the chapters that I take on, it's all about the best a human being could possibly do if everything were

perfect, including taking PEDs. Like what's the fastest we could run if you had the perfect specimen, they were juiced. The right formula, the right amount of dosage. Exactly. Right elevation, the right track surface, the right equipment, the right tailwind, the right reaction, the perfect everything. What I say is, look, this is coming from a guy. I don't drink alcohol. I don't have caffeine. I have nothing. I take nothing of any kind. Just food. Just food. I'm just a food guy, right? I eat relatively healthy, and I just say, all right, that's good enough. But my honest view is if I, as a private citizen, can walk into a doctor's office and get something like, let's say, HGH, if I can get a prescription for HGH,

then why can't an athlete also, who's being paid $100 million, do the same thing that I can do? I think our standard needs to be, these are people too. We all need to get over this. Hey, they're cheating. Hey, they're whatever. I feel like, look, as long as it's been scientifically studied, as long as we have an independent third party that's overseeing this, then it's okay. It's all all right. People are saying, well, then you're not on an even playing field. There is no such thing as an even playing field. When you say you line up at that 100-yard dash, some people lived at elevation. Some people had chia seeds and lived off of a more healthy diet. There's just no level playing. They're different size, different shapes. There's everything. They're already different.

Exactly. You're going to the starting line different. And when you say, well, You're going to the starting line different. And when you say, well, these drugs we know for a fact make X and they do X. I'm like, well, in endurance events, as far as I know, Viagra is not on a list. But what does Viagra do? It increases circulation. And it's great for endurance events, but it's not on a banned list. So if somebody took Viagra, people are always saying, oh, they're going to have an embarrassing thing while they're racing. It actually works. That's what people do. But is

that cheating? Is that what people are doing? They are. There are tons of endurance athletes that found out, hey, you know what? This actually helps. So there's all kinds of things that aren't on a band list or aren't on a list to even consider that do give you an edge. And it's kind of like, to me, we just need to embrace the fact that someone's trying to be great. And we obviously, with my view, cocaine, LSD, things that we know are bad for you are not scientifically certified and legal and everything else. You don't do that. But something that is legal under the umbrella has been studied. We have 20 years of testing behind it. We know what the side effects are. We know how to supervise it. Then I think that that's okay. Yeah. It's just

challenging because there's so many... I mean, unless you just say, okay, all you can do is eat a certain amount of food and work out for a certain amount of time and that's it. Right. People are always going to push the boundaries on training, on their sleeping habits, on everything to optimize. That's like enhancing, right? It is. People want to have black hats and white hats.

And I feel like there are a lot of gray hats. A lot of gray hats. A lot of gray hats. Like it's all in between those two things. What is it about sports that you love the most? I love witnessing greatness. I think it's the best way for us to visually take in a human being being great. That's what I think sports represents.

That's why we're so fascinated at it. We love to watch people do things that we know we can't do. We're like, but somehow we're connected. So it's pretty magical in that sense. And to me, it's very similar to music where you show up to a concert and you're like, make something. Let me experience something.

And it's transcendent of being human. And sport in a lot of way is transcendent of you just being human because you're like wow you're doing things that are seemingly superhuman yeah with all your research and studies i'm sure you've come across many unbelievably talented physical specimens of athletes right who are just like freaks of nature right and some of them have the mental edge and some of them don't what do you think it takes for anyone to have that mental edge so they can perform, or they have the talent or very little talent and can perform better than the freaks of nature?

How do we train for that? In terms of having that edge, the best way to get an edge is to be honest with yourself as to what your edge is. And each day you can build that edge out a little bit further. So it's testing your limit. It's what I said before about in the morning, what can I do to be great today? And at night saying, did I do my best? And building that ledge out bit by bit, it's amazing how far you can extend out what you can actually do. That really is what your edge actually is. Where's my limit? What is the thing that today, if I did this, I would say I did my best today. And I could say relative only to myself, I was great today. And that's a fine, honest thing to say relative to elite athletes. I'm not great, but to me, relative to me, I did great today. And you should be able

to say that. I think that you build that edge out slowly, certainly and methodically. And that's one thing that certainly throughout my life, I've learned that those very slow incremental improvements is what builds greatness. What would you say is your biggest fear? Without a doubt, my biggest fear is the random tragedies are a genuine fear where you go, wow, these things that happen out of nowhere that you can't control, that you can't see, that you can't anticipate are the things that are coming out. Now, is that a fear? Like,

do I wake up saying, oh my God, no. But if you were to say, well, what worries me? It's, is there going to be something crazy that happens? Like somebody launches a missile just randomly and I have nothing to do with it. Totally out of my control. That worries me and makes me go, God, I really hope that something like that doesn't happen. I certainly don't obsess about it, but in terms of like a fear of height, animals or whatever, I used to be petrified of heights. And if you asked me that question 30 years ago, I went, heights. I broke my fear of heights. I was petrified of heights and actually broke it. I took a trip with my best friend to the Grand Canyon, had a complete panic attack right on the edge of the Grand Canyon, hiking down to the bottom. Had a total panic attack. And by the time

I reached the bottom, I had broken my fear because I survived. It's interesting as people say, God, being scared of heights is such a silly thing to be scared of. But I say, no, wait a minute, if you fall off the edge of the Grand Canyon, you're going to die. It's a very rational fear. It's like fear of spiders is kind of a silly fear because there aren't that many that will kill you. Yeah. Exactly. What's next for you then?

You've done so much with this, your brand, your business. It just seems like everything you put your mind to, you make it happen. I will continue, I believe, to expand in the field of sport and science. I believe that will happen. I believe that our podcast, Brink of Midnight, along with our band, Brink of Midnight, will continue to grow. It's positive energy, and I believe that positive energy begets positive energy. Also, I have started a foundation with Ray Lewis called Ray of Hope

Foundation. And you can find it at rayofhopefoundation.org. It was like one of these ideas that again, life kind of presented it to us. I had a very good friend of mine who had stage four glioblastoma brain cancer. And he was in his forties, recently married, just total tragic story. And I called Ray and he was a huge Ravens fan. And I just said, Hey, you know, would you send my friend's name is Ben. I was like, would you send Ben just a message of inspiration just to let him know he's not alone and that you're praying for him. You're thinking about him. He sent a message right, right away to Ben. Next day, I got a call from a friend who said, hey, there's this kid down in Atlanta and he had this terrible injury and you were really a guy that he looked up to. And can you just send him a message that lets him know that he's not alone and that you're

there for him? And in both of these stories, we have these miraculous recoveries that happen. Ben's cancer has since vanished and is now immeasurable. And William, who is the kid that I sent a message to, is having this remarkable recovery. Now, obviously, these videos did not create the recovery, but they certainly didn't hurt and they helped to perpetuate the positive energy. So the foundation is really focusing on people in dire need. And if you are in dire need, you can go to reahopefoundation.org, put in a request. We have a roster of celebrities

who are willing to send out messages in the blink of an eye to let you know that, hey, you're not alone. And it's something you can have so that you can watch it over and over and over and to help perpetuate that positive energy. That's really cool. It's cool. There's nothing behind it other than positive energy. Wow. Do you guys fund it or is it more just like you?

We're actually kicking it off in Atlanta in a couple of weeks. Wow. And we're starting to deliver messages as a charity as of November 1. So we're literally just launching it. Video messages, essentially. Video messages from celebrities that people care about to just let you know you're not alone. We're praying for you. We're thinking about you.

That's really cool. Yeah, it's really cool. I've had Ray on here, and I've been on his show. Really inspirational guy, obviously. Amazing guy. We've shot a bunch of videos for him in here, actually, and helped him out with some stuff. But he's a powerful human being.

Powerful. Energy is unbelievable. Really? Did you do some stuff with him in sports science too? Yeah, that's how we met. We met through sports science and then we just became instant friends. Amazing.

It was like bang, our energy, we just clicked. Have been very good friends for over a decade now. That's cool. So it's great. And he's the guy when people say, God, of all the people that you've met, like Ray Lewis, Larry Fitzgerald, guys like that,

they're just so authentic, positive human beings. Amazing. Rayofhopefoundation.org. Yep. Rayofhopefoundation.org. What's the one thing you want to make sure you create before it's all up for you? The one thing that I've created. Or that you want to make sure you create, that you haven't done. That I haven't done yet. I think that the one thing that I'd want to create is to build on the foundation that I've laid. I'm 46 now. I've been very fortunate to have success in television,

have success in books. You've had success with music. We're having success with podcasts. I want to keep building on that foundation. And when I met Lizzie, which is now 14 years ago, almost 15 years ago, she said, what are you going to be doing five years from now, 10 years from now? I said, I'm just going to be doing bigger and better versions of what I'm doing today. And this is way before sports science.

And that's what ended up happening. I'm just going to keep building on that because once you create a foundation, you can take a step, then another step, and another one, and I'm just going to keep building on that foundation. And as vague as that seems, it really isn't because the energy of the universe

is going to push you one way or the other. Like, is it more music? Is it more books? Is it more sport and science? Is it more? I have complete faith that I'll be shown the way and doors will be opened and I'll continue to go down that path.

Yeah, that's cool. What's something you're most proud of that most people don't know? I haven't told a lot of people this, but so my friend and I, my best friend, same guy that I went to the Grand Canyon with, we wanted to have a weight gaining competition. Oh, competition. I was a total meathead in the gym and I used to lift weights. And I was like, you know, I was my size now, so I was 5'8", but I was decline pressing 335. And the guy in the

weight room where it's like that, you know, it's a decent amount of weight for a little dude like me to be doing without any help from anything else. Sure, sure, yeah. Very natural. It was really natural. So I was eating a ton and I gained, I got up to 198 and I was 5'8", right? 5'8 and a half. And I was 198, but not a good 198. Yeah, I was sloppy.

Yeah, I was the meathead in the gym 198. And I tried to run a mile and I could not, could not run a mile. And I was 198. Now, I said to myself, you know what? In high school, I always tried to break the five-minute mile and I was never able to do it. I ran like a 503 in high school or something like that. It was something above five. Breaking a five-minute mile is hard. So I was 27 years old and I said, you know what? Enough with the weight gain. I'm at 198. I'm going to cut 50 pounds and break the five-minute mile. Caught up with my old high school track coach.

And I said, we're going to break the five-minute mile. And I ended up running a 455 mile. 1,600. 1,600. Four laps. Wow. Right. Four laps. 1,600. Because I did the 1,500 in the Decathlon. Four laps. Wow. Right. Four laps. 1,600. Because I did the 1,500 in the decathlon.

Right. So I ran like a four, I mean, not a four. I ran like a 506 or something in the decathlon, 1,500. Right. And that was hard. Yes. Yes. With 100 meters less than you. Exactly.

I did the 1,600. So I did four laps. Yes. And I did it just because. And that kicked off my, well, you know what? My friend, same friend that I went to the Grand Canyon with, same friend that I gained weight with, he ran a marathon. And I was like, a marathon? There were like 25,000 people in that. Like, okay, I'm going to do an Ironman.

What's an Ironman? So I decided to do an Ironman without knowing what it really was. That's a clue to the marathon, yeah. Right. I'm like, I think it's hard like it's a 2.4 mile open water swim small problem i don't know how to swim like i've never in the ocean yeah i've never been swimming in the ocean i've never had a swim let i don't i just knew how to tread water and you know playtime swim like i didn't know how to swim then it was 112 mile bike problem i didn't own a bike uh-huh i'm like all right I don't have a bike. And then it was a 26.2 mile run and I'd never run more than a 5k. I'm like, well, this is going to be challenging,

but ended up in, again, it's just sort of my nature. I went to, ended up going to New Zealand and doing New Zealand Ironman. And it was pretty fun. It's pretty fun. New Zealand. I've been there before. It's beautiful, man. Unbelievable. That's cool. Anything else that we should know about you that most people don't ask you that you wish they would? I genuinely, genuinely look at the world with an intent of making it better. One thing that I am almost use the word obsessed with is picking up trash. And when I'm walking somewhere and I see a piece of trash on the ground, I pick it up. It's not my trash, but someone's going to have to pick it up. And if I pick it up, then the next person behind me isn't going to have to see it and

experience it. So I want to make it a better place. That small little example, I try to do in every facet of life. I want to make life better for people. I want to clear the way. I want to break new ground. I want to help people. That genuinely is what motivates me. That's cool. I love it. So there you go. This is one of the last few questions. This is called the three truths. So if this was the last day for you many years from now, you've achieved everything you wanted to, done all the music, movies, TV, anything at all came up, you conquered it, mastered it, were the best at it. But for whatever reason, everything you ever created was erased. And you had a piece of paper and a pen, and this is your final moments, and you got to write down

three things you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your life that you would share with the world, and that's all they would have. What would be your three truths? I would say there is a God, parentheses, energy in the universe. Say, I loved my family. And three, I started living when I met my wife. Those would be the three things that I would write. That's pretty powerful. Those are truths that I can say that for an absolute fact. I have a ridiculously strong relationship with my family. Love them beyond anything.

Lizzie was that point in my life where, all right, now it's game on. I was 31 when I met her, and it felt like 31 years of trial and error to get to a point where you're like, oh, now I can start living. Now I get it. That's cool. Those are three true things.

But sports science wouldn't even make the list because it's just, to me, a reflection of trying, and you tried to succeed, and you did succeed. But I've done that on a lot of levels and a reflection of trying and you tried to succeed and you did succeed, right? But I've done that on a lot of levels and a lot of different things. But I think that love, love of all different kinds, love of obviously God, of family, of work, of just yourself, that creates joy in your life. Yeah. Amazing. Well, I want to acknowledge you, John, for a moment for your positive and infectious energy and your ability to make this place better because I think there's a lot of people who are struggling, who don't have that energy, and who are feeling down all the time. excuses, conversations, uncertainties, to give them clarity through your constant research and simplified showcases of information,

it's making the world better. So I want to acknowledge you for all you're doing, man. I cannot thank you enough for having me on. And I'm glad that we met. I'm glad that this all came together. We made it happen. We made it happen. One final question before I ask it.

Where can we connect with you, the podcast, the book, your site, everything? You can find me at johnbrinkus.com. You can find everything about Brink of Midnight, which is not only our podcast, but also the music that we do, that Lizzie and I do. That's at brinkofmidnight.com. And you can find me on socials at johnbrinkus underscore and Twitter and at Brink of Midnight across all socials. Awesome, man. Awesome.

Okay. Final question is what's your definition of greatness? My definition of greatness is truly, truly doing your best relative to the thing that you are comparing it to. That is what great is. So if you are comparing when you you say, what is great? I could be great, but relative to somebody else, I'm not great. But you have to make sure that you're comparing it to the right thing.

So if I did my absolute best relative to myself, then I was great today. And I feel like people need to embrace and people are very hesitant to say, you know what? I was great today. You're great relative to yourself. You should be happy with that. You should really be happy. John, thanks so much, man. Appreciate it.

Thank you. God bless. There you have it, my friends. I hope you enjoyed this one with the legendary John Brinkus, who has just transformed the sports science world and has done some amazing things through taking his passion, his love, and building an Emmy award-winning show around it, doing the thing that he always wanted to do, which is sports and TV.

Love what he was able to do to bring this together. Powerful example of how to bring an idea to life as an entrepreneur and make it a full-time thing for you. Again, check out the full video, full show notes, and all the information we talked about in this podcast and all of the transcript as well from this podcast. You can go check it out, download it, see everything at lewishouse.com slash 562. That's right. We've got the transcripts as well.

at lewishouse.com slash 562. That's right, we've got the transcripts as well. Again, Ralph Waldo Emerson said, the only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be. Decide to be someone meaningful, important, inspiring today. Take one step closer to your dreams today. Make someone else smile today.

Lift others up today. Become the person you decide to be. And as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Thank you.